Women's Leadership Committee Members
WLC Chair
Patricia Nguyen, MD
Associate Professor
Division of Cardiovascular Medicine
Stanford University
Director, Cardiovascular Imaging
VA Palo Alto
Visit Dr. Nguyen's faculty page
Dr. Patricia Nguyen was born in Saigon, Vietnam and immigrated with her family to United States. She graduated from Johns Hopkins Medical School and completed her residency at Columbia University and her cardiovascular training at Stanford University. Following her clinical fellowship, she worked in the laboratory of Dr. Joseph Wu to evaluate the efficacy and safety of stem cell therapies. Her research currently focuses on deciphering the immune-mediated mechanisms underlying cardiovascular diseases using a systems immunology approach and applying novel techniques in molecular imaging, iPSC technology, single cell sequencing, and computational biology.
WLC Chair-Elect
Hong S. Lu, MD, PhD, FAHA
Associate Professor
Saha Cardiovascular Research Center & Department of Physiology
College of Medicine
University of Kentucky
Lexington, Kentucky
Dr. Lu is an associate professor of Saha Cardiovascular Research Center and Department of Physiology at the University of Kentucky. She received her medical degree at Zhejiang University School of Medicine, China, and PhD degree in Molecular Genetics at Kanazawa University, Japan. She had her post-doctoral training in Dr. Alan Daugherty’s laboratory at the University of Kentucky. Her research interest includes the pathogenesis and mechanisms of atherosclerosis and aortic aneurysms. She has been an AHA member (ATVB Council) since 2003 and served as a technical editor of ATVB since 2017. She joined the ATVB Women’s Leadership Committee in July 2022.
WLC Immediate Past Chair
Zhen Chen, MB, PhD
Professor, Department of Diabetes Complications and Metabolism
Director, Cardiovascular Research Center
Arthur Riggs Diabetes Metabolism Research Institute
Zhen Bouman Chen, MB, PhD, is a Professor in the Arthur Riggs Diabetes Metabolism Research Institute and a faculty member of the Irell and Manella Graduate School of Biological Sciences at City of Hope, California. She obtained her medical training in Basic Medical Sciences from Peking University, China and pursued her PhD study in vascular biology at University of California Riverside. Dr. Chen performed her postdoctoral research at Academia Sinica in Taiwan and UC San Diego, in part funded by an American Heart Association (AHA) postdoctoral fellowship and a Pathway-to-Independence K99 award from the National Institute of Health (NIH).
Dr. Chen’s lab at City of Hope studies epigenetic regulation of vascular biology in the context of diabetes and diabetic complications. Her studies have been funded by NIH R01 and R35 grants, the Chan Zuckerberg and the Ella Fitzgerald Foundations.
Dr. Chen has been a member of AHA since 2011 and was a finalist for ATVB Junior Investigator Award for Women and a recipient of the New Investigator Award from American Physiological Society Cardiovascular Section and Springer Junior Investigator Award from North American Vascular Biology Organization. She is passionate about advancing the careers of women in science and medicine through mentorship and scientific outreach.
WLC Members
Mabruka Alfaidi, MD., PhD, FAHA
Assistant Professor (PI: Translational Cardiovascular Research)
Department of Cellular & Integrative Physiology
Associate Director for Translational Research (CHVR)
Center for Heart and Vascular Research (CHVR)
Durham Research Center I
University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha
Visit Dr. Alfaidi’s Faculty Page
Dr. Alfaidi is a physician-scientist with fifteen years of research experience in translational cardiovascular science. Her specialties include molecular biology, vascular inflammation, and the treatment of coronary, pulmonary, and vascular diseases. She earned her degree from the University of Sheffield, UK, in 2016, where she discovered that, in patients with ischemic heart disease, the cytokine interleukin-1β is primarily processed and secreted by the endothelium. Her postdoctoral research focused on the mechanisms underlying early atherosclerosis and endothelial activation at Louisiana State University. Currently, she is a tenure-track assistant professor in the Department of Cellular & Integrative Physiology, where her research centers on IL-1 receptor regulation and endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition related to coronary plaque instability. Her laboratory receives funding from grants from the American Heart Association and NIH R01. She has received the British Atherosclerosis Young Investigator Award (2020), the ATVB Young Investigator Award (2021), and the Gordon Conference Young Investigator Award (2023). Dr. Alfaidi takes leadership roles in prominent organizations such as the Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology (ATVB) Council of the American Heart Association and the North American Vascular Organization (NAVBO). She also chairs the AHA Vascular2 fellowship and participates in NIH study section reviews.
Additionally, she is part of the editorial team at the ATVB journal and serves as an associate editor at Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine. As Chair of NAVBO’s Membership Committee, a member of the ATVB Women’s Leadership Committee, and a mentor in various early career development initiatives, she actively supports trainee growth. Moreover, she mentors numerous early-career investigators at different stages, including MD/PhD students, residents, fellows, undergraduate students, and high school students.
Bishuang Cai, PhD, FAHA
Associate Professor
Department of Medicine
David Geffen School of Medicine
University of California, Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Dr. Bishuang Cai received her Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska Medical Center, where she studied endocytic membrane trafficking. She then joined Columbia University Irving Medical Center as a postdoctoral fellow to investigate the cellular and molecular mechanisms of cardiometabolic disease. In 2020, Dr. Cai joined the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai as an assistant professor to begin her independent research career. In 2025, her team relocated to the Department of Medicine at UCLA to continue their cardiometabolic research.
Dr. Cai’s lab at UCLA studies endocytic membrane trafficking, lipid metabolism, efferocytosis, and inflammation in the context of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis and atherosclerosis. Her work has been supported by multiple NIH and foundation grants. Dr. Cai joined the ATVB Women’s Leadership Committee in 2025. She is a former member of the ATVB Early Career Committee (2021–2025) and the recipient of the 2024 Irvine H. Page Junior Faculty Research Award.
Ebru Erbay, MD, PhD
Associate Professor
Division of Cardiology
Department of Medicine
University of California
Los Angeles, California
Ebru Erbay received a PhD from University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign in 2004 and MD from Ankara University in 1998. She pursued a post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard School of Public Health to study the role of organelle stress in metabolic and inflammatory diseases. Dr. Erbay was a faculty in Bilkent University from 2010 to 2017 and in Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and University of California in Los Angeles from 2017-2022 prior to becoming a founding principal investigator of Altos Labs. Currently, Dr. Erbay is a Cardiology faculty in the University of California in Los Angeles.
By combining a deep interest in the molecular regulation of organelle stress with in vivo disease modeling, Dr. Erbay’s research strives to illuminate novel mechanisms that drive aging-associated, complex metabolic and inflammatory diseases such as atherosclerosis and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease. Dr. Erbay was a recipient of the Sabri Ulker International Science Award for her research in the field of immunometabolism. Her academic research has been continuously supported by funding from NIH, European Research Council Starting Grant and EMBO Installation Grant.
Julie K. Freed MD, PhD, FAHA
Senior Associate Dean
Director, Clinical & Translational Research Institute
Executive Vice Chair & Associate Professor of Anesthesiology
Medical College of Wisconsin
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Julie K. Freed MD, PhD is a Senior Associate Dean, Director of the Clinical and Translational Science Institute for southeast Wisconsin, Associate Professor and Executive Vice Chair in the department of Anesthesiology at the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW). She obtained both of her doctorate degrees and completed her clinical residency and fellowship in Adult Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology at MCW. As a NIGMS T32 appointee, she trained under David D. Gutterman MD to become a translational vascular biologist with a specific focus on the human microcirculation. Her current research interests include how sphingolipids influence microvascular function, strategies in which to boost microvascular resilience to stress, and how female hormones (estrogen) module the microvasculature to influence the development of future cardiovascular disease. Dr. Freed serves as the Chair of the Cardiovascular Section for the American Physiological Society, a Senior Associate Editor for the Journal of the American Heart Association (JAHA), and is a current fellow in the National Academy of Medicine.
Chiara Giannarelli, PhD, FAHA
Associate Professor
NYU Langone Health
New York, New York
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Chiara Giannarelli, MD, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Pathology at the Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiology, and Cardiovascular Research Center at NYU Langone NYU Grossman School of Medicine, New York. She completed her medical degree and subsequent residency and clinical fellowship before pursuing a PhD in pharmacological sciences and pathophysiological mechanisms of cardiovascular disease at the University of Pisa, Italy. In 2008, she relocated to the USA, where she conducted a research fellowship at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, eventually being appointed Assistant Professor in 2014. Joining NYU in 2021, Dr. Giannarelli's research integrates systems pharmacology and systems immunology with molecular biology and imaging to uncover novel mechanisms underlying cardiovascular disease. A groundbreaking accomplishment of her laboratory was the pioneering use of single-cell proteomic and transcriptomic analyses (CyTOF, CITE-seq, scRNA-seq) of human vascular samples, recognized as a significant milestone in inflammation research in atherosclerosis (Nature Medicine, 2019). Dr. Giannarelli has leveraged systems immunology and drug repositioning approaches to identify new compounds targeting the innate immune system in atherosclerosis, mitigating plaque inflammation (Nature Cardiovascular Research, June 2023). Her work has also explored how SARS-CoV-2 infection triggers proatherogenic immune responses in the human vasculature (Nature Cardiovascular Research, October 2023). Continuously funded by the NIH/NHLBI, NIH/NCATS, and prestigious programs such as the American Heart Association Strategically-Focused Research Networks, Chan-Zuckerberg Foundation, and PolyBio Foundation, Dr. Giannarelli's expertise in translational systems immunology and drug repurposing approaches has made her a vital contributor to large multiple-PI programs.
Laura Hansen, PhD
Associate Professor of Medicine
Associate Program Director, Basic Research Scientist Pathway
Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine
Emory University School of Medicine
Atlanta, Georiga
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Dr. Laura Hansen is an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine- Cardiology at Emory University School of Medicine since 2019. She received her BS in Bioengineering from the University of Pittsburgh in 2007 and PhD in Bioengineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2012 where she studied the mechanics of blood vessel walls and changes associated with different disease states. She then completed her post-doctoral fellowship studying the RAGE receptor in peripheral artery disease at Emory University in Cardiology. Her laboratory studies the interactions between satellite cells and the vasculature. Satellite cells are skeletal muscle progenitor cells that are known to play an important role in muscle repair after injury and adaptation to exercise. However, her lab focuses on a previously underexplored role of satellite cells in vascular growth. This area is of particular interest in the context of peripheral artery disease (PAD), where patients suffer from ischemic tissue damage but treatment options are still limited. The lab has shown that ischemia stimulates satellite cells and is exploring ways to harness their angiogenic properties in vivo via exercise therapy or through therapeutically delivered cells. Dr. Hansen has been a member of the AHA since 2012 and received an AHA Career Development Award in 2019. Her lab is currently funded by the NIH as well as an AHA Collaborative Science Award.
Zam Kassiri, PhD, FAHA
Professor
Department of Physiology
Cardiovascular Research Institute
University of Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Zamaneh (Zam) Kassiri is a Professor in the Department of Physiology, and Cardiovascular Research Institute at University of Alberta (Alberta, Canada). She completed her BSc, MSc and PhD (cardiac muscle physiology and electrophysiology) at University of Toronto (Toronto, Canada), followed by a post-doctoral training at Ontario Cancer Institute (extracellular matrix biology). As a trainee, Dr. Kassiri received the Gordon K Moe Young Investigator Award (2000), and she has been a member of AHA since 2010. Dr. Kassiri’s lab University of Alberta studies cardiac and vascular remodeling in different disease models with a focus on proteases and the extracellular matrix.
Suellen D. Oliveira, MS, PhD, FAHA
Assistant Professor
University of Illinois, Chicago - College of Medicine
Chicago, Illinois
Visit Professor Oliveira's lab
I am an Assistant Professor and head of the Vascular Immunobiology Lab at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Originating from Brazil, I completed my MSc in Cardiovascular Pharmacology and PhD in Immunobiology from a premier research institute - the Carlos Chagas Filho Biophysics Institute at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. In the US, my research focuses on dissecting the role of endothelial cells in pulmonary vascular inflammation and infection, which has already culminated in data that resulted in several manuscripts, secured grant funding, and earned prestigious awards from distinguished societies, including the AHA. Beyond research activities, my commitment extends to fostering the next generation of scientists and physicians from diverse backgrounds and propelling them to positions in renowned institutions worldwide. Outside of my scientific endeavors, I can deny how passionate I am about art and nature, which I firmly believe to be essential to sparking my scientific creativity and providing a work-life balance to our intense research pursuits.
Paula Rodriguez Miguelez, PhD, FAHA
Associate Professor
Virginia Commonwealth University
Richmond, Virginia
Dr. Rodriguez-Miguelez is an integrative physiologist and Associate Professor of Health Sciences, and is affiliated with the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care, both at Virginia Commonwealth University. Dr. Rodriguez-Miguelez is also the Director and Principal Investigator of the Vascular and Integrative Physiology Laboratory, which focuses on investigating the physiological and molecular mechanisms involved in the development of cardiopulmonary diseases through an integrative and comprehensive approach, encompassing pulmonary, cardiac, vascular, and skeletal muscle functions, to understand their contributions to disease development. Dr. Rodriguez-Miguelez also serves on several national committees for the American Heart Association and the American Physiological Society and is highly committed to advancing gender equity within the field of cardiovascular health, advocating for women in biomedicine to empower and uplift the next generation of female healthcare and biomedical scientists.
Past Chairs of the ATVB Council’s Women’s Leadership Committee (1999–Present)
- 2024–2026: Zhen Chen, MB, PhD
- 2022–2024: Hanrui Zhang, MB, PhD
- 2020–2022: Elena Aikawa, MD PhD
- 2018–2020: Isabella Grumbach, MD, PhD
- 2016–2018: Vas Narayanaswami, PhD
- 2014–2016: Daisy Sahoo, PhD
- 2012–2014: Nancy R. Webb, PhD
- 2010–2012: Kerry-Anne Rye, PhD
- 2008–2010: Jeanine D’Armiento, MD, PhD
- 2006–2008: Rama Natarajan, PhD
- 2004–2006: Lindsey Miles, PhD
- 2002–2004: Carole Banka, PhD
- 2000–2002: Linda Curtiss, PhD
- 1999–2002: Trudy Forte, PhD