2023 Kathleen A. Dracup Lecturer - Cheryl R. Dennison Himmelfarb, PhD, RN, ANP, FAHA

Dr. Cheryl Himmelfarb is Vice Dean for Research and Sarah E. Allison Endowed Professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. Dr. Himmelfarb’s passion and commitment to promoting cardiovascular health equity and engagement of diverse populations in research is evident throughout her extensive program of research. Her research has led to the development of effective health system and team-based strategies to improve cardiovascular care and outcomes.

Dr. Himmelfarb has contributed to widely disseminated national guidelines and scientific statements published by the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology and thereby ensuring representation of nursing science with emphasis on the crucial role of nurses in all aspects of cardiovascular prevention. As Deputy Director of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Clinical & Translational Research (Hopkins NIH-funded CTSA Award), Dr. Himmelfarb leads institutional efforts across Johns Hopkins to develop innovative community engagement and research participant recruitment and retention methods. She established the Recruitment Innovation Unit that develops and rapidly scales informatics-based research participant recruitment approaches. Innovations include development of one of the first models in the nation of a robust “MyChart Recruitment Service”, which uses Epic to identify study populations via computational phenotyping and send MyChart messages to potential study participants.

Dr. Himmelfarb has made important contributions to developing the next generation of nurse scientists and community-engaged researchers through her mentorship of junior faculty and trainees. Dr. Himmelfarb is a remarkable leader in the field of cardiovascular nursing science and an effective advocate for cardiovascular health equity and shared academic-community leadership in research.