2025 David Kritchevsky Memorial Lecturer - Lora E. Burke, PhD, MPH, FAHA, FAAN

Until recently, Lora E. Burke, PhD, MPH, FAHA, FAAN, was a professor of nursing, epidemiology and clinical translational science at the University of Pittsburgh. She was trained across several disciplines and completed a two-year fellowship in cardiovascular behavioral medicine.

Dr. Burke had a long-standing record of NIH funding to support her research program that included a series of clinical trials focused on behavioral strategies to improve adherence to treatment regimens targeting cardiovascular disease risk reduction and long-term weight loss. She incorporated the use of technology to validate self-report measures two decades ago and provided evidence for the association between consistency in dietary self-monitoring and weight loss outcomes. She built on this earlier work in subsequent behavioral weight loss trials comparing different modes of self-monitoring diet, physical activity and weight as well as innovative approaches to remotely delivered feedback in real-time to participants’ self-monitoring data. Additionally, Dr. Burke has collaborated with Dr. Mingui Sun at the University of Pittsburgh in conducting validation studies for the eButton, a wearable device that provides an objective measure of food intake. She has served as a faculty member of several T32 training grants (genomics, technology use in chronic disorders, epidemiology of aging and sleep). She was awarded an internally funded Hub for Excellence in eHealth Research and served as its founding director for several years.

Dr. Burke has been an active volunteer in the AHA for decades and previously chaired the Obesity and the Behavior Change Committees as well as the Council on Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health and the Council Operations Committee.