Cardiometabolic Syndrome Faculty 2024

Joseph G. Rogers, MD  (Course Director)
President and Chief Executive Officer
O’Quinn/Willerson Endowed Chair, The Texas Heart Institute
The Texas Heart Institute Center for Cardiovascular Care
Baylor College of Medicine
Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center
(Houston, Texas)

The Texas Heart Institute’s President and Chief Executive Officer, Joseph G. Rogers, MD, is a cardiologist and an Adjunct Professor in the Division of Cardiology at Duke University. He is an internationally recognized and widely published thought leader in heart failure, heart transplantation and mechanically assisted circulation. Dr. Rogers is passionate about value-based care initiatives, the delivery and implementation of care management and population health strategies. Dr. Rogers’ research focuses on clinical aspects of advanced heart failure, including pharmacologic and electrical treatments for systolic heart failure, the use of mechanical circulatory support devices, cardiac transplantation, and palliative care. Before joining The Texas Heart Institute as President and CEO, he served as Chief Medical Officer at Duke University Health System (DUHS) in Durham, North Carolina, where he was responsible for providing clinical and strategic direction for physician activities across all of its clinical entities. Dr. Rogers received his medical degree from the University of Nebraska College of Medicine in Omaha. He completed his residency training in internal medicine at the University of Nebraska and his fellowship in cardiology at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. He joined the faculty at Duke in 2004 and served in several leadership roles, including Associate Chief Medical Officer for strategic growth and implementation, interim chair of the school’s Department of Medicine, and member of the Board of Managers for Duke Connected Care, the health system’s Accountable Care Organization. He also served as a key strategic health system liaison to the Private Diagnostic Clinic, the physician practice organization for Duke providers, where he championed innovations in safety and quality across the health system.

Stephanie Coulter, MD, FACC, FASE  (Course Director)
Assistant Medical Director
Director, Center for Women’s Heart & Vascular Health
Program Director, Cardiovascular Disease Fellowship
The Texas Heart Institute
The Texas Heart Institute Center for Cardiovascular Care
Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center
(Houston, Texas)

Dr. Stephanie Coulter is a long-time advocate of preventative medicine and women’s health and leads innovative research in developing diagnostic tools, treatments, and prevention strategies to improve cardiovascular outcomes. She serves as the founding Medical Director of the Women’s Center for Heart & Vascular Health, Assistant Medical Director of The Texas Heart Institute (THI), and Program Director of the THI Cardiovascular Disease Fellowship at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center. Dr. Coulter holds numerous leadership positions at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center (BSLMC), including Chief of Staff, and directs the Non-Invasive Cardiology department at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center (BSLMC). She has an academic appointment at Baylor College of Medicine in the Department of Medicine section of Cardiology and is an active member of several professional societies, including the American Heart Association and the American Society of Echocardiography. Dr. Stephanie Coulter graduated from Texas A&M and earned her medical degree from the University of Texas Health Science Center Medical School in Houston.  She completed her internship and residency at Harvard Medical School Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) in Boston and a fellowship in general cardiology at Harvard Medical School Massachusetts General Hospital. She then pursued an advanced echocardiography fellowship at Massachusetts General and completed a clinical epidemiology and clinical trials fellowship at Harvard Brigham and Women’s. She is a member of many professional societies, including the AMA, the American College of Physicians, the American College of Cardiology, and the American Heart Association. Since the launch of the Women’s Center in 2010, Dr. Coulter has been interested in investigating the roles biology, psychology, and lifestyle play in putting a woman at risk for heart disease.  To better understand racial, ethnic, and cultural disparities in the development of cardiovascular disease within Harris County, a database registry was established in correlation with her Houston HeartReach community outreach screening program, first developed and piloted in 2011. The Women’s Center has grown substantially and announced a new research and training collaboration in January 2017 to conduct highly focused research on diseases that disproportionately impact women’s hearts, including diastolic heart failure and FMD, and simultaneously train the next generation of professionals and researchers. This unparalleled research and training program will unite top physician-researchers across the Texas Medical Center, including colleagues at the UT School of Public Health, Baylor College of Medicine, and The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston Medical School. Most importantly, Dr. Coulter believes our community is the environment that defines our lives and carries this belief into her daily work at THI. She educates women and primary care physicians about risk factors and provides interventions to prevent disease or decrease risks. Her newsletter, “Straight Talk from Stephanie,” addresses current topics related to women and heart disease and aims to separate fact from fiction. Dr. Coulter is a featured speaker at many women’s and community groups and has been featured in various news media. She is married with two lovely daughters and a very active community member.

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With a strong commitment to providing exceptional care, I specialize in cardiovascular prevention and advanced imaging. My primary objective as a medical professional is to deeply comprehend the unique medical needs and concerns of each patient. Through this understanding, I develop personalized treatment strategies that encompass the latest advancements in the field, promoting optimal cardiovascular health outcome. Dr. Sadeer Al-Kindi received his MD from Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar. He went on to complete his residency in internal medicine, fellowships in cardiovascular medicine and cardiovascular imaging at University Hospitals – Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. He then served as the co-director for the cardiometabolic center and a staff cardiologist at University Hospitals. In 2023, Dr Al-Kindi moved to Houston Methodist DeBakey Heart and Vascular Center.Clinically, Dr. Al-Kindi serves as a preventive and an imaging cardiologist at the Houston Methodist DeBakey Heart and Vascular Center, where he is the associate director for the division of cardiovascular prevention and wellness and a member of the cardiovascular imaging faculty at Houston Methodist. Dr Al-Kindi uses advanced imaging to guide therapeutic interventions to reduce risk. Dr. Al-Kindi is an active clinical and translational researcher, with over 200 peer-reviewed publications in top journals such as Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Circulation, European Heart Journal, and JAMA Cardiology. His research has focused on understanding the underpinnings of cardiovascular disease and novel methods to identify risk and precision cardiovascular prevention. He also focuses on environmental determinants of cardiovascular disease, social determinants of health, cardiometabolic disease, and advanced cardiovascular imaging. He is the associate director for the center for cardiovascular computational and precision health (C3PH) at DeBakey Heart and Vascular Center. Dr. Al-Kindi serves on the editorial board member for several cardiology journals. He has served as a reviewer for many top medical journals including Circulation, Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Lancet, and JAMA Cardiology. Dr. Al-Kindi is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including the American College of Cardiology Young Investigator Award (2020 and 2023), the Heart Failure Society of America Jay N. Cohn New Investigator Award (finalist), and the Case Western Reserve University Peter Agre Award for Research Mentorship.

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Christie Ballantyne, MD, FACP, FACC
Chief, Section of Cardiovascular Research
Director, Center for Cardiometabolic Disease Prevention
Professor of Medicine, Molecular and Human Genetics, and Integrative Physiology
J.S. Abercrombie Chair – Atherosclerosis and Lipoprotein Research
Baylor College of Medicine
(Houston, Texas)

Dr. Ballantyne’s clinical research focuses on the prevention of cardiometabolic disease. This interest includes pharmacological studies to assess the efficacy and benefits of lipid-lowering drug therapy including trials that examine the effects of lipid-lowering drugs on cardiovascular disease events and the progression of atherosclerosis. As the director of The Maria and Alando J. Ballantyne, M.D., Atherosclerosis Clinical Research Laboratory, which serves as the core laboratory for the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study, Dr. Ballantyne is studying whether genetic variants in combination with novel biomarkers might be useful in identifying individuals at high risk for cardiometabolic disease and diabetes. Genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics are being used to identify novel molecules that are increased with atherosclerosis, obesity, diabetes, and cardiometabolic disease. In addition, his group is studying new approaches to the prevention and treatment of cardiometabolic diseases with the goal of developing personalized diet, lifestyle, and pharmacotherapy based on the genetic profile and clinical phenotype assessed by proteomics, metabolomics, and imaging.

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Joseph Galati, MD, FAASLD, FACG
Director, Liver Specialists of Texas
Medical Director
Sherrie and Alan Conover Center for Liver Disease & Transplantation
Houston Methodist J.C. Walter Jr. Transplant Center
Houston Methodist
Author: Eating Yourself Sick: How to Stop Obesity, Fatty Liver, and Diabetes from Killing You and Your Family
(Houston, Texas)

Dr. Joseph S. Galati is an expert in liver disease, with over 33 years of experience and leadership in the field of liver disease and liver transplantation. A leader in clinical care, research, and education, Dr. Galati has been at the forefront of liver disease care for over three decades. Dr. Galati is native of Long Island, New York. He received his undergraduate degree at Syracuse University and attended St. George’s University School of Medicine. Following medical school, Dr. Galati was an Intern and Resident in Internal Medicine at State University of New York Health Science Center-Brooklyn (formerly Downstate Medical Center)/Kings County Hospital Center, one of the premier teaching hospitals in the country. He remained an additional year in the department to assume responsibilities as the Chief Medical Resident in the Department of Medicine. Wanting to pursue further training and expertise in Liver Disease/Transplant Medicine, Dr. Galati left New York City for Omaha, Nebraska. He performed his fellowship training in Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Transplant Hepatology at University of Nebraska Medical Center. University of Nebraska Medical Center is a world renowned liver program, and today remains one of the finest in the country. During Dr. Galati’s training there, he participated in a number of research studies looking at the gastrointestinal complications of liver disease and cirrhosis. After completion of his fellowship training, Dr. Galati relocated to Houston, Texas in 1994, joining the faculty at University of Texas Medical School-Houston. In 1996, he became Medical Director of Transplant Hepatology at University of Texas Medical School. In the spring of 1999, Dr. Galati left his full-time position at University of Texas Medical School to form a private practice with most of his University colleagues. In addition, he was named Medical Director of the newly formed St. Luke’s Texas Liver Institute at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital, Houston, Texas. In the spring of 2001, he formed his current practice, Liver Specialists of Texas, one of America’s largest private liver services. In 2007, Dr. Galati was appointed the Medical Director for the Center Liver Disease and Transplantation at Houston Methodist Hospital, Houston Texas. The Methodist Hospital is one of the countries top facilities, ranked by US News and World Report as one of America’s Top Hospital years after year. Dr. Galati has been an invited speaker both nationally and internationally, having lectured in Latin America, Europe, and Asia. He is also a founding board member of the Texas Liver Coalition, a non-profit organization whose mission it is to provide education and support to those with all types of liver disease. Since 2003, Dr. Galati has been working with iHeartl Radio and SiriusXM, creating consumer-oriented radio programming, covering topics of health and wellness. The Radio Medical Minute is aired every Monday morning on NewsRadio 740 am KTRH in Houston, one of the countries premier 50,000 watt radio stations.

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Chiadi Ndumele, MD, PhD, MHS
Robert E. Meyerhoff Assistant Professor of Cardiology, Clinical Connection
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Johns Hopkins University
Chair, Council on Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health
American Heart Association
(Baltimore, Maryland)

Dr. Chiadi Ndumele is the Robert E. Meyerhoff Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University. His research focuses on the relationship between obesity and cardiovascular disease, particularly heart failure. Dr. Ndumele has demonstrated that traditional cardiovascular risk factors are of limited use in explaining the relationship between obesity and heart failure. Dr. Ndumele received his undergraduate degree in Natural Sciences cum laude from Johns Hopkins University, and his M.D. cum laude from Harvard University School of Medicine. He completed his Internal Medicine training at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where he also served as Chief Medical Resident. He was Chief Cardiology Fellow at Johns Hopkins University. During fellowship training, Dr. Ndumele received an MHS in Cardiovascular Epidemiology from Johns Hopkins University. He joined the Hopkins faculty in July 2011 as an Assistant Professor in the Division of Cardiology. In 2012, he was named Robert E. Meyerhoff Assistant Professor at Johns Hopkins, awarded every five years to two minority junior faculty members in the School of Medicine demonstrating excellence in their field of study. Dr. Ndumele is a member of the Obesity Subcommittee of the Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health Council of the American Heart Association. He recently served as Chair of a session of the American College of Cardiology’s Cardiometabolic Think Tank and a panelist for the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists Consensus Conference on Obesity. He is an ARIC Study co-investigator and serves on the Advisory Committee of the T32 Training Grant in Cardiovascular Epidemiology at Johns Hopkins. Dr. Ndumele is a peer reviewer for five medical journals, including Journal of the American Medical Association and Circulation.

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Sanjiv Harpavat, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Pediatrics – Gastroenterology
Baylor College of Medicine
Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition
Portal Vein Thrombosis Program
Viral Hepatitis Program
Texas Children’s Hospital
(Houston, Texas)

Dr. Harpavat is a pediatric gastroenterologist with special interests in neonatal cholestasis (abnormal jaundice in newborns and infants), genetic causes of liver disease such as progressive familial intrahepatic cholestasis and Wilson disease, liver transplantation, and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Our clinical and translational research focuses on the serious liver condition biliary atresia (BA). I lead an NIH-funded multi-hospital screening initiative for BA, as well as clinical trials of novel medications to help improve outcomes in BA after the Kasai operation.

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Arianna Huffington
Co-founder of The Huffington Post
Founder and CEO, Thrive Global
(New York, NY)

Arianna Huffington is the founder and CEO of Thrive Global, the founder of The Huffington Post, and the author of 15 books, including Thrive and The Sleep Revolution. In 2016, she launched Thrive Global, a behavior change technology company with the mission of improving productivity and health outcomes.  She has been named to Time Magazine’s list of the world’s 100 most influential people and the Forbes Most Powerful Women list. Originally from Greece, she moved to England when she was 16 and graduated from Cambridge University with an M.A. in economics. At 21, she became president of the famed debating society, the Cambridge Union. She serves on numerous boards, including Onex and The B Team. Her last two books, Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder and The Sleep Revolution: Transforming Your Life, One Night At A Time, both became instant international bestsellers. Most recently, she wrote the foreword to Thrive Global’s first book Your Time to Thrive: End Burnout, Increase Well-being, and Unlock Your Full Potential with the New Science of Microsteps. Subscribe to Arianna’s monthly newsletter here.

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Khurram Nasir, MD, MPH
William A. Zoghbi, MD Centennial Chair in Cardiovascular Health, DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center
Professor of Cardiology, Academic Institute
Jerold B. Katz Investigator, Academic Institute
Full Clinical Member, Research Institute
Chief, Division of Cardiovascular Prevention and Wellness, Department of Cardiology
Houston Methodist DeBakey Cardiology Associates
(Houston, Texas)

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Dr. Nasir received his MD from Pakistan, followed by a MPH at John Hopkins University. Dr. Nasir completed his internal medicine residency at Boston Medical Center and cardiology fellowship at Yale University. He also received postdoctoral research training at the division of cardiology at Johns Hopkins Hospital and was recipient of NIH T-32 fellowship in cardiac imaging at Massachusetts General Hospital. He recently earned a Master’s degree in Health Economics and Policy Management from London School of Economics & Political Science. Dr. Nasir serves as Associate Editor for Circulation: Quality of Care and Outcomes, editorial board member for Circulation as well on the board of directors for American Society of Preventive Cardiology (ASPC). He was honored with the Johns Hopkins Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2013, which acknowledges alumni who have typified Johns Hopkins tradition of excellence and brought credit to the University by their personal accomplishments, professional achievements, or humanitarian service. Dr. Nasir has over 500 peer-reviewed articles which are published in top journals such as Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, Archives of Internal Medicine, Circulation, Journal of American College of Cardiology and European Heart Journal. Dr. Nasir has lectured extensively throughout the world on coronary arthrosclerosis, cardiac imaging and prevention. Dr. Nasir’s area of expertise in preventive cardiology involves the identification of high-risk individuals — those likely to have a heart attack or stroke. His research helps to identify the at-risk population so that treatments may be targeted to them.

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Neha J. Pagidipati, MD, MPH
Associate Professor of Medicine
Member, Duke Clinical Research Institute
Duke University School of Medicine
Durham, North Carolina
(Houston, Texas)

Neha J. Pagidipati, MD, MPH, is an Assistant Professor of Medicine and cardiovascular disease prevention specialist.  Since 2011, she has conducted research on cardiometabolic disease prevention, lifestyle modification and weight management.  She is currently an NIH K12 scholar in Implementation and Dissemination Science. Dr. Pagidipati is building the Duke Cardiometabolic Disease Prevention Program, which focuses on behavior change and risk factor management in patients with high risk of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases such as diabetes and obesity.  The program’s multi-disciplinary team of cardiologists, endocrinologists, nephrologists, and hepatologists will work together to provide coordinated, team-based care to the most high-risk and complex patients in the health system. Dr. Pagidipati’s research grants include the COORDINATE-Diabetes Trial, to improve the quality of care for patients with diabetes and cardiovascular disease across the U.S., and QuBBD:  Deep Poisson Methods for Biomedical Time-to-Event and Longitudinal Data.  She served as a study clinician on the large, longitudinal EXSCEL (Exenatide Study of Cardiovascular Event Lowering) trial. She is currently conducting a nation-wide study of obesity management using real-world data sources, and is a site investigator for the Baseline Health Study in collaboration with Verily Life Sciences. In addition, she is leading a large study within the Duke Health System to study heterogeneity within cardiovascular disease risk and response to weight loss interventions among individuals with obesity. Dr. Pagidipati graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Medical School.  She completed her internal medicine residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.  During a two-year research fellowship in Global Women’s Health at the Brigham, she obtained an MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health and studied cardiovascular disease prevention in women in India.  Dr. Pagidipati completed a four-year cardiology fellowship at the Duke University School of Medicine and served as Chief Research Fellow at the Duke Clinical Research Institute.  In 2017, she became a faculty member of the Duke University School of Medicine School.

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Ambarish Pandey, MD, MSCS, FAHA
Associate Professor of Internal Medicine (Cardiology)
Medical Director, HFpEF Program
Texas Health Resources Clinical Scholar
Principal Investigator – CardioMetabolic Research Unit (CMRU)
Associate Program Director for IM Residency Training
The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
(Dallas, Texas)

Ambarish Pandey, M.D., M.S.C.S., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center and a member of its Division of Cardiology. He holds a secondary appointment in the Division of Geriatric Medicine. He specializes in preventive cardiology and heart failure with preserved ejection fraction. Dr. Pandey earned his medical degree at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi. He then completed both an internal medicine residency and a fellowship in cardiology at UT Southwestern, where he also earned a master’s in clinical science.Certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in cardiovascular disease, Dr. Pandey joined the UT Southwestern faculty in 2018. Dr. Pandey serves as Medical Director of UT Southwestern’s HFpEF (heart failure with preserved ejection fraction) program, Associate Program Director for Internal Medicine Residency Research, and as an attending physician in cardiology and echocardiology for rotating graduate students. Dr. Pandey is a Principal Investigator in the Cardiometabolic Research Unit at UT Southwestern, where he leads an independent research program, funded by the National Institutes of Health and industry grants, focused on developing novel approaches to the prevention and management of heart failure in older adults. Dr. Pandey’s research interest in geriatric cardiology is focused on predicting and preventing heart failure at a population level. His work evaluates lifestyle risk factors such as obesity and physical inactivity as potentially modifiable targets for the prevention of heart failure. He is developing novel screening strategies that can identify the individuals at highest risk for heart failure and target them with effective preventive interventions. His investigations have led to more than 100 publications in peer-reviewed journals. Additionally, he has presented his findings at scientific conferences throughout the United States. He has won numerous research awards from the American Heart Association, the American Geriatrics Society, and the American College of Cardiology. Dr. Pandey is also a GEMSSTAR scholar and received funding from the National Institute on Aging to study determinants of race differences in cardiorespiratory fitness decline with aging. Dr. Pandey is a member of the American Heart Association (AHA), where he serves on several committees, including the Scientific Sessions Planning Committee and the Epidemiology Early Career Committee. He has received numerous AHA awards, including the 2019-20 Elizabeth Barrett-Connor Research Award and the Steven N. Blair Award for Excellence in Physical Activity Research.

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Megan Rose
Senior Director, Strategic Initiatives
mrose@futurehouston.org
CEO, Center for Houston’s Future, Inc.
(Houston, Texas)

Megan Rose is the Senior Director of Strategic Initiatives at the Center for Houston’s Future, where she focuses on Health and Health Equity in the Greater Houston region. She is the primary author of several reports on healthcare topics, examining the economic and equity aspects of maternal health, climate health, and AI in healthcare. Megan is dedicated to catalyzing action based on these reports. She holds an undergraduate degree in Computer Information Systems from the Kelly School of Business at Indiana University, a Master of Science degree in Business Data Analysis from the Bauer School of Business, and a certificate in Public Policy Analysis from the Hobby School of Public Policy at the University of Houston. Prior to joining the Center, Megan worked in strategy and project management at AT&T, Goldman Sachs & Co, and in private consulting. Her passion lies in helping to build healthy, vibrant, and equitable communities.

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Dan Potter, PhD
Director, Houston Population Research Center (HPRC)
Kinder Institute for Urban Research at Rice University
Associate Director of Regional Research, Houston Education Research Consortium (HERC)
(Houston, Texas)

Dan is currently the Associate Director of Regional Research at the Houston Education Research Consortium (HERC), a program of the Kinder Institute for Urban Research at Rice University. HERC is a research practice partnership between Rice University and 11 public school districts in-and-around the Houston area. Utilizing the RPP model, Dan has launched four large-scale studies focused on education in the Houston area. These studies focus on student mobility, long-term English learners, Career & Technical Education, and COVID-19 response and recovery. With all of HERC’s research, the ultimate goal is to provide information and research to decision makers, working with them to development, design, and enact policy aimed at equitably addressing educational inequality, closing gaps, and improving the futures of students and families in the Houston community and beyond. Dan’s background is in sociology, with a focus on education and the family.

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Katie Pryor
Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer
Greater Houston Partnership
(Houston, Texas)

Katie Pryor is the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the Greater Houston Partnership, the Houston region’s principal business organization. In this capacity, she oversees membership development and retention, business and professional development programs, major events, sponsorships and episodic fundraising campaigns. She also serves as the staff liaison to the Partnership Membership and Nominating Committees. Since joining the Greater Houston Partnership in 2020, Pryor has worked to develop innovative member focused activities to increase member involvement, enhance services and member experiences and bring additional funds into the organization. Pryor previously served as executive director and senior vice president of the American Heart Association (AHA), Greater Houston.  There, her areas of responsibility included managing the local Board of Directors, participating on the senior leadership team for SouthWest (6 state) Region and working on major national and local initiatives. Pryor also managed a local portfolio of six- and seven-figure individual and corporate donors and served as executive lead for all healthcare system relationships. She also served in a number of local and national roles through her tenure at the AHA, including leading the strategic development of an individual giving program throughout the SouthWest Region in her role as vice president of the Mission Advancement department. Pryor majored in Public Relations and minored in English at Texas Tech University in Lubbock.  She is married to Ryan Pryor, vice president at KLP Commercial – Construction Supply.  They are proud parents of two, son Lawson and daughter Leighton.  Katie enjoys traveling with family, health and wellness (including hiking, yoga, cycling), cooking, music and family friendly activities.

 

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Shreela Sharma, PhD, RD, LD
Director, Center for Health Equity
Professor & Vice Chair
Department of Epidemiology, Human Genetics & Environmental Sciences
UTHealth School of Public Health
The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
(Houston, Texas)

Dr Shreela Sharma is Professor & Vice Chair of Epidemiology and Director, Center for Health Equity at the University of Texas School of Public Health in Houston, TX. Dr. Sharma is a behavioral epidemiologist with specific interest in food insecurity, nutritional epidemiology, health equity, health disparities, and diet-related chronic diseases in children, families and vulnerable populations and has a robust, federally-funded research program in this area. Dr. Sharma is committed to serving the community; on behalf of UTHealth, Dr. Sharma co-leading the Health Equity Collective, a collective impact systems effort focused on mitigating food insecurity and other social determinants of health among Greater Houston residents. Dr. Sharma is also co-founder of Brighter Bites, a nationwide non-profit dedicated to providing fresh produce and nutrition education to low-income children and their families. Finally, Dr. Sharma is committed to our students and building a strong public health workforce; she is a Distinguished Teaching Professor, a honorific title bestowed by The University of Texas System to faculty for their teaching excellence and commitment to the enhancement of health science education.

 

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Salim Virani, MD, PhD, FACC, FAHA, FASPC
Vice Provost for Research
Aga Khan University
Karachi, Pakistan
Academic Professional Staff
The Texas Heart Institute
Professor, Medicine – Cardiology
Baylor College of Medicine
Investigator, Health Policy, Quality & Informatics Program
Center for Innovations in Quality, Effectiveness and Safety
Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center
(Houston, Texas)

Dr. Salim Virani is an alumnus of The Texas Heart Institute, a member of The Texas Heart Institute Professional Staff, and the first Vice Provost for Research at Aga Khan University. He is a world expert in cholesterol, among the top 0.01% of scholars writing about cholesterol from 2011-2021 and among the top 2% of the most cited scientists worldwide by PLos Biology in 2022. Dr. Virani has served as a faculty for over 50 online literary and educational programs and has participated in more than 100 online or in-person media interviews. Dr. Virani’s research portfolio aims to understand the pathophysiology and epidemiology of atherosclerosis with a particular emphasis on South Asians. His team is studying several domains in delivering high-quality guidelines concordant with preventive care for primary and secondary cardiovascular disease. Via funded research grants from the Department of Veterans Affairs, American Diabetes Association, American Heart Association, NIH, AHRQ, and the World Heart Federation, his team has been evaluating models of delivery of cardiovascular disease preventive care, how to leverage machine learning while using “big data,” and how point-of-care informatics driven interventions can improve guideline-concordant care delivery. His team is also evaluating how best to leverage technology to deliver high-quality care in Low-Middle Income Countries, especially in South Asia. Dr. Virani’s research portfolio aims to understand the pathophysiology and epidemiology of atherosclerosis with a special emphasis on South Asians. His team is studying several domains in the delivery of high-quality guideline concordant primary and secondary cardiovascular disease preventive care. Via funded research grants from the Department of Veterans Affairs, American Diabetes Association, American Heart Association, NIH, AHRQ, and the World Heart Federation, his team has been evaluating models of delivery of cardiovascular disease preventive care, how to leverage machine learning while using “big data”, and how point-of-care informatics driven interventions can improve guideline-concordant care delivery. His team is also evaluating how best to leverage technology to deliver high-quality care in Low-Middle Income Countries especially in South Asia. He has authored or co-authored >600 peer-reviewed publications or book chapters (several with his mentees) related to various aspects of cardiovascular disease prevention including cholesterol, blood pressure control and aspirin therapy with several in high-impact journals such as New England Journal of Medicine, Circulation, European Heart Journal, JAMA, JAMA Cardiology, and Journal of the American College of Cardiology. This work has received >115,000 citations. He has been recognized as “World Expert” in Cholesterol by Expertscape (top 0.01% of scholars writing about cholesterol from 2011-2021 among 181,887 published authors) and among the top 2% of the most cited scientists worldwide by PLos Biology in 2022. Dr. Virani has also served as a faculty for >50 online literary educational programs and has participated in >100 online or in person media interviews. He has made ~300 invited presentations at various conferences and academic institutions with >75 of those at institutions and conferences outside the U.S. Dr. Virani has been a recipient of the Scott Grundy Award for Excellence in Lipids Metabolism Research from the American Heart Association (AHA), the Jeremiah Stamler Distinguished Young Investigator Research Award, Leadership Award from the American College of Cardiology (ACC) NCDR® Oversight Committee, National Lipid Association (NLA) President’s Service Award, and the Clark Faculty Service Award at Baylor College of Medicine for exemplary professionalism and community service. Dr. Virani serves as the Chair for the ACC’s Global NCD Academy and the ACC International’s Global Quality Solutions Work group. He also serves as an At-Large Board Member for the Southwest Chapter of the NLA and as a member on the ACC’s Science and Quality Committee. In the recent past, he served as the Chair for the AHA’s Cardiovascular Disease Statistics Committee, Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease Section of the ACC, and the Research and Publications Committee of the ACC’s PINNACLE Registry (the largest outpatient cardiovascular disease registry in the world). He has also served on the Board of Directors for the American Society of Preventive Cardiology, as the Associate Editor for Innovations for ACC.org, and the digital Strategy lead for the cardiovascular disease prevention related content for ACC.org. He has been inducted several times in the Best Doctors® Database (peer-reviewed group that includes the top 5% of U.S. physicians). Dr. Virani has served as a panel member for the 2018 AHA/ACC Multi-society Guideline on Cholesterol Management, the 2019 ACC/AHA Guideline for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease, and the 2019 World Heart Federation and International Diabetes Federation’s Road Map on the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease among People Living with Diabetes. More recently, he served as Co-Chair for the National Lipid Association’s Global think tank on Lipoprotein(a). Currently, he is serving as a member of the writing group on the World Heart Federation’s Road Map on Cholesterol Management and the European Atherosclerosis Society’s Consensus statement on Lipoprotein(a). Dr. Virani firmly believes in the notion of Civil Society that one of the most important objectives of being able to acquire quality education is to serve the communities in which we live and the communities in need. In that respect, he spends ~15-20 hours per week in voluntary service with a dedicated team of volunteers to (a) provide educational and behavioral intervention related resources to combat non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in the community (b) play an active role in health care capacity building for communities in South Asia, Central Asia, and East Africa. He also serves on the World Heart Organization’s Technical Advisory Group on NCD related research and innovation (TAG/RI).

 

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Stephen L. Williams, MEd, MPA
Director, Houston Health Department
City of Houston
Community Advisory Board, HEALTH Research Institute
University of Houston
Dean’s Advisory Board, Texas A&M University School of Public Health
(Houston, Texas)

Stephen serves as the Director for the Houston Health Department (HHD), a full-service public health department with 1100+ employees serving the 2.1 million residents of Houston while also overseeing a $139 million budget. Stephen is actively involved in Public Health issues at the local, state and national levels.  Under Stephen’s leadership, HHD has become more visible, and the citizens of Houston have been afforded a better quality of life.  He has spear-headed the implementation and institution of several programs in HHD such as See to Succeed, Assessment, Intervention and Mobilization (AIM) and Project Saving Smiles.  His most recent endeavor includes pioneering the Affordable Care Act outreach and enrollment efforts through the Enroll Gulf Coast collaborative.  The collaborative has allowed stakeholders across the Gulf Coast work together as partners with a common strategy and organization to provide outreach and enrollment to the region’s estimated 1.4 million uninsured while also gaining national attention and White House support. Stephen L. Williams chairs the Texas Department of State Health Services Public Health Funding and Policy Committee (Senate Bill 969) and the Coalition of the Homeless of Houston/Harris County. He is Adjunct Professor at the UT School of Public Health and serves on the National Commission on Prevention Priorities, Texas A&M School of Rural Public Health External Advisory Board, Texas Agri-Life Extension Services Urban Advisory Board and the Harris County Healthcare Alliance Board. He is a former chair of the Harris County System of Hope Board and past President for Texas Association of Local Health Officials Board. He is an Alumnus of the American Leadership Forum, Houston/Gulf Coast Chapter/Medical Community Class, and is a graduate of the National Urban Fellowship Program and Executive Leadership Institute.  He is a member of the National Association of City and County Health Officials (NACCHO), American Public Health Association (APHA), Rotary Club of Houston and the National Forum for Black Public Administrators (NFBPA). Prior to serving as the Health Director in Houston, he also served as Administrator of Public Health and Deputy Director of Austin/Travis County Health and Human Services Department.