Womens Cardiovascular Symposium Faculty

Timothy Henry, MD, FACC, MSCAI

Dr. Timothy D. Henry is the Medical Director of The Carl and Edyth Lindner Center for Research and Education at The Christ Hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio. Prior to The Lindner Research Center, he was the Chief of Cardiology at Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars Sinai Medical Center and a Professor of Medicine at Cedars-Sinai and UCLA from 2013 to 2018, and the Director of Research at the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation, at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis and a Professor of Medicine at the University of Minneapolis from 2001 to 2013.

He has published over 750 manuscripts and book chapters and has served as principal investigator and steering committees of multiple large, multicenter research trials in acute myocardial infarction, refractory angina and regenerative medicine with gene and stem cell therapy. He is Principal Investigator for 2 large STEMI registries, The Midwest STEMI Consortium and the North American COVID STEMI registry. Among other awards, Henry has been named to the “Best Doctors in America” list each year for the last 15 years, became a Master Fellow for the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI) in 2015, received the American Heart Association’s Heart and Stroke Hero Award in Research in 2013, the LUMEN Global Lifetime Achievement Award in MI in 2012, and most recently was awarded the Cincinnati 2021 Health Care Heroes Award, Innovator. He was the President of The Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI) (2021-2022).

Micheal Honigberg, MD, MPP, FACC

Dr. Michael Honigberg is a cardiologist-investigator in the Cardiology Division at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and Associate Member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. He received his MD from Harvard Medical School, trained in internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and completed clinical and research fellowship in cardiovascular medicine at MGH. Dr. Honigberg’s research combines epidemiology, human genetics, multi-omics approaches, and imaging to (1) understand emerging cardiovascular risk factors, e.g., sex-specific risk factors in women (e.g., preeclampsia, premature age of menopause) and their underlying mechanisms; (2) improve allocation of existing and novel preventive cardiovascular therapies; and (3) define strategies to mitigate disparities in cardiovascular disease prevention. His recent work has focused on defining the cardiovascular consequences of preeclampsia and premature age of menopause, including defining germline and somatic genomic factors that contribute to heightened cardiovascular risk in affected women. He recently led the largest genome-wide association study to date of preeclampsia and gestational hypertension (Nature Medicine 2023), yielding new insights into shared genetic risks with cardiovascular disease. His research program is supported by the NHLBI, American Heart Association, Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), and industry collaborators. Dr. Honigberg provides care to patients through the MGH Cardiovascular Disease Prevention Center, Women’s Heart Health Program, and inpatient teaching services and directs the core Prevention, Genetics, and Women’s Heart Health clinical rotation for MGH cardiology fellows. He serves on the American College of Cardiology’s Cardiovascular Disease in Women Committee and Diabetes and Cardiometabolic Work Group. Dr. Honigberg is the recipient of the Jeremiah Stamler Award from the Northwestern Cardiovascular Young Investigators’ Forum, the 2023 Douglas P. Zipes Distinguished Young Scientist Award from the American College of Cardiology, and the 2024 Young Physician-Scientist Award from the American Society for Clinical Investigation.

Lisa Larkin, MD, FACP, MSCP, IF

Dr. Lisa Larkin trained at Yale and the University of Chicago and is a board-certified internist and midlife women’s health expert who has practiced in both academics and private practice since 1991 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Dr Larkin was Associate Professor and Division Director of Midlife Women’s Health and Primary Care at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and the Director of the UC Health Women’s Center from 2012-2016. Since 2016, Dr Larkin has been practicing internal medicine and providing consultative women’s health care within Concierge Medicine of Cincinnati, a multispecialty internal medicine and women’s health specialty practice she independently launched, and a practice she has grown over to 3 locations employing 10 providers. Because of her unwavering commitment to advancing the care of women, and a desire to impact women’s health care beyond Cincinnati, in 2019 Dr. Larkin independently founded Ms.Medicine, a health care organization dedicated to advancing women’s health care beyond Cincinnati. Today Ms.Medicine supports a network of 26 women’s health affiliate providers practicing in 16 locations in 10 states and provides ongoing weekly virtual clinician women’s health education to over 1200 clinicians across the US through the Ms.Medicine ProvidHERS education platform. Dr. Larkin has served on the Board of Trustees of The Menopause Society since 2018 and currently serves as President of the Board. She is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians (FACP), a Menopause Society Certified Practitioner (MSCP), a Fellow (IF) of and past member of the Board of Directors of ISSWSH (International Society or the Study of Women’s Sexual Health).

Puja K. Mehta, MD, FACC, FAHA

Dr. Puja K. Mehta is a preventive cardiologist and an Associate Professor in the Division of Cardiology at Emory University and the Director of Women’s Translational Cardiovascular Research at the Emory Women’s Heart Center (EWHC). She is also the Program Director for the Clinical Investigator Cardiology Fellowship Track.

She graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology and earned her medical degree from the Medical College of Georgia. She completed internal medicine residency and a four-year cardiovascular fellowship at Emory University. She completed a T32 fellowship training in vascular biology during her cardiology fellowship. She subsequently completed an additional year of specialized fellowship training in Women’s Heart Health at Cedars-Sinai’s Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Center at the Smidt Heart Institute in Los Angeles. She also completed the Clinical Scholars Program while at Cedars-Sinai.

Dr. Mehta’s clinical interest are management of cardiovascular risk factors, heart disease prevention, and angina management. She currently has an NIH-funded R01 that focuses on microvascular dysfunction and the role of mental stress in heart disease. She also has research interests in cardiovascular biomarkers, imaging, nutrition, integrative physiology, and health disparities. She is an active member of the ACC and the AHA, and currently serves on the Cardiovascular Disease in Women Committee. She is regularly invited to present her work and has over 165 publications. In addition to clinical care and research, she enjoys teaching and mentoring students and house staff. She has received numerous awards including Humanism in Medicine Award, the Millipub Club Award at Emory, and R. Wayne Alexander Research Mentoring Award last year.

Ileana Piña, MD, MPH, FAHA, FACC, FHFSA

Dr. Ileana L. Piña serves as the Quality Officer for the Heart and Vascular Service Line at Jefferson Health and is a Professor of Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University. Born in Havana, Cuba, she moved to the US at age 6. Dr. Piña earned her medical degree from the University of Miami, completed an internal medicine residency at the University of South Florida Tampa as chief resident, and a cardiology fellowship at the University of Miami. She also completed a surgical internship at the University of Miami Hospitals and Clinics and earned a master’s in Public Health from Case Western Reserve University while pursuing a VA Quality Fellowship.

Her research focuses on heart failure care transitions, quality improvement, natriuretic peptide-guided management, biomarkers in chronic heart failure, and gender differences in heart failure. Dr. Piña has extensively written on racial, ethnic, and gender issues in healthcare, with over 300 publications.

Dr. Piña has received several accolades including the Wenger Award for Excellence in Research in 2017 for contributions to women’s heart health in underserved communities. She recently completed her term on the Board of Directors of the American Heart Association and was honored with the AHA Meritorious Achievement Award for her work with high school students. She also received the Laennec Master Clinician Award in 2020 and the Distinguished Service Award in 2021 from the Council on Clinical Cardiology. In 2022, she was awarded the American College of Cardiology Bernadine Healy Award for her work in women’s heart health and inclusion in clinical trials. Dr. Piña is currently on the Board of the National Forum for Heart Disease.

She proudly notes that her most rewarding role is being a mother to her daughter, Victoria, a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine and Internist in Chicago.

Odayme Quesada, MD, MHS, FACC, FAHA, FESC

Dr. Odayme Quesada is Medical Director of the Women’s Heart Center at The Christ Hospital Heart and Vascular Institute, Ginger Warner Endowed Chair in Women’s Cardiovascular Health and Assistant Professor at University of Cincinnati. Dr. Quesada is a board-certified cardiologist and a clinician scientist with expertise in women’s cardiovascular disease. Dr. Quesada graduated summa cum laude from University of Florida in Gainesville and received her Medical Degree and Master of Health Science from Yale University School of Medicine. She completed her internal medicine residency at University of California San Francisco (UCSF) and both her clinical cardiovascular fellowship and a National Institute of Health (NIH) T32 cardiovascular research fellowship in women’s cardiovascular disease at the Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Center at Cedars-Sinai Smidt Heart Institute in Los Angeles.

In 2020, Dr. Quesada was recruited to establish and lead, as Medical Director, The Women’s Heart Center at The Christ Hospital Heart and Vascular Institute and has established one of the fastest growing coronary microvascular and vasomotor dysfunction (CMVD) programs in the country. She was awarded the prestigious NIH K23 Career Development Award for her work to understand the increased cardiovascular risk associated with hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, and she leads numerous multicenter clinical studies to advance care in women’s cardiovascular disease in the The Carl and Edyth Lindner Center for Research and Education. Dr. Quesada is a leader in her community and strives to attain health equity in disadvantaged women through collaborations with community organizations. She is a Fellow of the American Heart Association (FAHA), American College of Cardiology (FACC) and European Society of Cardiology (FESC). Dr. Quesada was awarded the Cincinnati Business Courier’s Health Care Heroes Innovator Award, the Forty under 40 Award, and the Jewel of the Community Award for her commitment to closing the gaps in cardiovascular care for women through research, education, community outreach, and advocacy.

Fátima Rodriguez, MD, MPH, FACC, FAHA, FASPC

Dr. Fátima Rodriguez is an Associate Professor in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine at Stanford University and the Section Chief of Preventive Cardiology. Dr. Rodriguez earned her medical degree from Harvard Medical School and her MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health as Zuckerman Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Center for Public Leadership. She then completed internal medicine residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. Rodriguez arrived at Stanford University in 2014, where she completed a cardiovascular medicine fellowship and served as Chief Fellow.

Dr. Rodriguez’s research interests include a range of topics relating to racial and ethnic disparities in guideline adherence, personalizing cardiovascular disease risk prediction and prevention, and leveraging digital health tools to improve the care of diverse patients. She has authored over 210 peer-reviewed publications on these topics and received the 2022 American College of Cardiology’s Douglas P. Zipes Distinguished Young Scientist Award. She has also been a two-time winner of Stanford University’s Alderman Award for Excellence in Clinical Research, the Department of Medicine Chair Diversity Investigator Award, and the internal medicine residency research mentor award. Her work is funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, the American Heart Association, and the Doris Duke Foundation. Dr. Rodriguez is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology, the American Heart Association, and the American Society of Preventive Cardiology. She serves as the Co-Chair of the National Minority Health Alliance and is a member of the American Heart Association’s Scientific Publishing Committee.

Amy Sarma, MD, MHS

Dr. Amy Sarma is the co-director of the Corrigan Women’s Heart Health Program and Cardiovascular Disease and Pregnancy Programs at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and the Cathy E. Minehan Endowed Chair in Cardiology. Dr. Sarma earned her undergraduate and medical degrees from Yale University. She trained in internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital prior to Massachusetts General Hospital for her cardiovascular disease and advance echocardiography fellowships. Her clinical and research interests are in sex differences in cardiovascular disease, cardiovascular disease in pregnancy, and spontaneous coronary artery dissection. Her ongoing funded research studies focus on the use of digital health strategies for postpartum hypertension and cardiovascular care. Nationally, she has served on the American College of Cardiology (ACC) Women In Cardiology Leadership Council and currently serves on the ACC Cardiovascular Disease in Women Leadership Council. She has been recognized as a semi-finalist for the international Women As One Escalator Award, as a finalist for the Elizabeth Barrett-Connor Research Award for Early Career Investigators by the American Heart Association (AHA), received the Women In Cardiology Trainee Award for Excellence by the AHA, and is a recipient of the MGH Department of Medicine Innovation Award.

Nathaniel Smilowitz, MD, MS, FSCAI

Dr. Nathaniel Smilowitz is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine at the New York University Grossman School of Medicine and an interventional cardiologist at NYU Langone Health and the VA New York Harbor Healthcare System. His research focuses on ischemic heart disease, specifically, ischemia and myocardial infarction in the absence of obstructive coronary arteries, and postoperative cardiovascular complications following non-cardiac surgery. He serves as the Principal Investigator for an NIH/NHLBI-funded study on coronary microvascular disease, and as a co-investigator for the AHA Go Red for Women Strategically Focused Research Network-funded Heart Attack Research Program to study mechanisms of myocardial infarction with non-obstructive coronary arteries. He is a Fellow of the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions and the American College of Cardiology, an assistant editor for Circulation: Cardiovascular Interventions, the co-director of the Microvascular Network, and serves as the chair of the research and publications committee for the American College of Cardiology NCDR Chest Pain-MI Registry.

Janet Wei, MD, FACC, FAHA

Dr. Janet Wei is an Associate Professor of Cardiology and Biomedical Sciences at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. She holds the Erika J. Glazer Chair in Women's Cardiovascular Research, Education, and Innovation, and is Program Director of the Cardiology Fellowship Training Program at the Cedars-Sinai Smidt Heart Institute, Co-Director of the Stress Echocardiography Lab, and Associate Medical Director of the Biomedical Imaging Research Institute. Dr. Wei completed her internal medicine residency and cardiology fellowship at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, which was followed by advanced clinical and research training in women’s heart disease as a National Institutes of Health (NIH) T32 Trainee in the Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Center. Dr. Wei’s clinical and research interests include cardiovascular disease in women, preventive cardiology, coronary vasomotor dysfunction, and advanced cardiac imaging. She currently serves as the Southern California Governor of the California Chapter of the American College of Cardiology.

Nanette Wenger, MD, MACC, MACP, FAHA

Dr. Nanette K. Wenger, Professor of Medicine in Cardiology at Emory University School of Medicine, is a Consultant at the Emory Heart and Vascular Center and Founding Consultant at the Emory Women’s Heart Center. Her expertise centers on coronary heart disease in women, highlighted by her leadership at the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Conference on Cardiovascular Health and Disease in Women. Dr. Wenger is also distinguished in cardiac rehabilitation, having chaired significant committees including the World Health Organization Expert Committee on Rehabilitation after Cardiovascular Disease.

Recognized for her contributions to geriatric cardiology, Dr. Wenger served as President of the Society of Geriatric Cardiology and was Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Geriatric Cardiology for over 15 years. Her accolades include the American Heart Association's Gold Heart Award and the James D. Bruce Memorial Award from the American College of Physicians.

Dr. Wenger has received numerous honors throughout her career, such as the Emory Williams Distinguished Teaching Award and the Laennec Lecture for the American Heart Association. Internationally, she was honored with the Hatter Award for advancing cardiovascular science.

Beyond her clinical and research contributions, Dr. Wenger's impact extends to public health and mentorship, reflected in awards like the Charles R. Hatcher, Jr., MD, Award for Excellence in Public Health and the establishment of a cardiovascular society in her name at Emory. She remains active as an author, lecturer, and contributor to clinical practice guidelines, recognized among the "Best Doctors in America."

Recent accolades include the American Heart Association's Eugene Braunwald Academic Mentoring Award and the establishment of awards in her honor, underscoring her enduring influence in cardiovascular medicine. Dr. Wenger has received Lifetime Achievement Awards from both the American College of Cardiology and the World Heart Federation, acknowledging her profound impact on the field.

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2024 Symposium Faculty