Moderator: Ileana Piña, MD, MPH, FAHA, FACC
Professor of Medicine, Wayne State University
Clinical Professor of Medicine, Central Michigan University
Senior Staff Fellow and Medical Officer, Food and Drug Administration, Center for Devices and Radiological Health
Ileana L. Piña, MD, MPH, is a Professor of Medicine, at Wayne State University and Clinical Professor at Central Michigan University. Dr. Piña also serves as Senior Fellow to the Food and Drug Administrations’ Center for Devices and Radiological Health. Dr. Piña earned her undergraduate degree in chemistry from the University of Miami in Florida. She completed her medical degree and cardiology fellowship at the University of Miami School of Medicine; an internal medicine residency at the University of South Florida Tampa, where she was Chief Resident; and fulfilled a surgery internship at the University of Miami Hospitals and Clinics. She earned a master’s degree in public health from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio while pursuing a VA Quality Fellowship. Dr. Piña’s research interests include transition of care in heart failure patients, and the role of natriuretic peptide–guided management for patients hospitalized for heart failure, biomarkers of myocardial stress and fibrosis in chronic heart failure, and heart failure differences by sex. She has been actively involved in gender, racial and ethnic issues in the health care delivery. She is the author/co-author of more than 250 publications. She is currently the Chair of the FIT committee of the AHA and on the Board of Directors National AHA. Dr. Piña is a Senior Staff Fellow and Medical Officer of the FDA, CDRH.
Alanna Morris, MD, MSc, FHFSA, FACC, FAHA
Assistant Professor of Medicine, Division of Cardiology, Director of Heart Failure Research, Emory University Clinical Cardiovascular Research Institute
Dr. Alanna A. Morris joined the ECCRI faculty in 2013. Dr. Morris received her undergraduate degree in Biology from Xavier University of Louisiana, and her medical degree from the Harvard Medical School. She completed her residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. Subsequently, she came to Emory University to complete fellowships in general cardiology, and advanced heart failure and transplant. After completion of her fellowship training, she was appointed Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Cardiology at Emory University School of Medicine. Her clinical time is spent as the Director of Heart Failure Services at the Atlanta VA Medical Center, and as faculty for Emory’s Center for Heart Failure Therapy and Transplantation.
Aimee Rodriguez-Zepeda
Heart Failure Patient Ambassador, American Heart Association
Rodriguez-Zepeda is driven to find ways to help other heart patients, channeling her motorcycle club’s charitable efforts to help families of heart patients and volunteering with her local American Heart Association affiliate.
She’s also joined a team of newly established American Heart Association Heart Failure Patient Ambassadors. The group offers support and information by sharing their personal experiences and information with the millions of Americans impacted by heart disease and stroke. Rodriguez-Zepeda has shared her story at local Heart Walks and Go Red For Women events, and with local and national media. She also offers support to other heart failure patients through AHA’s Support Network.
Carolyn Ha, PharmD
Director, Policy & Research Department, PhRMA
Carolyn Ha, Pharm.D., is a Director in the Policy and Research Department at PhRMA, where she provides clinical expertise to shape policy development and advocacy related to population health and chronic disease management, improvement of medication use and clinical and quality management strategies. As a clinician, she is passionate about patient care and translating research into actionable policies that will ensure patients get the most out of their medications and creating a sustainable health care delivery system that incentivizes innovation. Carolyn received her Doctor of Pharmacy from Rutgers University and is a registered pharmacist in Virginia. Prior to joining PhRMA, she spent time as a practitioner in a community pharmacy and advocated on behalf of independent pharmacy owners. When she’s not working to improve the lives of patients through better use of medicines, Carolyn can be found spoiling her nephew and niece, exploring new restaurants, traveling and cheering on the New York Giants.
Joseph D. Hutter, MD, MA
CDR, US Public Health Service
Coverage and Analysis Group, Center for Clinical Standards and Quality
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
Attending Physician, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center
Joseph Dolph Hutter, MD, MA is a Commander in the US Public Health Service serving at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). His portfolio has spanned evidence and technology evaluation, clinical decision support, quality improvement, quality measure development, and innovation. He has served on numerous interagency and public-private task forces and has represented CMS internationally. He is currently a board member of the NIH-led, public-private initiative, Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics for COVID-19 (RADx). He was a co-author of the Aspen Institute white paper series “Reinventing Healthcare” and of the White House National Science and Technology Council white paper, “Roadmap for Medical Imaging Research and Development.” He was a clinical scholar in Harvard Medical School’s Global Clinical Scholars Research Training program. Prior to public service, he was a Fellow at the Institute for Health Care Delivery Research at Intermountain Healthcare, and an Attending Physician at Intermountain Medical Center. He was a Brookings Institution Congressional Fellow serving as staff on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. Previously, he was a partner in a large private practice, and Director of Cardiac CT and Non-Invasive Vascular Imaging and a QI lead at the Washington Hospital Center, Washington, DC.
Nancy Albert PhD, CCNS, CHFN, CCRN, NE-BC, FAHA, FCCM, FHFSA, FAAN
Associate Chief Nursing Officer – Research and Innovation
Cleveland Clinic Health System & CNS – Kaufman Center for Heart Failure – Heart, Vascular & Thoracic Institute Cleveland Clinic
President, Heart Failure Society of America
As Associate Chief Nursing Officer of the Office of Research and Innovation, Dr. Albert administers and provides research and innovation services throughout Cleveland Clinic, a multicenter system. She conducts her own program of research and mentors nurses in research and evidence-based practice. Dr. Albert also serves as a clinical nurse specialist in advanced heart failure within an ambulatory heart failure clinic on the main campus of Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland OH. She is a clinical educator and consultant to graduate students and hospital and ambulatory nurses regarding heart failure, cardiac or intensive care topics. She is widely published with over 285 peer-reviewed publications in medical and nursing journals, over 15 book chapters and she is editor of a 2016 book titled: Building and Sustaining a Hospital-Based Nursing Research Program. Dr. Albert presents regionally, nationally and internationally and is actively involved on steering committees, work groups and task forces of many healthcare organizations that are focused on improving quality of care and clinical outcomes of patients with heart failure or cardiovascular diseases.
Norman Stockbridge, MD, PhD
Director, Food and Drug Administration, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, Division of Cardiology & Nephrology
Norman Stockbridge, MD, PhD received his MD in 1978 and PhD in Physiology in 1981 from Duke University. He received post-doctoral training at Duke and New York Medical College. Dr. Stockbridge was a Staff Fellow at the NIH National Eye Institute. In 1985 he joined the faculty of the Department of Surgery at University of Alberta doing basic cellular electrophysiology research.
Dr. Stockbridge joined FDA’s Division of Cardio-Renal Drug Products in 1991, serving a medical officer, medical team leader, and deputy division director, prior to becoming the division director. He is currently the Director of the Division of Cardiovascular and Renal Products within the FDA Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.
Vandana Sachdev, MD
Senior Research Clinician & Director, Echocardiography Laboratory
Scientific Lead, HeartShare Program, Division of Cardiovascular Sciences, Heart Failure & Arrhythmias Branch, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
Vandana Sachdev, M.D., is the director of the Echocardiography Laboratory at the NHLBI.
