MEET THE TEAM

Roxana Mehran, MD, FACC, FACP, FCCP, FESC, FAHA, MSCAI is an internationally renowned interventional cardiologist, clinical research expert and trialist in the field of cardiovascular disease. She is amongst the most prolific researchers in the United States and is a globally-respected leader of an academic research center focused on designing and implementing randomized clinical trials, outcomes research projects, and high impact academic publications. She has served as principal investigator for numerous global studies, developed important practice guidelines for treating patients with cardiovascular disease. She has focused on personalized medicine and developed individual risk scores for bleeding and acute kidney injury, participates regularly in developing clinical guidelines, and has authored over 1,800 peer-reviewed articles. Dr. Mehran currently serves as member and 2025-2026 Vice President on the Board of Trustees of The American College of Cardiology (ACC). She is a founder and Chief Scientific Officer of the Cardiovascular Research Foundation (CRF). She ranked 36th in the “Best Female Scientists in the World” and has been included for the past eight consecutive years in Clarivate Analytics: “Most Cited Researchers – Top 1%” as well as “The World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds”.

Dr. Mehran is leading the Lancet Commission on Women’s Cardiovascular Diseases, which has brought together leading researchers from around the world to identify and bridge gaps in scientific discovery, clinical trials, and care for women with cardiovascular disease. She was recently named Director of the Women Heart and Vascular Center at Mount Sinai Heart, spearheading a new program that represents a collaboration across multiple disciplines and designed to meet the unique needs of women’s cardiovascular health. In 2019, she founded Women As One, a not for profit organization, dedicated to advancing opportunities for women in medicine, where she serves as Chair of the Board.

Dr. Mehran is a recipient of several awards including the 2016 American College of Cardiology Bernadine Healy Leadership in CV disease award, the 2018 Nanette Wenger Award from Women’s Heart for excellence in research and education, the 2019 Ellis Island Medal of Honor, and the 2019 European Society of Cardiology Silver Medal and Andreas Grüntzig Lecture plaque. In 2022, she received The Terry Ann Krulwich Physician-Scientist Alumni Award at Mount Sinai; the Linda Joy Pollin Heart Health Leadership Award from Cedar Sinai Medical Center; Doctor Honoris Causa Degree at Università della Svizzera Italiana; Women in Cardiology Mentoring Award from American Heart Association; and the Pulse-Setter Champion Award from The Cardiovascular Research Foundation. On March of 2024 she was honored with the Jacobi Medal, top achievement award from Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

Pamela S Douglas, MD is the Ursula Geller Distinguished Professor of Research in Cardiovascular Diseases in the Department of Medicine at Duke University. She has led several landmark multicenter randomized clinical trials and outcomes research studies and is renowned for her scientific and policy work in improving the quality and appropriateness of imaging in clinical care, clinical trials, and registries. Dr Douglas helped to establish several important specialty areas including heart disease in women, sports cardiology, and cardio-oncology. Dr. Douglas’ wealth of experience includes authorship of over 650 peer reviewed manuscripts and 30 practice guidelines, service as the President of the American College of Cardiology, President of the American Society of Echocardiography, and Chief of Cardiology at both the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Duke University. She has served on the External Advisory Council of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and the Scientific Advisory Boards of the National Space Biomedical Institute and the Patient Advocate Foundation. Among her most cherished recognitions are the naming in her honor of the American College of Cardiology’s Distinguished Leadership Award in Diversity and Inclusion and the American Society of Echocardiography’s Research Scholar Award.

Borja Ibáñez (Madrid, 1975) is Professor of Cardiovascular Research and Scientific Director at the Spanish National Center for Cardiovascular Research (CNIC) in Madrid, Spain, where he also directs the Clinical Research Department. He combines this role with clinical practice as an interventional cardiologist at University Hospital Fundación Jiménez Díaz. He is a group leader at the Spanish Network Center for Biomedical Research in Cardiovascular Diseases (CIBERCV).

After completing his cardiology training in Madrid, he moved to Mount Sinai Heart (New York, NY), where he obtained his PhD in the field of atherosclerotic plaque regression using recombinant HDL (apoA-I Milano). On returning to Spain, he established and leads the “Translational Laboratory for Cardiovascular Imaging and Therapy” at CNIC, closely integrated with the Cardiology Department at Fundación Jiménez Díaz. His research sits at the interface between basic and clinical science, focusing on acquired myocardial diseases (particularly myocardial infarction and cancer therapy–related cardiotoxicity) and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD). While he has made major contributions to the understanding and treatment of acute coronary syndromes and myocardial infarction, in recent years his work has increasingly targeted the subclinical stages of ASCVD, with an emphasis on early detection of silent atherosclerosis through non-invasive imaging.
Prof. Ibáñez co-leads the REACT (Early Cure of Atherosclerosis) initiative and the PESA (Progression of Early Subclinical Atherosclerosis) study, both of which aim to develop precision medicine strategies to curb ASCVD by targeting atherosclerosis at its earliest stages. He has led multiple translational programs that have brought novel therapies and diagnostic tools from bench to bedside, and he has served as Principal Investigator of numerous multinational randomized clinical trials, including (among others) REBOOT, RESILIENCE, REACT, and METOCARD-CNIC, enrolling several thousands of patients.

He has co-authored more than 400 scientific publications, including seminal work in leading journals such as The New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, Science, Nature, Nature Medicine, Cell, European Heart Journal, Circulation, JACC, Circulation Research and Nature Communications (among others). His research has received over 105,000 citations, and he is listed as a Highly Cited Researcher by Web of Science. He coordinates several European Commission–funded projects spanning basic (ERC-CoG), clinical (H2020), and technological (IHI) research, and is co-inventor on multiple patents, notably the ultrafast CMR sequence ESSOS, which enables a comprehensive cardiac MRI study in under one minute.

Prof. Ibáñez has been recognized with numerous scientific awards, including the Banco Sabadell Award, Constantes y Vitales Award, Princesa de Girona Award, and Fundación Jesús Serra Award, among others. He is deeply involved in the development of clinical practice guidelines within the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), having served (among others) as Chairperson of the 2023 ESC Guidelines for the management of acute coronary syndromes and the 2017 ESC STEMI Guidelines.

Dr. Azin Parhizgar is a highly accomplished medical device executive, a serial entrepreneur, and a seasoned Medtech investor. Currently Dr. Parhizgar is the Managing Director at 415 Capital Management GmbH, a cardio- neurovascular focused early-stage venture investment fund, Chairwoman of the board of CVPath Institute, Inc. as well as Protembis GmbH, and serves as an independent director at CroiValve, InnovHeart s.r.l, and Women As One, among other held positions.  

In her five-year tenure as the President and CEO of Claret Medical, an embolic protection company, Dr. Parhizgar led the venture-backed company to a successful global commercial launch with a subsequent acquisition in 2018 by Boston Scientific, Inc. Prior to Claret Medical, she was the President and COO of Conor Medsystems, a drug eluting Stent Company acquired by Johnson & Johnson, Inc. in 2007. Prior to Conor Medsystems Dr. Parhizgar was Executive Global Vice President at Arterial Vascular Engineering (AVE), which was acquired by Medtronic Inc. in 2000.  

Dr. Parhizgar earned both her Ph.D. in Cell, Gene and Tissue Engineering and her M.Sc. in Biomechanical Engineering and Artificial Organ Design from Brown University in Providence, RI, USA. 

Professor Liesl Zühlke, MBChB DCH FCPaeds Cert Card MPH FESC FACC MSc PhD, is a paediatric cardiologist in the Dept. of Paediatric Cardiology at Red Cross Children’s Hospital and directs the Children’s Heart Disease Research Unit focused on family-centred research into Children’s Heart Diseases of relevance in Africa. Her research projects span congenital and Rheumatic Heart disease, Grown-up Congenital heart disease and cardiac disease in women of childbearing age.

She was the recipient of the 2018 MRC/Dfid African research leader Award. She is the only female full Professor of Paediatric Cardiology in her country and is passionate about mentoring women in Cardiology practice and leadership. She has delivered several talks in this regard and is part of the Lancet commission for Cardiovascular disease in Women.

A speaker at all the premier international cardiology congresses, she recently delivered a lecture to the Academy of Medical Sciences in London on “Developing capacity for clinical research in low and middle-income countries”, another personal passion and was a designed rising star at the Gates Grand Challenges meeting held in Ethiopia in October 2019. She leads the PROTEA study “Partnerships for Congenital Heart Disease in Africa” focusing on describing the epidemiology and genetic origins of Congenital Heart Disease in several countries in Africa.