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.

Marie-Claude Morice, MD, FESC, is the Director of Interventional Cardiology at the Institute Hospitalier Jacques Cartier.

She is the Founder and Co-Director of Institut Cardiovasculaire Paris-Sudserves and a Founding Medical Director and CEO of the Cardiovascular European Research Centre (CERC). Her research work has been widely recognized by her peers, and in 2014 she was the first woman to ever receive the Geoffrey O. Hartzler Master Clinical Operator Award from the Cardiovascular Research Centre in recognition of her work in the advancement of interventional cardiology.

Dr. Morice has been Co-Director of the Endovascular Therapy Course in Paris since 1995 and is an adviser to the Ministry of Health for new technologies. She founded the PTCA program at Centre Cardiologique du Nord in 1986. She was in charge of coronary interventions in the coronary flow group of the European Society of Cardiology from 1994 to 1996 and received the Erasmus Thoraxcenter Interventional Cardiology award in 1995.

Dr. Morice completed medical school at the Paris University and received training at the University Hospital of Toulouse-Purpan and the Montreal Cardiac Institute.

Rebecca Ortega, MHA is a co-founder of Women As One, which she led from 2019-2025.

Previously, she was the Director of Strategic Development for the Center for Interventional Cardiovascular Research and Clinical Trials at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. She has also served as the Director of Education at the Duke Clinical Research Institute in Durham, NC and prior, the Director of Education at the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions in Washington, DC.

Her interests are in the generation and translation of health data into real world application, with an emphasis on equity and professionalism. She holds a master’s degree in health systems administration from Georgetown University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Davidson College.

Barbara Casadei is a British Heart Foundation (BHF) Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Oxford and Honorary Consultant Cardiologist at the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust where she leads the Cardiovascular Theme of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre and is Steering Committee Member of the BHF Centre for Research Excellence.

Professor Casadei graduated in Medicine (cum Laude & Medaglia Teresiana) at the University of Pavia, Italy and moved to Oxford in 1989 to undertake her clinical and research training. She was awarded the Joan and Richard Doll Fellowship at Green College in 1991, a DPhil in Cardiovascular Medicine in 1995, and a BHF Senior Research Fellowship in 2001.

She is Fellow of the UK Academy of Medical Sciences, holds the highest honour of the British Cardiovascular Society (The Mackenzie Medal) and of the European Society of Cardiology (Gold Medal), and is Past President of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC, 2018-20). Dr Casadei is the founder of EuroHeart, an initiative supporting the assessment and improvement of quality of cardiovascular care in Europe, the Cardiovascular Patient Forum, and the Women in the ESC (WinESC).

Professor Casadei is currently member of several Scientific Advisory/Funding Boards (e.g., Fondation Leducq; MRC; Netherland Heart Institute; German Centre for Cardiovascular Research (DZHK); Max Delbrück Centre for Molecular Medicine) and Editorial Boards (e.g., Cardiovascular Research; Circulation; European Heart Journal; Circulation Research), and has delivered numerous named lectures including, The William Harvey Lecture on Basic Science and Silver Medal of the ESC, 2013; The Thomas Lewis Lecture and Silver Medal of the British Cardiovascular Society, 2014; The William H Gaasch Lecture, University of Massachusetts, 2017; The Michael Sole Lecture, University of Toronto, 2019; The 4th Annual Gootter Foundation Lecture, Stanford University, US; The Robert Reneman Lecture, University of Maastricht, NL, and the Roman W. DeSanctis Lecture, Harvard Medical School, US in 2021; and the ISHR Keith Reimer Distinguished Lecture in 2022.

She provides a clinical service at the John Radcliffe Hospital and leads a bench-to-bedside translational research programme, which spans from bench-based investigation in human tissue and cells to clinical trials.

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.

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.