I am a Professor of Medicine (cardiology) and the chief of the section of cardiology. I have a broad background in cardiovascular disease research with specific expertise in heart failure research in the African American community. My research expertise includes the recruitment and retention of underrepresented minorities in clinical trials. As PI or co-Investigator on several multi-center and NIHfunded grants, I wave worked with co-investigators on other cardiovascular disease-related projects, most recently as Co-PI of the AHA sponsored TOTAL project enhancing the science of diversity in clinical trials.

The TOTAL project involves the comparative evaluation of different strategies head-to-head for increasing enrollment of a diverse underrepresented groups in clinical trials. Moreover, I serve as the training director in the affiliated Diverse Network. In addition, I am intimately involved in all operational aspects of research projects (staffing, research protections, budget and so on), collaborating with other researchers, and writing peer-reviewed manuscripts from each project. I have broad experience as an American Heart Association peer reviewer of grants and recently completed serving on the Oversight Advisory Committee of the Strategically Focused Research Network (SFRN) for heart failure. Also, since 2017 I have collaborated with the Centers for Disease Control on research addressing the social determinants of health to achieve health equity in heart failure treatment. I have successfully mentored several clinician-scientist who are advancing as independent investigators in prominent institutions across the country. As a result of these previous experiences, I am aware of the importance of developing a clinical research workforce pipeline to enable innovative and sustainable cardiovascular research portfolio.

These experiences are vital for mentoring the next generation of clinical researchers especially from underrepresented groups in medicine and academic research.