Jan N. Basile, MD, FACP, FASH, FAHA
Professor of Medicine
Seinsheimer Cardiovascular Health Program
Medical University of South Carolina
Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center
Charleston, SC

Dr. Jan N. Basile earned his medical degree from the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond. He then completed his internship and residency at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, where he was also Chief Resident. He is board certified in internal medicine and is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians (FACP) and the American Society of Hypertension (FASH), and for many years served on the American Society of Hypertension (ASH) Board of Directors. Most recently, with the dissolution of ASH, he is serving within the AHA as Vice-Chair of Clinical Programs on the Council of Hypertension (FAHA).

His many honors and awards include the Medical University of South Carolina School of Medicine Excellence in Teaching award, the Golden Apple award, and, in 2014, he was the first recipient of the SC Department of Health and Environmental Control Hypertension Physician of the Year award. He was President of the Southern Medical Association in 2008-2009.

Currently, he is Professor of Medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina. Dr. Basile spent 31 years at the Ralph H Johnson VA Medical Center having retired as Chief of Primary Care in 2009. He now directs the resistant hypertension clinic within the Seinsheimer Cardiovascular Health Program, a multiple-risk factor lipid and resistant hypertension referral clinic at MUSC.

Dr. Basile’s research interests include outcome-based studies involving hypertension, lipid disorders, and diabetes. He has been involved in many large hypertension trials including the ALLHAT, ACCORD, ONTARGET, ACCOMPLISH, and SPRINT trials and continues to participate in SPRINT-ASK, under the auspices of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. He was a contributing reviewer of the Seventh Report of the Joint National Committee on the Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure (JNC 7) and the 2017 ACC-AHA Guideline for the Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Management of High Blood Pressure in Adults. Dr. Basile has published more than 300 original papers, abstracts, and book chapters, as well as a textbook, Hot Topics: Hypertension. He also is a contributing author for the hypertension section of "Up To Date".

John B. Buse, MD, PhD
Professor of Medicine
Director, Diabetes Care Center
Chief, Division of Endocrinology
Executive Dean, Clinical Research
University of North Carolina School of Medicine
Chapel Hill, NC

Dr. John B. Buse is the Verne S. Caviness Distinguished Professor, Chief of the Division of Endocrinology, Director of the Diabetes Center, Director of the NC Translational and Clinical Sciences Institute and Executive Associate Dean for Clinical Research at the University of North Carolina (UNC) School of Medicine in Chapel Hill.

Dr. Buse received his MD and PhD from Duke University before training in internal medicine and endocrinology at the University of Chicago. He has been on the faculty at UNC since 1994. His efforts combine clinical care, research, administration and teaching. He works with teams of investigators in diabetes clinical trials, comparative effectiveness research and translation of basic science towards clinical application. He serves as Director of the NC Translational and Clinical Sciences Institute working through a NIH-based consortium to accelerate the conversion of ideas and discoveries to products and policies for the improvement of health and well-being. Dr. Buse completed service as President for Medicine & Science at the American Diabetes Association in 2008 and as Chair of the National Diabetes Education Program in 2014. He has received numerous awards and honors, including the 2010 Castle Connolly National Physician of the Year Award. He has authored more than 300 publications.

Keith C. Ferdinand, MD, FACC, FAHA, FASH, FNLA
Gerald S. Endowed Chair in Preventive Cardiology
Professor of Medicine
Tulane University School of Medicine
Tulane Heart and Vascular Institute
New Orleans, LA

Dr. Keith C. Ferdinand is Professor of Medicine at the Tulane University School of Medicine and the Tulane Heart and Vascular Institute in New Orleans, Louisiana. He was previously Professor of Clinical Pharmacology at Xavier University, New Orleans and Clinical Professor of Medicine at Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. Ferdinand received his medical degree from the Howard University College of Medicine in Washington, DC. He is board-certified in internal medicine and cardiovascular disease, certified in the subspecialty of nuclear cardiology, and a specialist in clinical hypertension certified by the American Society of Hypertension.

Dr. Ferdinand is past Chair of the National Forum for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention and has served as Chief Science Officer and past chair of the Association of Black Cardiologists. He has also served as a board member of the American Society of Hypertension, the Southwest Lipid Association, and the International Society of Hypertension in Blacks.

As an investigator, Dr. Ferdinand has conducted numerous trials in the fields of cardiology, cardiovascular disease, lipids and cardiometabolic risk, especially in racial and ethnic minorities. Dr Ferdinand’s participation in research has been published in peer-reviewed journals including the New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American College of Cardiology, the Journal of Clinical Hypertension, the American Journal of Cardiovascular Drugs, Clinical Lipidology, and the journal Cardiorenal Medicine, and Hypertension.

Dr. Ferdinand serves on the editorial review board of Hypertension, Journal of Clinical Hypertension, the Journal of the American Society of Clinical Hypertension, Cardiorenal Medicine, as well as The Medical Roundtable-CV. He has lectured nationally and internationally on topics including cardiovascular disease in the African American population, heart failure, hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia, and racial and ethnic disparities in cardiovascular outcomes.

In 2004, Dr. Ferdinand received the Louis B. Russell, Jr. Memorial Award of the American Heart Association and the Walter M. Booker Community Service Award of the ABC. In 2010, he was recognized by the Congressional Black Caucus Health Trust with an award for journalism, as well as the Charles Drew award for medical excellence in conjunction with the National Minority Quality Foundation. In 2015, Dr. Ferdinand was inducted into the Association of University Cardiologists. Most recently, he was awarded the Wenger Award for Medical Leadership in 2017 by WomenHeart and also the ABC Spirit of the Heart Distinguished Leadership Award. In 2018, he was named the Gerald S. Berenson Endowed Chair in Preventive Cardiology at Tulane School of Medicine.

Hertzel C. Gerstein MD, MSc, FRCPC
Professor at McMaster University and Hamilton Health Sciences
Population Health Research Institute Chair in Diabetes
Director of the Division of Endocrinology & Metabolism
Director of the Diabetes Care and Research Program
Deputy Director of the Population Health Research Institute
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Dr. Hertzel C. Gerstein's research has been published in over 350 papers, spans 50 countries, and has been funded by the NIH, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, the Canadian Diabetes Association and the pharmaceutical industry. His research focuses on: a) the prevention and therapy of diabetes and its many consequences; b) the relationship between dysglycemia (a term he coined in 1995), cardiovascular outcomes, cognitive impairment, other diabetes-related chronic consequences, and new diabetes; c) strategies for type 2 diabetes remission; d) novel biomarkers for cardiovascular disease in diabetes; and e) the biologic basis of glucose-related health consequences. In 2016, he produced and distributed a music video to mitigate the impact of diabetes on affected people and their families. In 2012, he received the Canadian Diabetes Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Daichi Shimbo, MD
Associate Professor of Medicine
Ewig Clinical Scholar, Department of Medicine
Columbia University
New York City, NY

Dr. Daichi Shimbo is Associate Professor of Medicine and Ewig Clinical Scholar at the Columbia University. He received a B.S. from the Johns Hopkins University in Biomedical Engineering and a M.D. from the Albany Medical College. After completing an Internal Medicine residency, Dr. Shimbo went on to complete Chief Medical residency in Internal Medicine and fellowship in Cardiovascular Medicine at the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, before joining the faculty at Columbia University in 2003. At Columbia University, Dr. Shimbo is the Director of the Columbia Hypertension Center, and Director of the Translational Laboratory at the Center for Behavioral Cardiovascular Health and conducts translational research into the behavioral and biological mechanisms that underlie hypertension and cardiovascular disease (CVD). He is an expert in the diagnosis and treatment of hypertension. As the Director of Cardiovascular Physiology Research and a non-invasive cardiologist, he conducts research into the relations of hypertension with cardiac structure and ventricular function. His research has been continuously funded as a PI by the NIH/NHLBI for over 15 years. Recently, Dr. Shimbo was Vice Chair of the 2019 American Heart Association Scientific Statement on Blood Pressure Measurement.

James A. Underberg, MS, MD, FACPM, FACP, FASH, FASPC, FNYAM, FNLA
Clinical Lipidologist
Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine
NYU Center for Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease
Director, Bellevue Hospital Lipid Clinic
NYU School of Medicine New York, NY

Dr. James A. Underberg is a Clinical Lipidologist. He is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at NYU School of Medicine and the NYU Center for Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease. He is also the Director of the Bellevue Hospital Lipid Clinic. Dr. Underberg holds joint appointments in the divisions of General Internal Medicine and Endocrinology at NYU.

Dr. Underberg is a Diplomate of the American Board of Clinical Lipidology and President-Elect of the National Lipid Association. He is a Fellow of the National Lipid Association and Treasurer of the American Board of Clinical Lipidology. He serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Clinical Lipidology and is a board member of the National Lipid Association, the Foundation of the National Lipid Association, The American Society of Preventive Cardiology and the American Board of Clinical Lipidology. Dr. Underberg also serves on the scientific advisory board of the FH Foundation.

Dr. Underberg’s Clinical Interests focus on the clinical management of patients with lipids and lipoprotein disorders and cardiovascular disease prevention. He maintains an active clinical research program in these areas and has authored numerous articles and book chapters in the field of Clinical Lipidology.

He sees patients both at Bellevue Hospital and in a University based Private practice setting.

Karol E. Watson, MD, PhD
Director, UCLA Barbra Streisand Women's Heart Health Program
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
Los Angeles, CA

Dr. Karol E. Watson is the Chair of the Council on Aspirin for Health and Prevention, is a Professor of Medicine/Cardiology and a board-certified, full-time cardiologist at the Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, and she holds the John C. Mazziotta Term Chair in Medicine. In 2017 Dr. Watson was named Cardiologist of the Year, by the California chapter of the American College of Cardiology (ACC). Dr. Watson received her undergraduate degree from Stanford University, her Medical Degree from Harvard Medical School, magna cum laude, and her PhD in Physiology from UCLA.

Currently, Dr. Watson is director of the UCLA Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Health Program at UCLA, Co-Director of the UCLA Program in Preventative Cardiology, and director of the UCLA Fellowship Program in Cardiovascular Diseases. She is also a Principal Investigator for several large NIH studies, and serves on several NIH Steering committees. She is currently chair of the Clinical Chemistry and Clinical Toxicology Devices Panel of the Food and Drug Administration. Dr. Watson is past Vice President for the Association of Black Cardiologists (ABC); and immediate past chairperson of the scientific advisory board for Womenheart, – the largest national organization for women living with heart disease.

Dr. Watson’s more than 100 publications and presentations have addressed many subjects including prevention of heart disease, vascular calcification, hormone replacement therapy, the metabolic syndrome, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, and. cardiovascular disease in African Americans.