Viola Vaccarino MD, PhD

Viola Vaccarino, M.D., Ph.D., is the Wilton Looney Chair of Cardiovascular Research and Professor and Chair of the Department of Epidemiology at the Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University. She holds a joint appointment at the Emory School of Medicine, Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiology. Dr. Vaccarino received an M.D. from the University of Milan, Italy, and a Ph.D. in Epidemiology from Yale University. Between 1995 and 2000 she was on the faculty at the Yale School of Public Health. In 2000, she joined the Emory faculty in the school of Medicine, Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiology, and in March 2010 was appointed the Rollins Professor and Chair of the Department of Epidemiology at the Rollins School of Public Health. Dr. Vaccarino research interests lay in cardiovascular epidemiology and prevention, in particular the study of social and behavioral determinants of cardiovascular disease and women’s health. A focus of her research program is the role of emotional factors, in particular depression and psychological stress, on cardiovascular risk and the interplay between psychological and biological factors on cardiovascular disease. Dr. Vaccarino has published over 250 research publications in peer-reviewed journals and has an extensive record of research funding from the National Institutes of Health. She is Fellow of the American Heart Association, elected member of the American Epidemiological Society, Established Investigator awardee from the American Heart Association, and serves in many professional organizations and committees at the national and international level.