Michelle A. Albert, MD, MPH, FACC, FAHA

Dr. Michelle Albert is immediate-past president of the American Heart Association (AHA) for 2023-24. She also serves as vice chairperson of the Association’s Governance Committee, as well as chairperson of the Manuscript Oversight Committee and Awards Subcommittee for 2023-24. She is a past chairperson of the Association’s Science Advisory & Coordinating Committee.

Dr. Albert is the Walter A. Haas-Lucie Stern Endowed Chair in Cardiology and Professor in Medicine at the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF), Admissions Dean for UCSF Medical School and Director of the CeNter for the StUdy of AdveRsiTy and CardiovascUlaR DiseasE (NURTURE Center). Dr. Albert is a graduate of Haverford College, the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Harvard School of Public Health. She completed Internal Medicine Residency and was a Chief Medical Resident at Columbia University Medical Center in New York. Dr. Albert then completed Cardiovascular Clinical and Research Fellowship at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, where she rose in the ranks to an Associate Professor in Medicine. She was previously the Vivian Beaumont Allen Endowed Professor/Chair and Chief of Cardiology at Howard University.

Dr. Albert’s clinical expertise involves both taking care of the most critically ill heart disease patients and preventive cardiology at UCSF. As a physician-scientist-epidemiologist, Dr. Albert is engaged in cutting-edge research that innovatively seeks to incorporate “biology” with social determinants of health to transform CVD science and healthcare of global populations, i.e “the biology of adversity”. Her research has followed a bold, non-traditional path for cardiovascular disease research. A central component of her current work focuses on developing innovative implementation strategies to curb adversity related CVD risk, particularly in women and racial/ethnic minorities with a focus on health disparities and cumulative toxic stress. She is recipient of multiple research awards including NIH R01 funding, as well as funding from RWJ (Harold Amos Scholar), Kellogg and Doris Duke Foundations.

Dr. Albert is a recipient of the American Heart Association (AHA) COVID-19 Rapid Track Grant. She is one of two recipients nationally of the prestigious 2018 AHA Merit award for visionary research and is the first woman and under-represented in medicine person to receive this award. Dr. Albert also received the AHA Population Science Award in 2020 and the Distinguished National Leadership Award in 2023.

Dr. Albert is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and the American Society of Clinical Investigation (ASCI). She also serves as a member of the federal Advisory Committee to the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (ACD), NHLBI Board of External Experts (BEE), 2019 ACC/AHA Cardiovascular Prevention Guidelines committee and was as a standing committee member of NIH study section - Mechanisms, Emotion, Sleep & Health (MESH).

She is a past president of the Association of Black Cardiologists, Inc, and the 60th President of the Association of University Cardiologists. Dr. Albert has also served/serves on multiple national AHA and American College of Cardiology (ACC) committees as well as currently on the Sarnoff Medical Research Foundation Board of Directors.

Dr. Albert is a member of the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) Your Health Advisory Board and the Health/Cardiovascular Advisory Board for Women’s Day Magazine. Her research has been featured on national and international media outlets such as the BBC, Canada Broadcasting Corporation, TIME, CNN, Today Show, CBS, Associated Press, NPR, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle and Washington Post. She is a sought-after interviewee/speaker on multiple news outlets including TV, digital and print media about especially about topics pertaining to research, cardiovascular health, maternal health and health equity.

Dr. Albert enjoys mentoring trainees at all levels across the United States. She was a nominee/finalist for the competitive 2011-2012 Excellence in Mentoring Award at Harvard Medical School and the recipient of the Women in Cardiology Mentoring Award from the AHA (2016). She received the ACC Heart of Women’s Health Credo Award (2012), Woman’s Day Magazine’s Red Dress Award (2014), the 2018 Daniel D. Savage Science Award (ABC’s highest honor) and the Haverford College Alumni Award (2015) -- given to an alumnus whose “work typifies the values of the college and is of outstanding service to humanity”.