Cardiovascular Disease

Chair: Caroline Doyle, PhD

Dr. Caroline Doyle is a T32 postdoctoral scholar in the T32 Cardiovascular Behavioral Medicine Research Training Program in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh. She received her PhD in Clinical Psychology (health emphasis) from the University of Arizona and completed her clinical internship in behavioral medicine at the Palo Alto VA. Dr. Doyle is interested in understanding how sleep impacts cardiovascular health and the role that the spectrum of stress responses, including PTSD, plays in this relationship. Clinically, her focus is on treating trauma-related sleep disturbances and sleep disorders in patients with medical or psychiatric comorbidities.
 

 

 

 

Co-Chair: Biswadeep Dhar, PhD

Dr. Biswadeep Dhar received his PhD in Human Development/Health Disparities from the University of Florida, and has worked in health promotion for chronic disease prevention research among low-income, vulnerable populations. He completed his postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Illinois Chicago, and is a research affiliate at the SAHARA group at the School of Global Public Health at New York University. Presently, he is serving as an Assistant Professor (tenure eligible) at the University of Maryland, Eastern Shore. His long-term goal is to promote health equity among low-income, racial/ethnic minority populations with an emphasis in designing community-engaged interventions in collaboration with the stakeholders that will account for multilevel factors linked to chronic disease comorbidities, by examining health awareness, attitudes and health behaviors relating to dietary components, and built environment.

 

 

Immediate Past-Chair: Casey Cavanagh, PhD

Dr. Casey E. Cavanagh is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. She is a licensed clinical psychologist and board certified in clinical health psychology through the American Board of Professional Psychology. She is also the co-director of the Behavioral Medicine Consultation-Liaison service at UVA. Her research focuses on patient-centered care and communication in cardiovascular disease, especially heart failure. Additional research interests include cardiovascular disease prevention and addressing health inequities in prevention.
 

 

 

 

Communications Director: Hailey Miller, PhD, RN

Dr. Hailey Miller is a registered nurse and Assistant Professor at Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. She is also faculty in the Recruitment Innovation Unit at the Johns Hopkins Institute for Clinical and Translational Research. Dr. Miller’s program of a research centers around addressing disparities in cardiovascular health and clinical trial participation through multilevel interventions, with a focus on using complementary digital and community-engaged approaches to promote healthy behavior, improve disease management, and effectively engage underrepresented populations in research. Her long-term goal is to advance cardiovascular health equity through improved engagement in clinical research and broad dissemination of evidence-based interventions.

 

 

 

Membership Director: Tyler Kuhn, PhD

Tyler Kuhn, PhD is a current clinical health psychology postdoctoral fellow at the University of Minnesota. He completed his PhD in Clinical Psychology at Kent State University and completed his clinical internship at the Edward Hines Jr. VAMC in Chicago IL. His clinical and research interests focus on the intersection of clinical psychology and cardiovascular health to improve cardiovascular disease education and support adaptive psychological recovery from cardiovascular emergency and trauma.

 

 

 

 

Annual Meeting Activity Coordinator: Katharine Sears Edwards, PhD

Katharine Sears Edwards, PhD is a licensed clinical psychologist and Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, at Stanford University. She received her PhD from the University of Houston and completed her behavioral medicine internship and fellowship at the Palo Alto VA Medical Center. She is a cognitive behavioral therapist trained in mindfulness-based interventions (e.g. ACT, MBSR) and board certified in biofeedback. Dr. Edwards started the Cardiac Behavioral Medicine service at Stanford, which provides evidence-based behavioral treatments to promote adjustment, recovery, medical adherence, and secondary prevention among cardiac outpatients. Her research centers on the health impact of individual CBT, group CBT, and peer support interventions, particularly among women.

 

 

 

Trainee Member: Abbey Collins

Abbey Collins is currently a doctoral candidate at North Carolina State University in the Department of Applied Social Psychology. She currently works in Dr. Vanessa Volpe’s Black Health Lab. Her research focuses on how stress from racism and racial discrimination affect cardiovascular disease risk in Black women, specifically examining hypertension as a notable risk factor. She is also interested in identifying protective factors that can mitigate the effect of stress on cardiovascular health in this population.

 

 

 

 

Description/Mission Statement

The Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) SIG is dedicated to advancing efforts to reduce the public health burden of CVD and promote behaviors that enhance cardiovascular health.

The SIG will focus on research and other efforts to improve CVD health and quality of life among those with, or at risk for, CVD (e.g., heart failure, coronary heart disease, stroke, peripheral artery disease). 

The scope of work supported includes, but is not limited to: 

• Primordial and primary prevention through the targeted lens of CVD mechanisms or risk reduction
• Theoretical topics and theoretical model development or evaluation
• Identifying and exploring behavioral and psychological mechanisms of CVD
• Developing, testing, and disseminating evidence-based behavioral interventions
• Reducing cardiovascular health disparities
• Implementation science for cardiovascular behavioral health interventions
• Improving mental health, quality of life, functional capacity, and reducing disability among individuals with CVD; and 
• Advocating for public education and public policies that promote cardiovascular behavioral health across the lifespan.

To achieve this mission, the CVD SIG seeks to:

1. Engage leading scientists and practitioners in the field of cardiovascular behavioral medicine through collaboration, discussion, and distribution of relevant resources
2. Engage with family doctors, primary care practitioners, cardiologists, other care providers, and collaborators from other organizations
3. Disseminate cardiovascular behavioral medicine research at the annual meeting, through SIG newsletters, the listserv, and public-facing channels
4. Provide support to successfully secure extramural funding, career development and advancement, and mentorship opportunities to the SIG membership; and 
5. Recognize CVD SIG members' outstanding contributions in the field of cardiovascular behavioral medicine.

Read "Why We Do We Need a CVD SIG" in the Fall 2021 issue of Outlook.

 

CVD SIG Special Forum - February 16, 2024

 

 

CVD SIG Publications

Intensive Behavioral Counseling in Cardiovascular Care: Opportunities to Improve Health Equity

 

CVD SIG Policy Briefs

Increase Funding and Access for Intensive Behavioral Counseling to Reduce Cardiovascular Disease-Related Health Inequities

 

CVD SIG Healthy Living Articles

How Heart Disease Affects Intimacy, Sexual Health, and Wellbeing

How Sleep Affects Mind, Body, and Heart Health

Improve Your Cardiovascular Health

How Stress Affects Your Heart

Does Mental Health Affect Heart Problems?

Women’s Heart Health Part 1: What to Know about Women and Heart Disease across the Lifespan

Women’s Heart Health Part 2: Keys to Preventing Heart Disease and Managing Heart Health for Women

Women’s Heart Health, Part 3: Tips for Talking to your Doctor

 

CVD SIG Newsletter

January 2023

October 2022

July 2022