Staff

Consultants

Dean Ornish - Founder & President Anne Ornish - VP Outreach & Program Development Colleen Kemp - VP Operations & Education Josephine Doig - Director of Operations & Finance Nita Chainani Wu - Senior Research Scientist Rajni Banthia - Senior Project Director Ivette S. Estay - Clinical Research Coordinator Melanie Elliott-Eller - Clinical Nurse Specialist Tandis Alizadeh - Project Coordinator Jessica E. Knies - Administrative Assistant

Susi Amendola Robert Avenson Stacey Dunn-Emke Joanne Frattaroli Steven Frenda Sarah Govil Michael Lee Lee Lipsenthal Ruth Marlin Jennifer McCrea Terri Merritt-Worden Kathy Ornish Claudia Pischke Gerdi Weidner

Dean Ornish, MD

Dean Ornish, M.D., is the founder and president of the non-profit Preventive Medicine Research Institute in Sausalito, California, where he holds the Safeway Chair. He is Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Ornish received his medical training in internal medicine from the Baylor College of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, and the Massachusetts General Hospital. He received a B.A. in Humanities summa cum laude from the University of Texas in Austin, where he gave the baccalaureate address.

For over 32 years, Dr. Ornish has directed clinical research demonstrating, for the first time, that comprehensive lifestyle changes may begin to reverse even severe coronary heart disease, without drugs or surgery. Recently, Medicare agreed to provide coverage for this program, the first time that Medicare has covered a program of comprehensive lifestyle changes. He directed the first randomized controlled trial demonstrating that comprehensive lifestyle changes may stop or reverse the progression of early-stage prostate cancer. His current research showed that comprehensive lifestyle changes affect gene expression, “turning on” disease-preventing genes and “turning off” genes that promote cancer and heart disease, as well as lengthening telomeres, the ends of chromosomes that control how long we live, in collaboration with Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2009.

He is the author of six best-selling books, including New York Times’ bestsellers Dr. Dean Ornish's Program for Reversing Heart Disease; Eat More, Weigh Less; Love & Survival; and his most recent book, The Spectrum.

The research that he and his colleagues conducted has been published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, The Lancet, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Circulation, The New England Journal of Medicine, the American Journal of Cardiology, and elsewhere.

A one-hour documentary of their work was broadcast on NOVA, the PBS science series, and was featured on Bill Moyers' PBS series, Healing & The Mind. Their work has been featured in all major media, including cover stories in Newsweek, Time, and U.S. News & World Report. He has written a monthly column for Newsweek and Reader’s Digest magazines and is Medical Editor of The Huffington Post, which has 22 million unique readers per month.

Dr. Ornish is a member of the boards of directors of the San Francisco Food Bank, the U.S. United Nations High Commission on Refugees, the J. Craig Venter Institute, and the advisory board of the Quincy Jones Foundation at the Harvard School of Public Health. He was appointed to the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy and elected to the California Academy of Medicine. He consults with food companies to make more healthful foods and to provide health education to their customers in this country and worldwide. He chairs the Google Health Advisory Council.

He has received several awards, including the 1994 Outstanding Young Alumnus Award from the University of Texas, Austin, the University of California, Berkeley, “National Public Health Hero” award, the Jan J. Kellermann Memorial Award for distinguished contribution in the field of cardiovascular disease prevention from the International Academy of Cardiology, a Presidential Citation from the American Psychological Association, the Beckmann Medal from the German Society for Prevention and Rehabilitation of Cardiovascular Diseases, the “Pioneer in Integrative Medicine” award from California Pacific Medical Center, the Golden Plate Award from the American Academy of Achievement, a U.S. Army Surgeon General Medal, and the Bravewell Collaborative Pioneer of Integrative Medicine award. Dr. Ornish has been a physician consultant to President Clinton since 1993 and to several bipartisan members of the U.S. Congress, and he consulted with the chefs at The White House, Camp David, and Air Force One to cook more healthfully (1993-2000). He is listed in Who’s Who in Healthcare and Medicine, Who’s Who in America, and Who’s Who in the World. He recently gave a keynote speech reviewing the science of integrative medicine at the Institute of Medicine’s Summit on Integrative Medicine at the National Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Ornish was recognized as “one of the most interesting people of 1996” by People magazine, selected as one of the “TIME 100” in integrative medicine, chosen by LIFE magazine as “one of the fifty most influential members of his generation” and by Forbes magazine as “one of the seven most powerful teachers in the world.”

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Anne Ornish, BA, IAYT

Anne Ornish is Vice President of the non-profit Preventive Medicine Research Institute where she directs Outreach and Program Development.

She is a certified Integrative Health and Spirituality practitioner through the California Pacific Medical Center's Institute for Health and Healing's hospital training program. She has also received professional training Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction in Mind-Body Medicine with Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn of the University of Massachusetts Stress Reduction Clinic. She completed the Academy for Interactive Guided Imagery's two-year certification program.

After receiving her post-graduate degree in web production, she produced the online platforms for the Ornish Program at WebMD from 1998-2006.

Anne passionately embarked on the path of yoga in 1993. Her years as an avid yoga practitioner and therapist have trained her in the various stress management techniques integral to Dean Ornish, MD's landmark program of comprehensive changes in diet and lifestyle, such as therapeutic stretching, meditation, guided imagery and breath awareness. Her purpose for teaching yoga as stress management is to heighten overall awareness in ways that can transform how one relates and responds to stress into more skillful, sustainable and joyous ways of being.

Website: http://www.anneornish.com

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Colleen Kemp, RN, MSN

Colleen Kemp is the VP of Operations and Education. She has been a practicing registered nurse since 1980. In 2002 she graduated from Dominican University of California with a Masters in Nursing, and certification as a Clinical Nurse Specialist in Integrative Health. She is nationally board certified as a Holistic Nurse. Her hospital experience includes working in the Intensive Care and the Post Anesthesia Care Units. She worked as a Clinic Nurse at PacifiCare Wellness where she performed screening health exams and educated individuals on lifestyle modification. She has produced a series of lecture events and home study programs with a focus on Integrative health care choices. She holds an adjunct faculty position in the Nursing Department at Dominican University. She joined PMRI in 2002 and has served in a variety of roles, including Director of Operations. She currently serves as Project Director for the Gene Expression Modulation in Nutrition and Lifestyle (GEMINAL) study.

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Josephine Doig

Josephine Doig is the Director of Operations and Finance for the Preventive Medicine Research Institute.

For the past 10 years, she has been consulting for a variety of organizations in the Accounting, Project Management, Organizational and Creative Direction fields. Prior to that she has had an extensive background in Interactive Media as a Producer managing budgets, teams and schedules for high level projects in the Business, Health and Wellness and Entertainment industries.

She has studied mindfulness for the past 12 years and has a deep commitment to bringing more consciousness to all aspects of her life. Her main teachers have included Jack Kornfield and Lama Tsultrim Allione.

She is dedicated to community service, volunteering for a number of non-profit organizations in the Bay Area. She balances her work life with a rich creative life as a Transformational Artist, Dancer, Poet and Vocalist.

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Nita Chainani-Wu, DMD, MS, PhD

Nita Chainani-Wu received her DMD from the University of Pennsylvania in 1996. She then completed her specialty training in Oral Medicine (2000) and a Master's in Science in Oral Biology (2001) from the University of California, San Francisco. She received her PhD in Epidemiology from the School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley in 2005. She has been on the faculty at the University of California, San Francisco since 2001 and has been in private practice in oral medicine in Sunnyvale since 2000. She has published on the role of diet in oral, pharyngeal and esophageal cancers, oral lichen planus, the association of oral lichen planus and hepatitis C virus, integrin expression in hairy leukoplakia, safety and anti-inflammatory activity of curcuminoids and their use in oral lichen planus, sialogogue use in xerostomia, and validation of instruments for measurement of signs and symptoms of oral lichen planus. Her current research interests include the role of diet and lifestyle factors in oral and systemic diseases. Dr Chainani-Wu joined PMRI in 2008 and currently serves as Staff Research Associate.

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Rajni Banthia, PhD

Rajni Banthia is Senior Project Director at PMRI. Prior to joining the team at PMRI, she was a Health Policy Associate at PolicyLink, a nonprofit research and advocacy organization, promoting policies that reduce health disparities in low income communities of color by increasing access to healthy foods and promoting opportunities for physical activity. Banthia earned a BA in psychology from the University of California, Berkeley with a minor in South Asian Studies, and a PhD in behavioral medicine from the University of California San Diego/San Diego State University joint doctoral program in clinical psychology. She completed her clinical internship at the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System and her postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco with funding from the W.K. Kellogg Scholars in Health Disparities program.

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Ivette S. Estay, PhD

Ivette S. Estay completed her PhD in Cancer Biology from the Stanford School of Medicine in 2009. In her dissertation work “Ubiquitin ligase regulation of Gli transcription factors”, Ivette, characterized cellular mechanisms that regulate the stability of Gli proteins. Gli proteins are the primary mediators of the Sonic Hedgehog (Shh) signaling pathway, a key developmental pathway that is aberrantly upregulated in basal cell carcinomas, the most common type of skin cancer. In addition to her thesis work at Stanford, Ivette has research experience in plant physiology, microbiology, and cardiovascular biology from a variety of institutions, California State University, Northridge, Harvard, and Agilent Technologies. Outside of the lab, she served the Stanford University community as a coordinator of the Cancer Biology High School Summer Program (2005-2008), Graduate Student Council Publicity Coordinator, Assistant Elections Commissioner for Graduate Elections, and Co-founder and Vice President of the Biomedical Association for the Interest of Minority Students. For fun, she enjoys entertaining friends, salsa dancing, hiking, art museums, and learning about other cultures. Ivette joined PMRI in 2009 and currently serves as Clinical Research Coordinator.

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Melanie Elliott-Eller, RN, MSN

Melanie Elliott-Eller joined the PMRI clinical research team in 1991 as a cardiovascular clinical nurse specialist. She brings to the team a broad cardiovascular experience in the areas of nursing research, case management, cardiac critical care, cardiac rehabilitation, cardiovascular home health and hospice care, cardiovascular community wellness, integrative health, nursing education and quality assurance/performance improvement.

A cardiopulmonary Clinical Nurse Specialist by training, Melanie C. Elliott-Eller RN MSN CHTP is currently a research consultant for PMRI. She was the past Director of Site Operations and Nursing Services and National Site Consultant at the Preventive Medicine Research Institute and Lifestyle Advantage, LLC from 1993 to 2002. Responsibilities included the provision of quality monitoring processes for national sites operationalizing the Ornish Reversal Program; operational supervision as National Site Consultant for 11 sites; founder and director of nursing case management for the Ornish Reversal Program; clinical protocol development, implementation and monitoring according to professional and JCAHO standards; staff training and development; educational and operational material development; clinical nursing supervision of residential retreats; Project Director and co-investigator for the Beverage Studies I & II 2002 to 2005; co-investigator of Multicenter Lifestyle Modification Program Demonstration from 1993 through 1998; and was the Liaison for the Medicare Lifestyle Modification Program Demonstration from 1997 to 2002.

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Tandis Alizadeh, BA

Tandis earned a bachelor's degree in Political Science from UC Davis. She comes to PMRI from the financial and software industries. Tandis currently serves as Project Coordinator at the Preventive Medicine Research Institute.

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Jessica E. Knies, BA

Jessica currently serves as a part-time Administrative Assistant for the Institute while pursuing her certification to become a Master Pilates Instructor. Since graduating from the University of San Diego in 2004, Jessica has worked in the sales and member relations function within the health and wellness industry as well as recruiting for a boutique agency focusing on administrative professionals. Outside of work, Jessica enjoys hiking on Mt. Tam, entertaining friends, dance, yoga, pilates and nutrition.

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Susi Amendola

From 1978-82, Susi lived as a resident of the Himalayan Institute where she attended classes in Hatha and Raja Yoga, Meditation, Yoga Philosophy, Ayurveda and numerous other health related topics. During her stay at the Institute she also taught Yogic cooking and managed the Vegetarian Kitchen . Upon moving to Omaha in 1982, she studied Iyengar-style yoga under the direction of Margo Pope. She has attended numerous yoga workshops around the country, studying a variety of styles, including: Flow, Asthanga, Restorative, and Iyengar yoga.

In 1984, she founded the Omaha Yoga & Bodywork Center, where she currently directs programs, and teaches classes. She has also developed a 200 teacher training program (registered with Yoga Alliance) as a way to support teachers and students in furthering their experiences in yoga.

In 1993-2004, she taught yoga as Stress Management through Immanuel Hospital's Heart Institute in Dr. Dean Ornish's program for reversing heart disease without drugs or surgery and currently serves as the National Director of Stress Management for the Ornish program hospital sites. She has developed yoga based Stress Management programs for schools, businesses and hospitals. She also teaches Yoga for credit at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. She continues to teach, study, practice, lecture and travel. Susi's new CD "Embrace the Heart of Yoga" is used in hospitals and schools across the country and is available on her website at www.doyoganow.com. Susi currently provides consulting services to PMRI.

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Robert Avenson, PhD

Dr. Avenson is a licensed clinical psychologist in private practice in Albany, CA. He has been a facilitator for hundreds of Ornish groups since 1994. From 1999 through 2002 he served as the National Director of Psychological Services on the PMRI team that trained hospital staff to implement the Ornish Program. He has continued in this role from 2002 to the present for Highmark Blue Cross of Pennsylvania. He was the psychologist and group support facilitator for the two prostate cancer research studies run by PMRI and UCSF: The Prostate Cancer Lifestyle Trial, and The Gene Expression Modulation by Intervention Through Nutrition and Lifestyle Study. In addition to running groups, he presented lectures and demonstrations regarding the effects of the mind, emotions and social support on the body.

Bob is certified in Biofeedback. He is a Past President, Board Member Emeritus, and lecturer for The Norther California Society of Clinical Hypnosis. He has lectured at the University of California, Berkeley. He has served as a professor on the faculty of Alliant University, The California School of Professional Psychology where he taught the Advanced Clinical Seminar and Cognitive Behavioral Psychology. Bob is also currently working with Hills Physicians Medical Group to design and implement a chronic pain management program to train medical doctors, psychologists, and other health care practitioners to work in integrated wellness-oriented teams to address the spectrum of problems that confront patients with chronic pain. Robert currently provides consulting services to PMRI.

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Stacey Dunn-Emke, MS, RD

Stacey is a Registered Dietitian with a Master's degree in Nutrition Science. Prior to joining PMRI in 1999, she was a nutrition educator, clinical dietitian, and clinical nutrition manager at several medical centers in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1991. Stacey frequently speaks on the topics of nutrition, diet and lifestyle. She has been invited to speak at Harvard Medical School, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Emory University, University of CA, San Francisco, the California Dietetic Association and the American Dietetic Association. She has appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show and MSNBC TV. She has been featured in Weight Watchers magazine and Natural Health Magazine. Stacey has been active in professional associations by serving as the Bay Area Dietetic Association President and was awarded Outstanding Dietitian by the Bay Area Dietetic Association, Outstanding Dietitian of the Year by ARAMARK, Healthcare Support Services, and Recognized Young Dietitian of the Year by the California Dietetic Association. Stacey currently consults with the PMRI research team from her home in San Francisco, CA.

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Joanne Frattaroli, PhD

Dr Frattaroli joined PMRI as a post-doctoral scholar in April of 2006. She is currently a Lecturer (PSOE) in the Department of Psychology and Social Behavior at UC Irvine. She earned her doctoral degree in Social-Personality Psychology from the University of California, Riverside in June of 2005. Her dissertation focused on experimental disclosure and its moderators. She graduated from Northeastern University in 1997 with a bachelor's degree in Psychology, earning the Psychology Faculty Award, Golden key National Honors Society, and Choral Society Organizational Leadership Award. At PMRI, Joanne focuses on the collection and analysis of survey and archival data concerning the effects of the Ornish Lifestyle Program on prostate cancer patients. Specifically, she analyzes the long-term clinical outcomes of the Prostate Cancer Lifestyle Trial. She is also studying the effects of lifestyle on angina symptoms in men and women with mild or limiting angina in the Multicenter Lifestyle Intervention Project.

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Steven Frenda, BA

Steven Frenda joined PMRI as a Research Assistant after obtaining a Bachelors Degree in Psychology from The New School University in New York City. He served as data manager from 2006-2008 investigating health services outcomes and emerging cardiovascular disease biomarkers. He currently serves as data management consultant while pursuing his PhD in psychology at University of California, Irvine, studying memory.

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Sarah Govil, MPH

Sarah graduated with a bachelor's degree in Biology from Carnegie Mellon University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 2000. Before coming to PMRI, she was a research assistant at the Romberg Tiburon Center at San Francisco State University, investigating the potential influences of riverine and aeolian inputs on presence and nutrient uptake rates of phytoplankton and marine viruses. She joined PMRI in June of 2006 as a research intern while completing her Masters thesis in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at Yale University. Her public health Master's research examined health behavior changes in coronary heart disease patients with low socioeconomic status at PMRI under the supervision of Dr. Weidner. Her research interests include the effects of lifestyle change on risk factors and quality of life in secondary prevention of chronic diseases, especially cardiovascular diseases and cancers. She also has a strong interest in the role of socioeconomic status in the etiology, treatment, and prognosis of chronic disease. She currently contributes to the work at PMRI, examining clinical guidelines as they relate to diabetes and gender in the Multisite Cardiac Lifestyle Intervention Program, while she is enrolled in the Nurse Practitioner program at the School of Nursing at Yale University.

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Michael Lee, BS

Michael graduated with a bachelor's degree in Physiology from UC Davis in 2003. After finishing research in cardiology, investigating the effects of the estrogen receptor alpha and its role in mediating heart disease, he moved to New York City in late 2003. There, he began work with a team at Columbia/Presbyterian hospital, supporting a clinical study in Acute Liver Failure at the Center for Liver Disease and Transplantation. Moving back to the San Francisco Bay Area, he began work in his own creative company - www.focus97.com - and also began research in a basic science lab at UCSF in the Dept. of Anesthesia, investigating anesthesia's effects on neurogenesis. Michael co-authored four papers with this lab before moving to a clinical studies lab at UCSF investigating and testing the accucary of pulse-oximeters capable of non-invasively detecting the presence of methemoglobin. While much of Michael's interests rest in medicine, his company has branded and built contemporary websites for industries across the country, ranging from medical, non-profit, financial, fashion, art, legal, and educational. Michael's principal contributions to PMRI are focused on web development.

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Lee Lipsenthal, MD, ABIHM

Lee Lipsenthal is an internist with postgraduate training in cholesterol disorders and served as the Medical Director of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute for ten years. His research area is heart disease prevention. Dr. Lipsenthal consults with major medical centers, health research organizations, and corporations on health and wellness. He also teaches workshops and faculty, world-wide in the area of health care provider health, working with major organizations such as Kaiser-Permanente, Cleveland Clinic as well as many large universities, hospitals and medical groups (www.FindingBalancePrograms.com). He has served as the President of the American Board of Holistic Medicine and serves on the Board of Directors for the Institute of Noetic Sciences and HeartMath. Dr. Lipsenthal also serves on the American Medical Association's "Physician Wellness Committee". Lee currently provides consulting services to PMRI.

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Ruth Marlin, MD

Ruth Marlin is a board certified internist with training at the University of Tennessee, the Mayo Clinic and the University of British Columbia. She worked in private practice for many years, with a strong emphasis on prevention and patient education and has given numerous lectures on lifestyle factors in heart disease, diabetes and prostate cancer. For 15 years, she worked with Dr. Dean Ornish at the Preventive Medicine Research Institute as a lifestyle retreat physician; as the Medical Director of the Prostate Cancer Lifestyle and Geminal Trials in collaboration with the University of California and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center; and as the Director of Medical Education. Dr. Marlin is presently the Associate Director of the Northern California Melanoma Center at St. Mary's Medical Center in San Francisco where she also offers Integrative Medicine consultations. She is a diplomat of the American Board of Holistic Medicine and a member of the American College of Physicians and the Society for Integrative Oncology. Dr Marlin continues to provide consulting services with PMRI.

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Jennifer McCrea, MA

Jennifer McCrea is the founder and president of Sarvada Consulting, a firm she formed to guide high net worth individuals and visionary leaders to rigorously and creatively leverage their philanthropic endeavors. Some of her current clients include the Quincy Jones Foundation, Millennium Promise, Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University and Harvard School of Public Health. Previously, Jennifer spent 16 years as an academic fundraiser at Case Western Reserve University, Washington University in St. Louis and, most recently, at Dickinson College, where she served as Vice President for Development. She earned a B.A. from Allegheny College and a Master's degree in Nonprofit Management from Case Western Reserve University. From 2004-2009 she served as Executive Vice President of External Relations at PMRI. She currently provides consulting services to PMRI.

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Terri Merritt-Worden, MS, CES, FAACVPR

Terri received her BS in physical education at the State University of New York at Buffalo and her MS in exercise science at the University of Arizona. She has been actively involved in cardiac rehabilitation and intensive lifestyle modification research for over two decades and is most well known for her work with Dean Ornish, MD and the development of hospital based intensive lifestyle modification programs. Terri is a member of American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), and has served on the Board of Director's of the American Heart Association- San Francisco Division, the California Society of Cardiac Rehabilitation (CSCR) and AACVPR. She is also an American College of Sports Medicine Certified Exercise Specialist, a certified Integral Yoga Institute instructor and a fellow of the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation. In 2002 she received the AACVPR Distinguished Service Award and completed the Cardiovascular Health Fellowship with the Health Forum/American Hospital Association. In 2008 she accepted a position as Director of Health Management with the Wellspring Medical Center, part of the Silverton Hospital Network in Silverton, Oregon. She currently consults with PMRI from her home in Oregon.

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Kathy Ornish, BS, MFA, CYT

Kathy Ornish, sister to Dean, currently lives in Lansing, Michigan, is a practicing certified yoga therapist and teacher, and a member of the International Association of Yoga Therapists. She completed the 500 hour Yoga Therapy Program and the 500 hour Advanced Teacher Training Program through Gary Kraftsow's American Viniyoga Institute (A.V.I.). Viniyoga evolved out of the teachings transmitted by T. Krishnamacharya and T.K.V. Desikachar of Madras, India. Formerly, she was a Professor of sculpture and ceramics for ten years.

Her primary emphasis is on teaching the breadth of the yoga tradition with the appropriate application of the many tools of yoga (physical postures, breathing, relaxation, meditation, lifestyle, chanting, and visualization). These tools are adapted to fit the need and unique condition of the individual, thereby assisting movement toward wellness at all levels (physically, emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually). Kathy hopes she can help people realize their highest potential and is honored to help them get a glimpse into the best that they already are (www.kathyornish.com ). Kathy currently provides consulting services to PMRI.

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Claudia Pischke, PhD

Dr Pischke joined PMRI in 2005 as a pre-doctoral research scholar where she conducted her dissertation research. She graduated in Psychology from Philipps University of Marburg, Germany, in 1999 and was trained as a Health Psychologist at the Free University Berlin, Germany, where she received her Master's degree in Health Psychology in 2003. She also performed part of her master's level research on health behavior changes in coronary heart disease (CHD) patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) at PMRI under the supervision of Drs. Weidner and Schwarzer. Before coming to PMRI, she was a research assistant at the Department of Health Psychology at the Free University Berlin, investigating the effects of cognitive processes and depression on health behavior change in patients with CHD. She also completed an internship in the Department of Social Psychology of the University of California, Santa Cruz with Dr. Faye Crosby. Her research interests include the effects of lifestyle change on risk factors and quality of life in secondary prevention of diabetes, coronary heart disease, and heart failure. She also has a strong interest in the role of gender and sex differences in the etiology and prognosis of chronic disease. In July of 2008 Dr Pischke accepted a position as Post Doctoral Scholar at the School of Public Health at Harvard University. She currently contributes to PMRI, examining the effects of comprehensive lifestyle changes in relation to depression and coronary risk factors in men and women with elevated coronary risk factors.

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Gerdi Weidner, PhD

Dr. Weidner joined PMRI in 2001 from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, where she was Professor of Psychology and Preventive Medicine (from 1984-2001). As Vice President and Director of Research at PMRI, she directed the research programs on cardiovascular disease and prostate cancer until May 2009, when she returned to an academic position in the Biology Department at San Francisco State University. She also conducts research at the Johannes Gutenberg-University in Mainz, Germany, where she was awarded an Alexander von Humboldt Research Prize and a Mercator Professorship from the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft). She continues her affiliation with PMRI as a consultant.

Dr. Weidner’s research examines the role of stress, environment and gender in the etiology and treatment of chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus, and cancer. She collaborates with investigators from a variety of disciplines (e.g., psychology, medicine, public health, epidemiology). Her research has been funded by NIH, the American Heart Association, DAAD, NATO, the German Research Foundation, and Eurotransplant.

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