Nehal N. Mehta, MD, MSCE
Photo: Nehal N. Mehta
Elected 2018

Dr. Mehta is a Professor of Medicine and Dermatology at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences and an adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Pennsylvania. He is an expert in inflammation, general cardiology, lipidology, and cardiovascular imaging. Dr. Mehta’s initial work demonstrated dysfunctional HDL in the chronic inflammatory skin disease psoriasis. He was recruited to the National Institutes of Health as the Inaugural recipient of the Lasker Clinical Scholar Award where he served as the Founding Chief of the Section Inflammation and Cardiometabolic Diseases at the NHLBI. He was Director of Cardiovascular Imaging at the NHLBI, and the founding Director and Principal Investigator of the largest cohort study studying psoriasis and cardiometabolic diseases. During that time, he also completed several randomized trials in humans on the impact of biologic therapy on vascular diseases. In 2018, he was awarded an NIH Director's Award for demonstrating that high-risk coronary plaque in humans was improved following treatment of their inflammatory disease opening up a new path to mitigating risk in populations with chronic inflammation. Dr. Mehta has chaired multiple working groups and guideline groups to establish a standard of care for cardiovascular risk reduction in patients with chronic inflammation. Dr. Mehta has received two lifetime achievement awards for his work in cardiovascular risk reduction in inflammation in 2020 (International Federation of Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis) and 2023 (National Psoriasis Foundation). He serves as a board member of the American Society of Preventive Cardiology, and is active within the National Psoriasis Foundation, American Heart Association and American College of Physicians as a fellow and an active educator. Dr. Mehta attended an accelerated 7-year biomedical program at George Washington University, where he received his bachelor’s degree with honors and medical degree with distinction. He also earned a master’s degree in clinical epidemiology from the University of Pennsylvania. Dr Mehta completed his internship, residency, and chief medical residency in internal medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, followed by a fellowship in cardiovascular diseases, nuclear cardiology, preventive cardiology and lipidology.