Dr. Michelle A. Albert, MD MPH is a Professor in Medicine at the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) and director of the CeNter for the StUdy of AdveRsiTy and CardiovascUlaR DiseasE (NURTURE Center). Dr. Albert is a graduate of Haverford College with a B.S in Chemistry, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Harvard School of Public Health. She completed Internal Medicine Residency and Chief Residency in Medicine 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 and was mentored by Dr. Paul M Ridker in his laboratory. As a physician-scientist-epidemiologist, Dr. Albert’s research 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”. Thus, this research has followed a non-traditional, but bold path for cardiovascular disease (CVD) research -- 1) first characterizing the predictive capability of novel inflammatory and thrombotic biomarkers of CVD population risk; 2) to identifying how noted relationships vary by important social and demographic characteristics; and 3) to currently defining intersecting mechanisms of CVD risk across the life-course. The latter work focuses on developing innovative implementation strategies to curb adversity related CVD risk particularly in children, women and racial/ethnic minorities. This work requires extensive collaborations across different disciplines (e.g psychology, cardiology, neurobiology, sociology, molecular biomarker research, interventional science and community based participatory research). Dr. Albert also maintains an active clinical practice. Her clinical expertise involves taking care of the most critically ill advanced heart disease patients and preventive cardiology.