Viola Vaccarino

Dr. Vaccarino is the Wilton Looney Distinguished Professor and Endowed Chair in Cardiovascular Research. She received her MD degree from the University of Milan, Italy, and her PhD degree in epidemiology from Yale University. She was a faculty member at the School of Public Health of Yale University before joining Emory University in 2000, and the Rollins School of Public Health in 2010, where she served as Chair of the Department of Epidemiology until 2018.  

Dr. Vaccarino research interests lay in cardiovascular epidemiology and prevention with emphasis on social and behavioral determinants of cardiovascular disease, cardiovascular health inequalities and women’s health. A focus of her research is mind-body relationships centering on the role of psychological stress and mental health factors on cardiovascular risk, and the interplay between psychological and biological factors on cardiovascular disease. She is highly engaged in the training and mentoring of the next generation of investigators working in these areas and is the program director of the T32 Multidisciplinary Research Training to Reduce Inequalities in Cardiovascular Health (METRIC).