Congratulations to Kimberly Howard-Quijano, MD, MS, FASE, on her appointment to the leadership position of Associate Vice Chair for Research in our department, effective April 1, 2022.
Dr. Howard-Quijano performed her medical training at the David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California, Los Angeles, completing her MD, anesthesiology residency, and subsequent clinical fellowships in congenital cardiac and pediatric anesthesiology and cardiothoracic anesthesiology, as well as an MS in clinical and translational research. She began her academic career at the UCLA Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, where she served in many research mentorship and leadership roles, including Co-Chief of the Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology Division and Director of Cardiovascular Research. Since joining our department here at the University of Pittsburgh in 2018, Dr. Howard-Quijano has served remarkably as the Director of Clinical and Translational Research, and Academic Chief of Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology Division.
Dr. Howard-Quijano has authored or coauthored nearly 100 scientific publications covering her significant contributions in cardiac anesthesiology, including her work on neuromodulation of ventricular arrhythmias, cardiac structure-function assessment using cutting edge imaging modalities, and nitric oxide and the pathogenesis of postoperative atrial fibrillation. She has a successful history of research funding from agencies such as the Foundation for Anesthesia Education and Research, the Society for Cardiovascular Anesthesiologists, the NIH National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, and the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities. She serves as the Assistant Editor for the journal Anesthesia & Analgesia and an inventor on the US patent application “Methods of Diagnosing Post-Operative Complications Using Serum Nitric Oxide Levels.”
In her current role as our Director of Clinical and Translational Research, Dr. Howard-Quijano has already made tremendous progress towards developing a robust research infrastructure for all our faculty and trainees, significantly contributing to the continuing growth of our research enterprise. In her new role as Associate Vice Chair for Research, she will work closely with Drs. Yan Xu and Senthil Sadhasivam to help further our research goals, coordinate various aspects of departmental and institutional research with the Chair’s office, and help with the administration, mentoring, and daily operational oversight of our major research themes.