Executive Leadership & Expert Bios

Darwin R. Labarthe, MD, MPH, PhD, FAHA

Director, Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention, NCCDPHP

 

Darwin R. Labarthe, MD, MPH, PhD, FAHA, is Director of the Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention (DHDSP), National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. The Division works with funded states and partners, conducts public health research, develops resources, and evaluates programs to help advance prevention and early detection efforts throughout the nation.

Dr. Labarthe received his AB from Princeton University, his MD from Columbia University, and his MPH and PhD degrees in epidemiology from the University of California at Berkeley. From 1970 to 1999 he worked primarily in the School of Public Health at the University of Texas in Houston, where he was the James W. Rockwell Professor of Epidemiology, Preventive Medicine, and Public Health.

He joined CDC in 2000 where he led the development and implementation of the long-range public health strategic plan, A Public Health Action Plan to Prevent Heart Disease and Stroke. He is the Past Chair of the National Forum for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention and founding Director of DHDSP.

Dr. Labarthe′s research and teaching activities have primarily been in the area of cardiovascular epidemiology and prevention, with special interest in early development of risk factors in childhood and adolescence. At CDC, his work has turned to public health policy and practice in the prevention of heart disease, stroke, and other chronic diseases.

He has published more than 200 research articles and book chapters as well as the textbook, Epidemiology and Prevention of Cardiovascular Diseases: A Global Challenge. Dr. Labarthe has served in several key leadership roles with the American Heart Association over the past 40 years and just recently received the 2008 Charles C. Shepard Science Award for Assessment and Epidemiology.

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