CMHC is pleased to announce the continuation of the George L. Bakris Scholarship Program, established in honor Dr. George L. Bakris, who was a strong supporter of education in cardiorenal metabolic medicine.
We congratulate all five recipients of the 2025 George L. Bakris Scholarship!
The 2025 Scholarship program is supported in part by a donation from Amgen, and in partnership with the American Society for Preventive Cardiology (ASPC).
Azuka Amaka Ngige, MBBS, MPH
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
Amaka is a postdoctoral research fellow within the Division of Cardiology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and an emerging physician-scientist. Supported by an independent American Heart Association grant, she works within hypertension clinical trials and focuses on the impact of nutrition on cardiovascular disease as well as the generalizability of cardiovascular trial findings. Her interests include cardiovascular risk prediction, lipid management, and women’s cardiovascular health, among others. She earned an MPH with a concentration in Epidemiologic Methods from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where she focused on the effect of macronutrient composition on cardiovascular disease risk. As a 2025 George L. Bakris Scholarship recipient, Amaka is committed to advancing evidence-based strategies for the management of cardiometabolic diseases and reduction of cardiometabolic risk. She aspires to a career as an academic cardiologist and clinical trialist.
What are you most excited about for the upcoming 20th Annual Meeting?
I am most excited to engage with the expert panels on challenging cardiometabolic cases. Hearing diverse clinician perspectives and individualized strategies will be fascinating. Also, I am excited about the incredible opportunity the George Bakris Scholarship is affording me, to meet and interact with CMHC faculty who are leading experts in the field I am eager to join. Lastly, I look forward to the cross-disciplinary community that will be present at the meeting, collaborating and breaking down silos in cardiometabolic disease prevention and care.
Carla P. Rodriguez, MD
Internal Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital
Carla is a PGY-3 internal medicine resident at Brigham and Women’s Hospital interested in preventive cardiology. Carla aims to bridge the gap between broad guideline algorithms and precision lipid management. At the TIMI Study Group, she investigates novel lipid-lowering therapies, including ANGPTL3 inhibition and ApoB as potential therapeutic targets. Previously, at the Ciccarone Center, she explored sex-specific risk factors contributing to cardiovascular disease.
Carla earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Miami and her medical degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. She is dedicated to advancing precision prevention strategies that can improve long-term cardiovascular outcomes across diverse populations.
What are you most excited about for the upcoming 20th Annual Meeting?
I am excited to learn from prominent leaders in CardioMetabolic Health and gain insights that will help improve care for my current and future patients. I look forward to connecting with individuals that share similar interests of preventing cardiovascular disease and using research as a tool to foster collaboration and advance patient care.
Melis Sahinoz, MD
Cardiology Fellow at Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Dr. Melis Sahinoz is a Cardiology Fellow at Vanderbilt University Medical Center with a strong interest in preventive cardiology. Born and raised in Turkey, she completed medical school at Hacettepe University. To gain deeper experience in clinical and translational research in cardiometabolic health, she completed a postdoctoral research fellowship at Vanderbilt focused on hypertension, immune activation, and sodium metabolism. She then completed her internal medicine residency at Vanderbilt and is currently in her second year of cardiology fellowship. Her current work involves wearable-based cardiometabolic risk prediction in collaboration with Google. Dr. Sahinoz has published in multiple peer-reviewed journals, presented at national conferences, and received awards from the National Lipid Association and the American Society for Preventive Cardiology. After fellowship, she aspires to pursue a career in preventive cardiology. She is thrilled to be one of the George L. Bakris Fellowship recipients this year.
What are you most excited about for the upcoming 20th Annual Meeting?
I’m most excited to learn from leaders in cardiometabolic health, explore emerging strategies in prevention, and connect with peers and mentors who share a passion for advancing evidence-based care. The opportunity to engage in cutting-edge discussions that bridge research and real-world practice will be invaluable as I shape my future career in preventive cardiology.
Shan S. Parikh, MD, PhD
ABIM Physician-Scientist Fellow in Cardiovascular Disease
Yale New Haven Health
Dr. Parikh is a Physician-Scientist specializing in cardiovascular diseases. He obtained both his MD and PhD from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, where he utilized both murine models and human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes to study contractile dysfunction and arrhythmogenesis. Following this, he completed his internal medicine residency and cardiology fellowship at Yale University. Driven by his clinical interests in lipidology and cardiovascular disease associated with metabolic syndrome, Dr. Parikh pursued post-doctoral training to investigate the role of insulin resistance in cardiomyopathy.
What are you most excited about for the upcoming 20th Annual Meeting?
I look forward to networking with thought leaders in cardiometabolic health and gaining insights into the future of the field. I hope these experiences will provide both practical knowledge and invaluable opportunities to enhance my professional connections in this rapidly growing area.
Yara Jelwan, MD, MPH
Cardiometabolic Fellow
Johns Hopkins Ciccarone Center for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease
Baltimore, MD
Dr. Yara Jelwan is a Cardiometabolic and Preventive Cardiology Fellow at the Johns Hopkins Ciccarone Center, supported by the American Society for Preventive Cardiology. She graduated with an MD from the Lebanese American University, a Masters in Public Health from Université Paris Saclay and trained in internal medicine at St Luke’s Hospital in Missouri. Her work focuses on the intersection of coronary imaging, obesity phenotypes, and cardio-kidney-metabolic health. Dr. Jelwan leads research investigating national prescribing trends of cardiometabolic therapies and the evolving role of coronary artery calcium in risk stratification. Passionate about cardiometabolic health, she aims to bridge preventive cardiology and primary care through education and mentorship.
What are you most excited about for the upcoming 20th Annual Meeting?
I’m most excited to connect with leaders and innovators driving the future of cardiometabolic care, and to engage in discussions that bridge clinical prevention, imaging, and implementation science. CMHC’s multidisciplinary platform offers a unique opportunity to exchange ideas that can shape how we as trainees, approach cardio-kidney-metabolic health on both population and patient levels.
Past Scholarship Recipients:
