Suzanne Oparil, MD is Distinguished Professor of Medicine, Professor of Cell, Developmental and Integrative Biology, Director of the Vascular Biology and Hypertension Program and inaugural holder of the United Therapeutics Endowed Professorship in Pulmonary Vascular Disease in the Division of Cardiovascular Disease, Department of Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Dr. Oparil is a cardiologist with special interest in fundamental mechanisms of cardiovascular disease and the development of novel therapies for systemic and pulmonary hypertension and heart failure. Her research ranges from molecular and cellular studies to whole animal studies to clinical trials. She has made many groundbreaking observations that have greatly impacted clinical medicine and continue to influence novel treatments for hypertension. Early in her career, she observed that angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) was capable of generating a vasoconstrictor hormone, angiotensin II. The work of Oparil and colleagues led to the development of ACE inhibitors. She has served as President of the American Heart Association (AHA), American Society of Hypertension (ASH), and was the first female president of the American Federation for Clinical Research (AFCR/AFMR) and has received numerous honorary memberships, lectureships and distinguished awards for her contributions to academic medicine, particularly the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease. She was selected as a distinctive member of the Alabama Healthcare Hall of Fame, Class of 2016 for her exemplary service to healthcare throughout the State of Alabama. Dr. Oparil is member of a number of prestigious societies and holds important advisory positions with the National Institutes of Health (NIH), including membership on task forces, expert panels, peer-review and guidelines committees. She has chaired numerous scientific panels in the areas of hypertension and women’s health, both in the federal and private sectors. She served as a distinguished member of the NIH Advisory Committee for Research on Women’s Health, chaired the Institute of Medicine Committee (IOM) to Advise the Department of Defense on Its Breast Cancer Program and was an Expert Writing Committee Member for the AHA 2011 Update: Effectiveness-Based Guidelines for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease in Women. Most recently, she was named the 2019 AHA Distinguished Scientist. Dr. Oparil has made many seminal contributions to vascular biology and hypertension research and has an impressive publication record of > 925 peer-reviewed articles on topics in clinical cardiology, atherosclerosis, heart failure, cardiovascular pathologies related to aging, women’s health and vascular biology and hypertension and population science related to cardiovascular diseases.