Sharma Named Associate Vice Chair for Women’s Careers in Academic Medicine

Dr. Garima Sharma will be the next Associate Vice Chair for Women’s Careers in Academic Medicine and Chair of the Task Force on Women’s Academic Careers in Medicine.

Dr. Sharma’s interest in diversity, gender and health equity stems from her experiences as a first-generation immigrant and woman navigating Cardiology—a sub-specialty of medicine where women are underrepresented. She is an assistant professor in the Division of Cardiology whose clinical and research interests are in cardiovascular disease in women and pregnancy—specifically adverse pregnancy outcomes and CV risks, post-partum prevention of complications from hypertensive disorders of pregnancy and gender equity. She is the director of the Cardio-Obstetrics Program and the Associate Director of Preventive Cardiology –Education at the Ciccarone Center for Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease.

Last year, she was selected to serve on the American College of Cardiology Women in Cardiology Leadership Council, and was also recently selected to serve on the American Heart Association’s Research Goes Red Committee and the Council of Clinical Cardiology’s Leadership Committee on Cardiovascular Disease in Women and Special Populations. She is co-author on the American Heart Association Scientific Statement on Cardiovascular Consideration in Caring for Pregnant Patients, and has written several articles on gender equity in cardiology, mentoring and career development. Dr. Sharma has led several national initiatives for professional development of fellows in training and is governor of the Maryland Chapter of the American College of Cardiology.

Having trained outside of Hopkins, Dr. Sharma made use of every opportunity for career development through the task force when she joined Hopkins as a clinical associate in 2014. In her role as Associate Vice Chair for Women’s Careers in Academic Medicine and Chair of the Task Force on Women’s Academic Careers in Medicine, she will foster a culture where all women faculty and trainees are highly valued and supported, participate in divisional reviews and faculty recruitment, meet regularly with the Associate Dean for Diversity and Inclusion in the School of Medicine and the Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion for Johns Hopkins Medicine and more.

We’d like to thank Dr. Rachel Levine for her unwavering leadership. She has done an incredible job of advancing women’s careers both within our department and in the greater medical community. She will continue this work and devote more time to her role as Associate Dean for Faculty Educational Development for the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. After leading the task force for seven years, she looks forward to the possibilities new leadership can bring.

In her first year, Dr. Sharma aims to recover, recharge and rebuild the task force from the effects of COVID-19; collect and compare data on salary equity and diversity in the DOM; and onboard and offboard feedback loops for leadership to enhance their listening ecosystems. She hopes to improve the visibility of all women academics from diverse training backgrounds, experiences and career goals and improve cross-divisional engagement. “I have tremendous hope for what the future holds,” she says.