Samar R El Khoudary | School of Public Health

Contributions to Public Health

I am an established cardiovascular and women’s heath epidemiologist. My research focuses on the menopause transition (MT) and cardiovascular disease (CVD). I have made key contributions that establish the MT as a stage of CVD risk acceleration. As women transition through menopause they experience adverse changes in their endogenous sex hormones, lipids, visceral abdominal adiposity, vascular thickness and stiffness that together could increase their future risk of CVD.
- El Khoudary SR, Aggarwal B, Beckie TM, Hodis HN, Johnson AE, Langer RD, Limacher MC, Manson JE, Stefanick ML, Allison MA; American Heart Association Prevention Science Committee of the Council on Epidemiology and Prevention; and Council on Cardiovascular and Stroke Nursing. Menopause Transition and Cardiovascular Disease Risk: Implications for Timing of Early Prevention: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association. Circulation. 2020 Dec 22;142(25):e506-e532. doi: 10.1161/CIR.0000000000000912. Epub 2020 Nov 30. PMID: 33251828.
- El Khoudary SR, Greendale G, Crawford SL, Avis NE, Brooks MM, Thurston RC, Karvonen-Gutierrez C, Waetjen LE, Matthews K. The menopause transition and women's health at midlife: a progress report from the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN). Menopause. 2019 Oct;26(10):1213-1227. doi: 10.1097/GME.0000000000001424. PMID: 31568098; PMCID: PMC6784846.
I have a long-standing expertise in coordinating large multi-center observational and clinical studies and applying complex statistical methodologies. One critical cohort study is the Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation (SWAN), the largest study of the menopause transition in the US. Within SWAN, I developed and spearhead the application of complex statistical methodologies that enabled us to disentangle the contributions of chronological aging vs. ovarian aging in women’s health.
- Matthews KA, Chen X, Barinas-Mitchell E, Brooks MM, Derby CA, Harlow S, Jackson EA, Thurston RC, El Khoudary SR. Age at Menopause in Relationship to Lipid Changes and Subclinical Carotid Disease Across 20 Years: Study of Women's Health Across the Nation. J Am Heart Assoc. 2021 Sep 21;10(18):e021362. doi: 10.1161/JAHA.121.021362. Epub 2021 Sep 6. PMID: 34482713; PMCID: PMC8649503.
- Samargandy S, Matthews KA, Brooks MM, Barinas-Mitchell E, Magnani JW, Thurston RC, El Khoudary SR. Trajectories of Blood Pressure in Midlife Women: Does Menopause Matter? Circ Res. 2022 Feb 4;130(3):312-322. doi: 10.1161/CIRCRESAHA.121.319424. Epub 2022 Jan 6. PMID: 35113663; PMCID: PMC8814466.
Academically, I made significant contributions to teaching and departmental education goals. I have led improvements in our Epidemiology core curriculum, created new courses, and taught Epidemiologic Methods courses for the last 12 years to graduate students. I am dedicated to mentoring students, research fellows, and junior faculty. My mentees have been very successful with their scholarly work, having been frequently featured and many of them have received honors and awards for their academic achievements.
- Samargandy S, Matthews KA, Brooks MM, Barinas-Mitchell E, Magnani JW, Janssen I, Hollenberg SM, El Khoudary SR. Arterial Stiffness Accelerates Within 1 Year of the Final Menstrual Period: The SWAN Heart Study. Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol. 2020 Apr;40(4):1001-1008. doi: 10.1161/ATVBAHA.119.313622. Epub 2020 Jan 23. PMID: 31969013; PMCID: PMC7101253.
- Qi M, Janssen I, Barinas-Mitchell E, Budoff M, Brooks MM, Karlamangla AS, Derby CA, Chang CH, Shields KJ, El Khoudary SR. The quantity and quality of cardiovascular fat at mid-life and future cognitive performance among women: The SWAN cardiovascular fat ancillary study. Alzheimers Dement. 2023 Sep;19(9):4073-4083. doi: 10.1002/alz.13133. Epub 2023 May 22. PMID: 37212597.
On the service side, I have served on departmental and school wide committees. I have served on scientific program committees for scientific meetings and symposiums for both the American Heart Association and the Menopause Society. I am on the editorial board of the lead Journal of the Menopause Society, Menopause, and the Journal of the American Heart Association (JAHA), and an associate editor at American Heart Journal Plus.
- “The 2022 Hormone Therapy Position Statement of The North American Menopause Society” Advisory Panel. The 2022 hormone therapy position statement of The North American Menopause Society. Menopause. 2022 Jul 1;29(7):767-794. doi: 10.1097/GME.0000000000002028. PMID: 35797481.

Education

1998 | Al-Azhar University, Gaza, Palestine | BPharm, Pharmacy
2002 | Al-Quds University, Gaza, Palestine | MPH, Epidemiology and Biostatistics
2008 | University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA | PhD, Epidemiology
Post-doctoral Training
- Course in Scientific Management and leadership, office of Academic Career Development, Health Sciences, University of Pittsburgh
- Short course: Longitudinal Data Analysis, Paul Allison, University of Pennsylvania
- Short Course: Survival Data Analysis, Paul Allison, University of Pennsylvania
- Short Course: Applied Biostatistical and Epidemiological Methods, Longitudinal Data Analysis, The Ohio State University-Columbus, Ohio/USA
- Short Course: Hierarchical Linear Modeling, DATIC/ University of Connecticut, Storrs,
  Connecticut/USA
- Short Course: Introduction to Structural Equation Models, Paul Allison, University of Pennsylvania
- Short Course: Analyzing Developmental Trajectories, Group based modeling. Bobby Jones and Daniel Nagin, Carnegie Mellon University

Teaching

2009-2016: Guest lecturer: EPIDEM 2152 Students Workshop in Epidemiology
2012-2013: Guest lecturer: EPIDEM 2187 Epidemiological Methods 2
2014-2017: Co-director: EPIDEM 2187 Epidemiological Methods 2
2018, 2019: Guest lecturer: EPIDEM 2183 Reading and Analyzing Literature course
2019 -2020: Co-director: EPIDEM 2180 Epidemiological Methods 1
2020-:Director: EPIDEM 2189 Epidemiological Methods of Longitudinal and Time-to-event Analyses

Awards

2004-2007 Fulbright PhD Scholarship, United State Department of State
2010 Best of AHA Specialty Conferences Poster Session: EPI 2010
2011 Trudy Bush Fellowship for Cardiovascular Research in Women’s Health , American Heart Association
2011 First place in clinical and translation research poster session at the 19th Annual Congress on Women’s Health, Arlington, VA
2011 Department of Epidemiology Small Grants Program
2012 New Investigator Award, the 23rd Annual Meeting of the North American Menopause society
2013 Honoree, 37th annual Honors Convocation, The University of Pittsburgh
2014 Honoree, 38th annual Honors Convocation, The University of Pittsburgh
2015 Elected Fellow of the American Heart Association (FAHA), Epi-Council
2016 Best Paper of the JCEM 2016, ENDO 2016 Meeting
2016 Early Investigator Award 2016, Endocrine Society
2017 Selected Fulbrighter to attend Fulbright; Conference on Health Sector – Cairo, Egypt
2019 Poster prize winner, NAMS
2022 Sutton-Tyrrell Lecture
2022 Delta Omega Omicron Chapter faculty initiates
2023 Pitt Public Health Alumni Award for Research
2024 Nominated for School of Public Health James L. Craig Teaching Award

Department/Affiliation

Epidemiology

Primary Faculty