Personnel

Dr. Barinas-Mitchell is Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and serves as Director of the URL. She served as Associate Director of the URL, from 2007 to 2012. She has collaborated on more than 20 NIH, ADA and AHA funded projects in the application of subclinical vascular measures in the study of CVD prevention and development. Furthermore, during this time she has been actively involved in research investigating the role of obesity and related cardiometabolic disturbances in the development and progression of subclinical CVD, primarily as a co-investigator on the SWAN (U01 AG012553) longitudinal study of women through the menopausal transition and the weight loss intervention SAVE study (R01 HL077525). For both of these studies, Dr. Barinas-Mitchell was responsible for supervising the data collection, quality control, data management and interpretation of the subclinical vascular measures, including carotid IMT and AD and aortic PWV. For the past 10 years she has mentored several pre- and post-doctoral trainees as Co-Director of the Cardiovascular Training Grant. She has also mentored students via the Department of Epidemiology 2152 course Student Workshop in CVD, which she has taught since 2008 as assistant instructor and since 2012 as lead instructor.

Mrs. Coccari serves as the Associate Director of the Ultrasound Research Lab in the Department of Epidemiology. She manages the day-to-day operations of the lab and its staff, and provides high-level research and administrative support to the Director of the URL. Mindy has 30+ years of administrative and management experience, and she obtained her MPH from the Department of Epidemiology in 2010. Mindy is experienced in the oversight of data collection, quality control and data management for single and multi-centered population health studies and clinical trials. She is actively involved as a co-author on publications based on subclinical CVD data generated in the URL. Her research interests include subclinical atherosclerosis, obesity and women’s health.

Jody has an Associates Degree in diagnostic medical sonography.  She is a registered ultrasound technologist through the America Registry for Diagnostic Medical Sonography (ARDMS). She worked at Sewickley Hospital for 11 years.

Melina serves as the Research Coordinator for the Ultrasound Research Lab (URL). She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Public Health, as well as a minor in Women’s and Gender Studies, from Coastal Carolina University. Her areas of interests include cognitive neuroscience and its relationship to cardiovascular health, women’s health, and health equity.