Suvasini Lakshmanan, MBBS, a first-year fellow in Cardiovascular Disease, was recently selected as a recipient of the 2022 Women as One Escalator Awards Mentor Match Award in the mentee category. Lakshmanan is one of four recipients out of 71 applicants from 25 different countries. As a winner, she will receive several important benefits, including an award donation of $10,000. She has been matched with mentor Alessia Gimelli, MD, a cardiologist from Fondazione Toscana Gabriele Monasterio in Pisa, Italy.
“Based on my prior experiences, as I am working towards building a career in academic cardiology, I have learned that the guidance and influence of a mentor is truly invaluable,” Lakshmanan said in her award proposal.
Lakshmanan and Gimelli plan to develop a research project in intersection cardiac imaging-based phenotyping and cardiovascular prevention. Lakshmanan aims to understand cardiovascular risk and identify targeted treatment in novel anti-atherosclerotic therapies.
“Apart from the personal mentoring and networking opportunities with an exemplary group of Women-in-Cardiology that the award opens for me, I am most excited to be a part of the shared vision of Women As One platform in creating change to promote gender parity in medicine,” Lakshmanan said.
Lakshmanan completed her medical training at Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research in Pondicherry, India, and her internal medicine residency at the University of Massachusetts. She also earned a Master of Science degree in Clinical and Translational Research at Brown University. An advanced cardiac imaging and cardiac CT fellowship at Lundquist Institute at Harbor UCLA followed. She has received numerous awards throughout her medical career prior to this prestigious award. She is a member of the American Society of Preventive Cardiology, the Women’s Advocacy Board of Los Angeles County Medical Association, the American College of Cardiology Fellows’ Editorial Board, among others.
Lakshmanan is also a certified life coach and is very passionate about exploring life coaching techniques in personal and leadership development for female trainees and early career physicians.
The Women as One’s Escalator Awards aim to fortify the pipeline of women leaders by “escalating” a highly qualified group of women cardiologists through targeted funding, mentorship, and networking. Each year, Women as One provides recognition and financial support to award winners in select focus areas. By giving more visibility to women in cardiology, Women as One hopes to develop a more equitable workforce for the future. The goal of the Escalator Awards program is to highlight and resource talented women in cardiology so that they can achieve their professional dreams.
Women As One was founded by Roxana Mehran and Marie Claude Morice, two internationally recognized leaders in cardiovascular care and research. According to their website, the mission of Women as One is to promote talent in medicine by providing unique professional opportunities to women physicians. The platform hopes to achieve their goals by highlighting the work and voices of talented women physicians and strengthening the pipeline of women physicians in leadership positions through proactive networking and mentorship programs. More details can be found on the Women as One website.