Medicine Grand Rounds: The Dan May Lectureship - "Between a rock and a hard place: What vascular calcification means in coronary artery disease"

Karol E. Watson, MD, PhD, is a Professor of Medicine/Cardiology and a board-certified, fulltime
cardiologist at the Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. She holds the John C. Mazziotta Term Chair in
Medicine and was honored to be named Cardiologist of the Year, by the California chapter of the American College
of Cardiology (ACC) in 2017. Dr. Watson received her undergraduate degree from Stanford University, her Medical
Degree from Harvard Medical School, magna cum laude, and her PhD in Physiology from UCLA. She completed a
residency in Internal Medicine and a fellowship in Cardiology at UCLA, and continued there as part of the UCLA
Specialty Training and Academic Research program and as Chief Fellow in Cardiovascular Diseases at UCLA.
Currently, Dr. Watson is director of the UCLA Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Health Program at UCLA, Co-
Director of the UCLA Program in Preventative Cardiology, and director of the UCLA Fellowship Program in
Cardiovascular Diseases.
Dr. Watson contributes nationally on a number of fronts as well. She is a Principal Investigator for several large
NIH studies, and serves on several NIH Steering committees. She is currently chair of the Clinical Chemistry and
Clinical Toxicology Devices Panel of the Food and Drug Administration. Dr. Watson is past Vice President for the
Association of Black Cardiologists (ABC); and immediate past chairperson of the scientific advisory board for
Womenheart, – the largest national organization for women living with heart disease. Dr. Watson has received
many honors including “America’s Top Physicians” designation from Black Enterprise magazine, a Super Doctors
designation from “Tu Ciudad” and “Los Angeles” magazines, and in 2010 she was awarded a “Red Dress Award”
from Women’s Day magazine. Dr. Watson has been quoted in many papers, journals, and periodicals, including
USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, Woman’s Day, and Redbook magazines. She has appeared in interviews on
Lifetime television, NBC News, and PBS, among others. Also, Dr. Watson was one of the physician hosts of the
TLC television series “Guardian Angels, MD,” as well as an advisor to, and featured in the Emmy award-winning
PBS series “The Mysterious Human Heart.”
The American Society of Hypertension recognizes Dr. Watson as a Specialist in Hypertension, she chairs the
Cholesterol committee of the Association of Black Cardiologists, and serves on several committees and panels of
the National Institutes of Health including serving on the NIH Expert Panel for the Integrated Clinical Guideline
for Cardiovascular Risk Reduction. She is currently chairperson of the national advisory board for WomenHeart
(a national organization dedicated to women with heart disease), a former member of the advisory board for
the California Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention program, and Chairperson of the FDA Clinical Chemistry and
Clinical Toxicology Devices Panel.
Dr. Watson’s more than 100 publications and presentations have addressed many subjects including prevention of
heart disease, vascular calcification, hormone replacement therapy, the metabolic syndrome, hypertension,
hypercholesterolemia, and. cardiovascular disease in African Americans.