GettyImages-609179959-hero

About the Medical College of Wisconsin Cardiovascular Center

Vision

The Cardiovascular Center’s vision is to become the premier integrated basic and translational academic cardiovascular organization in the United States.

Mission

The Cardiovascular Center’s mission is to improve cardiovascular health in Southeast Wisconsin and beyond through cutting-edge research, cost efficient and high quality health care delivery, rigorous training of the next generation of diverse and proficient cardiovascular scientists and physicians.

Meet Our Leadership

headshot

Ivor Benjamin, MD, FAHA, FACC

Director, Cardiovascular Center; Professor, Medicine, Physiology, Pharmacology and Toxicology, Cell Biology, Neurobiology and Anatomy, and Surgery; Program Director, CVC T32 Training Program

Ivor J. Benjamin MD, FAHA, FACC, is a board-certified specialist and consultant in internal medicine and cardiology, Dr. Benjamin’s clinical interests are general cardiology, inheritable heart failure, and myocardial infarction.

headshot

David D. Gutterman, MD

Distinguished Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine; Senior Associate Director Emeritus, Cardiovascular Center; Program Director, CVC T32 Training Program

headshot

Joy Lincoln, PhD

PhD, Professor and Associate Chief, Pediatric Cardiology, Research Director, Pediatric Cardiology, Peter Sommerhauser Chair for Cardiac Quality, Outcomes and Research, Children’s Wisconsin, Director of Cardiovascular Research, Herma Heart Institute; Associate Director, Cardiovascular Center

headshot

Curt D. Sigmund, PhD

James J. Smith & Catherine Welsch Smith Professor of Physiology; Chair of Physiology; Associate Director, Cardiovascular Center

headshot

Mary G. Sorci-Thomas, PhD

Professor; Associate Director, Cardiovascular Center; Program Director, CVC T32 Training Program

headshot

Michael E. Widlansky, MD, MPH

Northwestern Mutual Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine, Department of Medicine and Pharmacology; Associate Director, Cardiovascular Center

The Medical College of Wisconsin Cardiovascular Center (CVC) focuses on the prevention, detection, treatment and cure of the large family of cardiovascular diseases.

The CVC is directed by Ivor Benjamin, MD, Professor of Medicine at MCW and Froedtert Hospital, who has over 25 years of experience and expertise leading cardiovascular clinical and research programs. David Gutterman, MD, the Senior Associate Director of the CVC and Northwestern Mutual Professor in Cardiology, also brings more than 25 years of experience including eight years as Senior Associate Dean for Research with broad responsibility over basic, clinical, and population/outcomes research development and infrastructure. Moreover, as a green center, the CVC is also guided by an external scientific advisory board, internal scientific advisory board, and institutional leadership.

Along with its exceptional leadership, the CVC receives extensive institutional support including a $4 million grant from the Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin Research and Educational Endowment Program, extramural support from the NIH and AHA, including a National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute T32 postdoctoral training grant and from generous philanthropic gifts by the A. O. Smith Foundation, the Michael H. Keelan, Jr., MD, Cardiovascular Research Fund through the Greater Milwaukee Foundation, Smith Family and the Cullen Family Healthy Heart Research Program, among others.

The CVC offers its primary members and their trainees access to core facilities including microscopy, imaging, other core equipment, free biostatistical support, a quarterly newsletter, conference rooms for meetings and presentations, eligibility for CVC pilot grant awards, and promotion and sponsorship of the CVC Seminar Series and the Lunch and Learn Seminar Series, which are held on an almost weekly basis during the regular school year in the CVC’s main conference room on the fourth floor of the Health Research Center building.

Last year, the members of the Cardiovascular Center were awarded more than $90 million in total funding, with $42 million being funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health. More than 100 trainees were mentored and more than 500 scientific articles were published in peer-reviewed journals. Our investigators are clearly innovative, productive scientists in their areas of expertise as is evidenced by MCW being ranked #13 in the nation for funding of medical schools for cardiovascular research by the NHLBI in 2021.

Along with its exceptional leadership, the Cardiovascular Center receives extensive institutional support and thrives with philanthropic gifts by the A. O. Smith Foundation, the Michael H. Keelan, Jr., MD, Cardiovascular Research Fund through the Greater Milwaukee Foundation, and the Cullen Family Healthy Heart Research Program, among others. In 2017, the Cardiovascular Center was awarded a $1.6 million postdoctoral training grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), currently the only T32 postdoctoral training program on campus.

With the Cardiovascular Center (CVC) and the advent of new leadership in the Division of Cardiology, and with newly enhanced programs in heart failure and heart transplant, MCW is poised for a new era in cardiovascular research that integrates studies across the pediatric and adult practice.

Further details about the CVC, including a description of the work conducted in each individual laboratory, are provided on the site.

CVC Pulse Newsletter

CVC research news, education and training opportunities, clinical care and research activities, and philanthropy and community engagement events.

View CVC Pulse Newsletters from 2016-2023