Cristina Rabadan-Diehl
Cristina Rabadán-Diehl, Ph.D., M.P.H., is the Deputy Director of the Office of Global Health (OGH) at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the United States of America. She also serves as the NHLBI program director of the NHLBI/UHG Collaborating Centers of Excellence, a global network of research and training centers to help combat chronic, non-communicable diseases in developing countries.
Prior to being named the OGH deputy director in May 2010, Dr. Rabadán-Diehl served as a program director in the NHLBI Division of Cardiovascular Sciences (DCVS). She managed an extensive research portfolio of grants, contracts and cooperative agreements primarily in the areas of diabetes complications and developmental origins of adult disease. Her extensive expertise in atherosclerosis, hypertension, diabetes, endocrinology, preclinical models of disease and bio-behavioral stress led her to serve as the NHLBI representative in many multidisciplinary intra- and inter-NIH collaborative programs.
Dr. Rabadán-Diehl has helped develop multidisciplinary partnerships at the global level. She has enabled research teams and has bridged research endeavors among the basic, translational, clinical and population science communities, domestically and internationally. A native Spanish speaker with a strong interest in health promotion and research translation, Dr. Rabadán-Diehl is active in Hispanic cardiovascular disease and prevention outreach activities and serves as a spokesperson for The Heart Truth®, the NHLBI’s landmark national awareness campaign for women about heart disease, and We Can!® (Ways to Enhance Children’s Activity and Nutrition), the NIH’s national childhood obesity prevention program. In addition to English and Spanish, Dr. Rabadán-Diehl speaks German and some Portuguese.
Dr. Rabadán-Diehl earned a pharmacy degree from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid in Spain in 1985; a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Miami in 1992; and an M.P.H. degree and Health Communications Certificate from the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health in 2008.
Dr. Rabadán-Diehl joined the NIH in 1993 as a fellow in the Developmental Endocrinology Branch at the intramural program in the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. In 2002, she joined the NHLBI extramural program.
Dr. Rabadán-Diehl is a member of several professional associations, an external advisor for the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Cardiovascular Complications of Diabetes Initiative and editorial board member for Diabetes Review Letters Journal and The Journal of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease.
