Cushman Receives 2025 EPI Mentoring Award from American Heart Association Council on Epidemiology and Prevention
The American Heart Association Council on Epidemiology and Prevention (EPI) selected Mary Cushman, M.D., M.Sc., to receive the 2025 EPI Mentoring Award. This prestigious award honors a person who has provided exceptional individual and institutional mentoring and advocacy for early-career investigators participating in cardiovascular epidemiology research. She received the award on March 8 in New Orleans at the American Heart Association’s Epidemiology and Prevention | Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health Scientific Sessions 2025, in front of an audience that included several of her former and current mentees.
Cushman is University Distinguished Professor of medicine and vice chair for emerging researchers in the Department of Medicine and University Distinguished Professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at the Larner College of Medicine; medical director of the Thrombosis and Hemostasis Program at the University of Vermont Medical Center; and co-director of the Vermont Center for Cardiovascular and Brain Health. She has had continuous National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding for more than 28 years. Her research focuses on factors causing heart disease, stroke, venous thrombosis, and cognitive impairment.
From 1997 to the present, Cushman has served as primary mentor to 35 individuals participating in cardiovascular health research, including medical students, Ph.D. candidates, medical and postdoctoral fellows, residents, and academic faculty. Her past mentees currently hold positions as physicians, professors, medical directors, and cardiovascular research scientists. She works closely with the early-career faculty who are funded through the Vermont Center for Cardiovascular and Brain Health, an NIH-funded Center of Biomedical Research Excellence that recruits and supports early-career researchers. She is also faculty advisor for the Cardiovascular Research Institute of Vermont’s Early Career Advisory Committee.
“I’m inspired to be a mentor because I had great mentors, and I would not have been successful without people helping me,” Cushman says, adding that her career mentor was Russell Tracy, Ph.D., University of Vermont Distinguished Professor, professor emeritus of pathology and laboratory medicine. “When you serve as a mentor, it’s an honor because people are putting their trust in you. It’s the most amazing thing that I have been able to do, to help early-career investigators develop their path, to help them overcome challenges, and to see their success.”
Most of Cushman’s mentees continue their careers in academic research, and many in turn serve as mentors for medical students, undergraduate students, and early-career investigators. Several, including Nels Olson, Ph.D., Tim Plante, M.D., M.H.S., and Neil Zakai, M.D., M.Sc., have established their own laboratory teams at the Larner College of Medicine, conducting NIH-funded cardiovascular epidemiology research.
“Mary has been instrumental in my development at every stage,” wrote Zakai in a letter supporting Cushman’s nomination for the mentoring award, describing her as “someone who not only provides guidance but also invests deeply in the success of her mentees.” A professor of medicine and pathology & laboratory medicine and UVM Cancer Center member, Zakai met Cushman during his internal medicine residency 25 years ago. Cushman mentored him through multiple grant proposals and research projects and encouraged him to pursue an academic career at UVM. “Mary exemplifies everything a mentor should be: a tireless advocate, a skilled guide, and a generous collaborator. She has dedicated her career to fostering the success of others.”
Cushman’s current trainees include medical students Avery Campbell ’26, Vinh Le ’24, and Brittney Palermo ’25, cardiovascular disease fellow Andres Cordova Sanchez, M.D., and Assistant Professor of Medicine Debora Kamin Mukaz, Ph.D., M.S., who was previously a postdoctoral associate with Cushman.
“It’s the most amazing thing that I have been able to do, to help early-career investigators develop their path.” — Mary Cushman, M.D., M.Sc.