Dr. C. Noel Bairey Merz holds the Women's Guild Endowed Chair in Women's Health, and is director of the Women's Heart Center as well as the Preventive and Rehabilitative Cardiac Center at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. She also is professor of medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

Dr. Bairey Merz's research interests include women and heart disease, mental stress and heart disease, the role of exercise and stress management in reversing disease, and the role of nutrition in heart disease. Currently, she is chair of the National Institutes of Health (NIH)-sponsored WISE (Women's Ischemic Syndrome Evaluation) initiative, which is investigating potential methods for more effective diagnosis and evaluation of coronary artery disease in women. Dr. Bairey Merz has received investigational grants from the NIH-National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), NIH-National Center for Alternative and Complementary Medicine (NCCAM), the Pfeiffer Foundation, the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, the Barbra Streisand Foundation and the Women's Guild.

A prolific lecturer, Dr. Bairey Merz is a member of many professional organizations, including the American Heart Association (AHA), the American College of Cardiology (ACC), the NHLBI Advisory Council, the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research, the American Society of Preventive Cardiology, the Association of Academic Women's Health Programs, and the Association of Women's Heart Programs. She serves on the Board of Trustees of the ACC, where she is a fellow, and is a past-chair of the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease committee. She currently holds the chair of the Women in Cardiology Committee of the AHA. Other professional associations include membership on the National Space Biomedical Research Institute Board of Scientific Counselors, the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) Board of Examiners, and she is chair of the NIH-sponsored Bypass Angioplasty Revascularization Investigations 2 Diabetes (BARI-2D) Data Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB). She serves on the advisory boards of lay organizations, including Women's Heart and Sister-to-Sister.

Dr. Bairey Merz has an extensive scientific publication record consisting of over 180 scientific publications, more than 200 abstracts, and numerous book chapters. Her work has been published in numerous peer-reviewed journals including the New England Journal of Medicine, the Journal of the American Medical Association, Circulation, the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, and the Journal of Women's Health.

Dr. Bairey Merz has received numerous awards and honors including: the 2008 McCue Female Cardiologist of the Year Award; the 2005 Red Dress Award for Leadership in Cardiovascular Research in Women; the 2005 VHA Inc. Best Practices Awards for Special Achievement Award, presented to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the field of healthcare; the 2005 Women of the 21st Century award from the Women's Guild of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, and the 2006 Alvin P. Shapiro Award from the Psychosomatic Society, for excellence in clinical research.

Dr. Bairey Merz has appeared frequently in the media, recognized as an authority on the subject of heart disease and stress. Her television appearances have included Good Morning America, NBC Dateline and 20/20. She has also been interviewed for articles published in the New York Times, Ladies Home Journal, USNews & World Report and Working Woman Magazine, to name a few. Dr. Bairey Merz is currently the national spokesperson for VHA's Women's HeartAdvantage campaign, which seeks to raise awareness of heart disease in women.

Dr. Bairey Merz received her bachelor's degree from the University of Chicago and her medical degree from Harvard University. She completed her residency at the University of California, San Francisco, where she served as Chief Medical Resident. Dr. Bairey Merz also completed fellowships in clinical cardiology and nuclear cardiology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.