Our Team - Stanford Hospital & Clinics - Stanford University Medical Center

Our Team

Jennifer A. Tremmel, MD, SM

Clinical Director, Women’s Heart Health at Stanford

Instructor, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine

♥ Specialty: Interventional Cardiology, Preventive Cardiology

Dr. Tremmel is the Clinical Director of the Women’s Heart Health at Stanford Clinic. She is an Interventional Cardiologist who also trained in Preventive Cardiology. In her clinic she cares for women who are at high risk for coronary artery disease, women who have symptoms concerning for heart disease, and women who already have heart disease. She has a particular interest in women who present with symptoms of heart disease, but are found to have “normal” coronary arteries on angiography. Her current research investigates whether women presenting like this are more likely than men to have coronary abnormalities that cannot be detected by angiography alone, such as endothelial dysfunction, diffuse deposition of plaque, or microvascular disease.

Dr. Tremmel received a B.S. in Psychology and an M.D. from the University of Iowa. She did her Internal Medicine Internship and Residency at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. Following that she obtained a Master’s Degree in Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health. She completed her Fellowship in Cardiovascular Medicine and Interventional Cardiology at Stanford University Medical Center, where she was also a Postdoctoral Research Scholar at the Stanford Prevention Research Center.

Mary P. Nejedly, RN, MS, NP-C

Nurse Practitioner, Women’s Heart Health at Stanford

♥ Specialty: Primary and Secondary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease

Mary is the cardiology nurse practitioner for the Women’s Heart Health at Stanford Clinic. She is the primary contact for the women’s heart health clinic and provides evaluation for cardiac risk assessment and management of primary and secondary prevention. Mary’s primary interest is in cardiovascular risk assessment and management. She is a specialist in lipid evaluation and treatment and stresses the importance of lifestyle modification in conjunction with pharmacologic interventions.

Mary graduated from California State University, Sacramento with a BSN in nursing and received her Masters of Science degree as an Adult Nurse Practitioner from the University of California at San Francisco. She has over 25 years of nursing experience including the coronary care unit (CCU), heart failure, lipid management, general cardiology, and primary care.

Jane Borchers, MPH, RD

Dietitian, Stanford Preventive Cardiology Clinic

♥ Specialty: Cardiovascular Nutrition

Jane is the dietitian for the Preventive Cardiology Clinic where she provides dietary assessment and nutrition counseling to clinic patients. Her areas of interest include medical nutrition therapy for lipid/cholesterol management, hypertension management, and diabetes prevention. She is also interested in women’s health issues and promoting lifestyle changes.

Jane received her Masters Degree in Public Health Nutrition (MPH) from the University of California, Berkeley in 1986 and obtained her Registered Dietitian certification the same year. Jane has worked on a number of cardiovascular risk reduction studies at the Stanford Prevention Research Center and has been the dietitian for Preventive Cardiology since 1996.

Mary T. Jacobsen, MD

Clinical Assistant Professor, Obstetrics and Gynecology

♥ Specialty: Gynecologic Health

Dr. Jacobson received her medical degree, along with a Master of Science degree in Physiology, from Georgetown University. She completed her Residency in Obstetrics & Gynecology at Stanford University, as well as a fellowship in minimally invasive surgery from Stanford.

She is a Co-Director of the Women’s Health Scholarly Concentration (for Stanford medical students) and is Assistant Residency Director for the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology.

A well respected medical educator, physician, and surgeon, Dr. Jacobson is particularly well versed in all areas of gynecologic health and welcomes working with patients on treatment options for their individual condition and circumstances. Among her varied clinical interests are menopausal health, endometriosis, fibroids, and minimally invasive surgery.

Nishita Kothary, MD

Assistant Professor, Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiology

Director, Non-surgical Endovascular Interventions

♥ Specialty: Minimally Invasive Image-Guided Vascular Interventions

Dr. Kothary completed her residency in Diagnostic Radiology at George Washington University, following which she did two specialty fellowships in Neuroradiology (New York University, NY) and Vascular and Interventional Radiology (University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia). Prior to joining Stanford in 2006, Dr Kothary was an attending physician at New York Presbyterian - Columbia University.

Dr. Kothary's clinical interests are in non-surgical approaches to arterial and venous vascular diseases such as peripheral arterial disease, deep vein thrombosis and varicose veins, using image guidance and state-of-the-art minimally invasive technology. Dr. Kothary has a particular interest in addressing these issues in women. She also serves on the medical advisory board for Women's Health@Stanford.

Michael V. McConnell, MD, MSEE

Associate Professor of Medicine, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine

Co-Director of Noninvasive Imaging, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine

♥ Specialty: Cardiovascular MRI/CT, Echocardiography, Preventive Cardiology

Dr. McConnell’s clinical and research interests include noninvasive imaging of coronary artery disease and atherosclerosis, including coronary and cardiac MRI, coronary CT, stress echocardiography, and molecular imaging. He has taken a special interest in the nonivasive assessment of women’s cardiovascular disease and is a member of the Women’s Heart Health at Stanford Program Committee.

Dr. McConnell graduated from MIT with degrees in Electrical/Biomedical Engineering and received his MD from Stanford University in 1990. He did his Internal Medicine and Cardiovascular Medicine training at Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston and then joined the faculty at the Brigham and Harvard Medical School in 1996. He returned to Stanford in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine in 1998, where he also directs the Cardiovascular MRI program. He has been a member of the Preventive Cardiology team since 2002.

Tracey L. McLaughlin, MD, MS

Assistant Professor of Medicine, Division of Endocrinology

♥ Specialty: Insulin Resistance, Diabetes

Dr. McLaughlin is a researcher and clinical expert on the relationship between obesity, insulin resistance, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. She has studied these issues as they particularly pertain to women

Dr. McLaughlin received her B.A. in Human Biology from Stanford University, her Master’s of Science from the University of California, Berkley, and her M.D. from the University of California, San Francisco. She completed her Internship and Residency at the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center and then returned to Stanford, where she did a Fellowship in Endocrinology and stayed on as a faculty member. She is the Founder and Co-Chair of the Diabetes Task Force at Stanford.

Robert C. Robbins, MD

Professor and Chairman of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery

♥ Specialty: Cardiothoracic Surgery

Dr. Robbins serves as Director of the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute, Director of the Heart, Heart/Lung, and Lung Transplant programs and is the Director of the Cardiothoracic Transplantation Laboratory. He has had a long-standing interest in improving women’s cardiovascular health and was instrumental to bringing the focus of Women’s Cardiovascular Disease to Stanford by declaring it as one of the Cardiovascular Institute’s five strategic research areas with the inception of the Institute in 2004.

Dr. Robbins received his B.S. degree from Millsaps College in 1979 and M.D. degree from the University of Mississippi Medical Center in 1983. He completed his general surgical training at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in 1989. Dr. Robbins completed his Cardiothoracic Surgery Residency at Stanford University in 1992. He has been a member of the faculty at Stanford University School of Medicine since 1993. Dr. Robbins performs coronary artery bypass surgery, valvular heart surgery, thoracic aortic surgery, and surgery for hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy. He has a research interest in the use of stem cells and angiogenic growth factors for treating congestive heart failure.

Hannah A. Valantine, MD

Professor of Medicine, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine

♥ Specialty: Heart Failure, Heart Transplantation

Dr. Valantine is Director of the Women’s Cardiovascular Health strategic area in the Cardiovascular Institute. She is President of the Western States Affiliate Board of the American Heart Association and a frequent speaker at national and international meetings on heart disease and women’s issues. She is also the Co-Director of Heart Transplantation and Director of Clinical Transplant Research at Stanford, as well as the Senior Associate Dean for Diversity and Leadership at Stanford University Medical Center.

Dr. Valantine was born in the Gambia, West Africa, and grew up in England. She is a graduate of St. George’s Hospital, London University and completed her residency at St. George’s Hospital, Brompton Hospital and Guys Hospital London. Her Cardiology Fellowship training was at Royal Postgraduate Medical School in Hammersmith London. For her post-doctoral research fellowship training she came to Stanford, where she has been ever since. Her current research interests include the pathophysiology of transplant related atherosclerosis, with a focus on the role of infection and lipids, conduct of clinical trials, and heart disease in women.

Mytilee Vemuri, MD

Clinical Instructor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

♥ Specialty: Psychiatry

Dr. Vemuri is interested in the relationship of mood disorders to cardiovascular disease, insulin resistance, and women’s health. She is also interested in perinatal psychiatry. She is collaborating with Women’s Heart Health at Stanford on a project to screen our cardiovascular patients for mood disorders. The association between cardiovascular disease and mood disorders is well-known, but the reason behind this association and the best way to treat it remains unclear.

Dr. Vemuri obtained a B.A. in Molecular Biology from the University of California, Berkley, and an M.B.A. in Business Administration from the University of California, Irvine. She then received her M.D. from the University of Carlifornia, Irvine before completing her Psychiatry Residency at Stanford University. She did a Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship in the Stanford University Department of Psychiatry and has published on women and sex differences in bipolar disorder.

Paul C. Zei, MD, PhD

Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine

♥ Specialty: Cardiac Electrophysiology

Dr. Zei has clinical and research interests in multiple arrhythmias, including atrial fibrillation (a fib), ventricular tachycardia, supraventricular tachycardia (SVT), bradycardia, and syncope. He places pacemakers and defibrillators, and is also specially trained in catheter ablation. He first gained experience in women’s cardiovascular health issues related to arrhythmia while training at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

Dr. Zei received his undergraduate degree in Biomedical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University. He then earned his medical degree from Stanford, as well as a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Physiology. He completed his Internal Medicine Internship and Residency, Cardiovascular Medicine Fellowship, and Cardiac Electrophysiology Fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. Dr. Zei stayed on the Clinical Electrophysiology staff at Brigham and Women’s Hospital before moving back to Stanford and joining the faculty in 2006.

Wei Zhou, MD

Associate Professor of Surgery, Division of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery

Section Chief, Vascular Surgery at Palo Alto VA Healthcare Network

♥ Specialty: Vascular and Endovascular Surgery

Dr. Zhou has a special interest in women’s health and is actively involved in several clinical trials investigating treatment strategies for abdominal aortic aneurysm, carotid artery stenosis, peripheral vascular disease, and hemodialysis access.

Dr. Zhou received her undergraduate degree from the University of California, San Diego where she majored in Biochemistry and Cell Biology and minored in Psychology. She obtained her medical degree from New York Medical College, completed her residency in General Surgery at the University of California, San Diego, and did a Vascular Surgery Fellowship at Baylor College in Texas. She remained at Baylor as an attending physician until 2007 when she joined the faculty at Stanford. Dr. Zhou’s clinical research interests are restenosis following endovascular intervention, plaque progression in arterial trees, and distal embolization during percutaneous interventions.