The CSU Columbine Health Systems Center for Healthy Aging is hosting two open forums with Dr. Leanne Groban, Ph.D., professor of Anesthesiology at Wake Forest School of Medicine. Groban is a finalist for the director position.
Groban will also present at an on-campus open forum for faculty and staff in room 308 of the Lory Student Center on Wednesday, Feb. 20, from 1 to 2:30 p.m. Faculty and researchers who are working on issues related to aging are invited to hear Groban’s presentation with an overview of her background, research interests, and vision for the Center, followed by time for discussion and questions.
A community open forum will be held on Thursday, Feb. 21, from 1 to 2 p.m., in room 1423 in the Columbine Health Systems Center for Healthy Aging located in the Health and Medical Center on the corner of Prospect and College. Members of the community are invited to join the discussion related to Groban’s vision for the center.
Groban is a physician-scientist and Professor of Anesthesiology at Wake Forest School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She earned her medical degree from the Medical College of Wisconsin, and completed subspecialty training in cardiac anesthesia. After spending over a decade providing perioperative care and anesthesia to older patients undergoing heart surgery, she brought her echocardiographic skills and interest in the biology of the aging heart to the research laboratory. As director of the Cardiac Aging Laboratory, Groban is exploring the mechanisms driving diastolic dysfunction, the precursor to heart failure with preserved ejection fraction and the most common form of heart failure in postmenopausal women. Her lab investigates the pathways by which estrogen maintains cardiac structure and function during aging, which may reveal new therapeutic strategies to slow the pace of diastolic dysfunction after estrogen loss.
Groban also leads an interdisciplinary team of clinical investigators focused on how unique risk factors of older patients, such as mobility and disability, can be used to predict adverse surgical outcomes, such as complications, hospital stay, and nursing home placement, in order to better inform and optimize their perioperative care, including prehabilitation. Groban is the recipient of several prestigious awards including the Paul Beeson Physician Faculty Scholars in Aging Research award. Her research has received 14 years of consecutive support from the National Institute on Aging, and is also currently funded by the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute. She has authored more than 110 peer-reviewed articles and chapters, as well as two textbooks on echocardiography.
Questions about the center or the search for a director can be directed to Lise Youngblade at Lise.Youngblade@colostate.edu or 970-491-3581. Information about the center can be found at the Columbine Health Systems Center for Healthy Aging website.
