Biography
As a Cardiologist at Northwestern Medicine for over 37 years, Dr. Mendelson founded and directed the Heart Disease and Pregnancy program which was one of the first of its kind serving women with existing cardiac problems to facilitate a safe and healthy pregnancy and baby. This program offered preconception evaluation, pregnancy management and postpartum care. She has lectured nationally and internationally on this subject and has several publications in journals and books regarding the care of this unique population. She also founded and directed the Northwestern Adult Congenital Heart Center to care for a new population of the adult survivors of childhood cardiac disease. A champion of women’s health for decades, Dr. Mendelson was the medical director of the Women’s Health program of the Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute. She directed numerous medical conferences for both health professionals and the lay public on this topic to raise awareness of cardiovascular disease in the female patient. She was also the co-director of the former Women’s Health Institute at Northwestern to promote equity in health care research highlighting inherent bias in bench and clinical research against female subjects. Dr. Mendelson previously served on the board of the Joel Hall dance company, Lookingglass theatre; the medical advisory board for the Children’s Heart Foundation and the advisory board of the University of Illinois School of Public Health. She recently joined the board of the Midwest American Heart Association. She recently completed the University of Chicago Graham School Basic Program.