Emelia J. Benjamin, MD, ScM

Interim Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Louise Coffman Professor, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine

Biography

Emelia J. Benjamin, MD, ScM, FACC, FAHA, received her AB at Harvard, her MD at Case Western Reserve University, and her Epidemiology ScM at Harvard School of Public Health. She is a Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at Boston University and is a cardiologist at Boston Medical Center. She is the Jay and Louise Coffman Professor in Vascular Medicine Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine.

She is author of over 950 peer-reviewed publications that focus on the epidemiology, genetics, and prognosis of a variety of cardiovascular conditions and markers including atrial fibrillation, vascular function, systemic inflammation, digital health, and chronic pain. She has been continuously NIH funded since 1998, and currently is contact multi-Principal Investigator on the NIH Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health (BIRCWH 1K12AR085635). She is an internationally recognized expert on the epidemiology of atrial fibrillation. Dr. Benjamin Co-Chaired the NIH National Heart Lung and Blood Institutes’ (NHLBI) Atrial Fibrillation Working Group, which advised the NHLBI’s atrial fibrillation research agenda, and resulted in 6 publications.

Dr. Benjamin has conducted research at the Framingham Study since 1988. She is a Member of the Executive Committee, and is Co-Director of the Medical Endpoints Committee. She was Principal Investigator of the grant that recruited the second generation of the Framingham Study's ethnic/racial minority cohort, the Omni Study.

In addition to her research, she was the inaugural Associate Provost for Faculty Development for Boston University Medical Campus (until medical campus Provosts were eliminated at BUMC 2025), and the inaugural Vice Chair for Faculty Affairs, BU Department of Medicine. She co-designed and co-leads Faculty Development Programs for Early, Mid-Career, Under-Represented Ethnic and Racial, Women, and Clinical Leaders. In 2023 she completed the Columbia University Advanced Coaching Certification.

A passionate and dedicated mentor, she has won local and national awards for mentoring, education, diversity, and research. She was inducted into the Association of American Physicians and she won the 2020 Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award.

An active volunteer for the American Heart Association since 1992, she has served on a variety of local and national Committees. She is Past-Chair of the American Heart Association’s Functional Genomics and Translational Biology Council and Study Section, and the annual Heart and Stroke Statistical Update. She received the 2015 Paul Dudley White Award, the 2016 AHA Gold Heart Award, the 2016 Population Research Prize, the 2019 Laennec Clinician/ Educator Lecturer, and the Genomics and Precision Medicine 2019 Distinguished Achievement Award, the 2022 Distinguished Scientist Award, and the 2025 Eugene Braunwald Academic Mentoring Award.

Publications

  • Published 5/20/2026

    Fisher N, Xue L, Smith KK, Tao B, Cunha JA, Ladenheim S, Moreira-Bouchard JD, Milstone ZJ, Zhebrun A, Zhang X, Jun GR, Stein TD, Ang TFA, Farrer LA, Farb MG, Padera RF, Benjamin EJ, Levy D, Gopal DM, Isaac RS, Lenburg ME, Choi SH, Fetterman JL. Mitochondrial genetic variation across tissues of the human body. Nucleic Acids Res. 2026 May 20; 54(10). PMID: 42179041.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 5/4/2026

    Jurgens S, Enzan N, Dinsmore I, Choi SH, Luo J, Lipov A, Hartle C, Wang X, Marston N, Weng LC, Melloni G, Chalazan B, Gray M, Pirruccello J, Diaz A, Chaffin M, Ornelas-Loredo A, Tang O, Darbar F, Kany S, Chen Y, von Falkenhausen A, Morrison A, Natale A, Tveit A, Geelhoed B, Cade B, Wagoner DV, Haase D, Soliman EZ, Davogustto G, Calkins H, Anderson J, Brody J, Barnard J, Hokanson J, Smith J, Bis J, Young K, Johnson L, Long L, Risch L, Gula L, Kwee L, Kühne M, Preuss M, Gupta N, Nafissi N, Smith N, Nilsson P, van der Harst P, Wells Q, Judy R, Schnabel R, Johnson R, Smit RAJ, Gabriel S, Knight S, Furukawa T, Min YI, Yoneda Z, Laksman Z, Alonso A, Psaty B, Albert C, Arking D, Roden D, Chasman D, Rader D, Conen D, McManus D, Fatkin D, Boerwinkle E, Marcus G, Christophersen I, Smith JG, Roberts J, Raffield L, Shoemaker MB, Cho M, Cutler M, Chung M, Olesen M, Sinner M, Sotoodehnia N, Kirchhof P, Loos RJF, Nazarian S, Mohanty S, Damrauer S, Kaab S, Heckbert S, Redline S, Shah S, Tanaka T, Ebana Y, Lubitz S, Lunetta K, Benjamin E, Rienstra M, Figtree G, Darbar D, Bezzina C, Ruff C, Sabatine M, Mirshahi T, Ellinor P. Rare coding variant architecture and gene discovery from 130,000 sequenced cases of atrial fibrillation. Res Sq. 2026 May 04. PMID: 42147184.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 5/2/2026

    Wong DH, Lui JK, Benjamin EJ. Integrating coaching activities into the educator portfolio. Acad Med. 2026 May 02. PMID: 42068565.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 4/28/2026

    DiNicola AM, Conley CM, Benjamin EJ, Zumwalt AC. Design thinking: transforming institutions while developing leaders. Acad Med. 2026 Apr 28. PMID: 42048238.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 4/8/2026

    Azimi A, Atlas K, Reeves AP, Zhang C, Wasserthal J, Mirjalili SR, Mozafarybazargany M, Hashemi A, Atlas T, Henschke CI, Yankelevitz DF, Zulueta JJ, Branch AD, Roy SK, Nasir K, Molloi S, Rana JS, Fayad ZA, McConnell MV, Abela GS, Vliegenthart R, Maron DJ, Narula J, Williams KA, Shah PK, Budoff MJ, Benjamin EJ, Mehran R, Kloner RA, Wong ND, Naghavi M. AI-Derived LA Volume Index, LA/RA and LA/LV Volume Ratios From Coronary Artery Calcium Scans Predict Long-Term Atrial Fibrillation and Stroke. Stroke. 2026 Jun; 57(6):1586-1601. PMID: 41948813.

    Read at: PubMed

View All 983 Publications:   View Full Profile in BUMC

Other Positions

  • Professor, Medicine
    Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine
  • Professor, Epidemiology
    Boston University School of Public Health
  • Primary Investigator
    Framingham Heart Study
  • Member, Whitaker Cardiovascular Institute
    Boston University
  • Member, Evans Center for Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research
    Boston University

Websites

Education

  • Case Western Reserve University, MD
  • Harvard School of Public Health, ScM

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