Athena Poppas, MD

Athena Poppas, MD, FACC, FASE, is chief of cardiology and director of the Brown University Health Cardiovascular Institute at Rhode Island, The Miriam and Newport hospitals. She specializes in valvular heart disease, heart disease in women, and echocardiography and heart disease in pregnancy.

She received a bachelor of science from Brown University and a doctor of medicine from the University of Wisconsin Medical School. Poppas completed her residencies in internal medicine at University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics and in cardiovascular medicine at University of Chicago Hospitals. Poppas is a professor of medicine at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and a fellow and board trustee of the American College of Cardiology (ACC). 

She has national leadership roles, volunteering on a number of committees including the ACC Governance Committee, ACC Cardiometabolic Strategic Work Group and has chaired the American Society of Echocardiography Ethics Committee. Poppas focuses her research on echocardiography and also the various facets of heart disease in women. She has a special interest in peripartum cardiomyopathy. 

Poppas has presented and published internationally on topics such as cardiovascular properties in normal pregnancy, 3D and stress echocardiography, and the role of echocardiography in new technologies. She is fluent in English and Greek.