Sunita Dodani

Sunita (Soni) Dodani is a Pakistani-born American physician–epidemiologist and professor of clinical medicine. Her work focuses on cardiovascular disease prevention, health equity, and community-based interventions.^[1] She is the founding director of the Center 4 Health Research at the University of Illinois College of Medicine Peoria and previously established the Eastern Virginia Medical School–Sentara Healthcare Analytics and Delivery Science Institute.^[2] Her research includes faith- and community-based programs such as *Fit Body and Soul* and the HEALS and HEALS Med-Tech initiatives, aimed at improving cardiometabolic outcomes in underserved populations.

Dodani was born and raised in Pakistan. She contracted poliomyelitis at the age of two, an experience she has described as formative in her choice to pursue medicine and public health.^[3] She earned her medical degree from Aga Khan University in Karachi, completed a family medicine residency with training in cardiology, obtained a master’s degree in epidemiology and community health from Dalhousie University in Halifax, and earned a PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Pittsburgh.^[3] Her graduate and doctoral studies were supported in part by Fulbright scholarships.^[2] Her doctoral dissertation focused on building research capacity in Pakistan.^[4]

Dodani has held clinical and academic roles in the United States, including cardiology research at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville and serving as assistant dean at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta School of Nursing.^[5] In 2012 she joined the University of Florida College of Medicine-Jacksonville as a cardiovascular epidemiologist and associate professor.^[6] She later moved to Eastern Virginia Medical School, where she founded the EVMS–Sentara Healthcare Analytics and Delivery Science Institute.^[3][7] During the COVID-19 pandemic, she organized the Health Equity Collaborative of Virginia, coordinating multi-institution research and outreach on health disparities.^[8] She is currently professor of clinical medicine and founding director of the Center 4 Health Research at the University of Illinois College of Medicine Peoria.^[2]

Dodani’s work has emphasized culturally tailored, community-based strategies for preventing type 2 diabetes and controlling hypertension, particularly within African American church communities.^[9] Early projects included *Fit Body and Soul*,^[5] a 12-session, lay-led lifestyle program adapted from evidence-based diabetes prevention curricula.^[10] She subsequently developed HEALS, a faith-based hypertension prevention and control program led by trained church members, reporting feasibility and improvements in blood pressure and self-management.^[9][11] The HEALS Med-Tech randomized trial integrated telehealth and behavioral counseling, showing reductions in systolic blood pressure at three and twelve months among African American participants.^[12]

Her research has also addressed cardiometabolic risk among South Asian immigrants in the United States, showing high rates of diabetes and probable coronary disease.^[13]

In digital health, Dodani has contributed to projects on remote data collection and mental health interventions, including the multi-institution COVIDsmart study and pilot research on digital cognitive behavioral therapy platforms during the pandemic.^[14] Her group has studied predictors of interest and engagement with digital mental-health tools in diverse populations.^[15]

At EVMS, institutional records list honors for Dodani, including recognition as a finalist for the American Heart Association’s Mark Bieber Award^[16] and community service awards from the International Society on Hypertension in Blacks and the National Forum for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention.^[17] She was cited in the National Forum’s 2018 Annual Meeting program.^[18] She is a Fellow of the American Heart Association, recognized for contributions to cardiovascular science and prevention.^[19] Earlier in her training, she also received university honors at the University of Pittsburgh.^[17]