Program Leadership

Principal Investigator and Program Director

Leslie Myatt, PhD, FRCOG

Les Myatt

Dr. Leslie Myatt, PhD, FRCOG, is the Bob and Charlee Moore Endowed Professor within the OHSU Bob and Charlee Moore Institute for Nutrition & Wellness. He is Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology in the OHSU School of Medicine as well as the Director of Perinatal Research in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Dr. Myatt also serves as Director of the Placental Origins of Disease Group within the OHSU Knight Cardiovascular Institute's Center for Developmental Health. 

Dr. Myatt is a leading figure in perinatal research nationally and internationally, who has been continually funded by NIH since 1987. His current work studies sex differences in placental function in relation to adverse pregnancy outcomes. Dr. Myatt has previously led WRHR, BIRCWH and NIH-funded MSTP (MD/PhD) programs at the University of Cincinnati and he is one of few PhDs to be asked to chair a clinical department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. He has held national leadership positions as President of the Society for Gynecologic Investigation (SGI) and the Perinatal Research Society, and received the Naftolin Award for Mentorship from SGI. Dr. Myatt is Emeritus Editor of the journal Placenta and he has been President of the International Federation of Placenta Associations which brings together four regional societies involved in placental research worldwide. Currently he also serves as Principal Investigator of the Global Pregnancy Collaboration. He was made a fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists for his service in promoting Women’s Health Research. Dr. Myatt has mentored many basic and clinician scientists, many of whom now hold senior academic positions, and is further involved in career development activities for the Society of Reproductive Investigation and as a member of the selection committees of the Reproductive Scientist Development Program and the AAOGF/SMFM Fellows Program.

Next Generation Research Co-Director

Quin Denfeld, PhD, RN, FAHA, FHFSA

Headshot of Dr. Quin Denfeld

Dr. Quin Denfeld, PhD, RN, FAHA, FHFSA, is an Associate Professor in the OHSU School of Nursing with a secondary appointment in the School of Medicine, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine. Dr. Denfeld’s program of research focuses on the biobehavioral mechanisms of symptoms and frailty among adults with heart failure, with a particular focus on women. Dr. Denfeld was a BIRCWH Scholar from 2017 to 2020. Through this program, she led a clinical research study that examined sex differences in physical frailty in heart failure; notably, one of the papers from this study was featured in the Emerging Investigators Series in the journal Circulation: Heart Failure. She is currently funded by the National Institute of Nursing Research to lead a R01 study that focuses on the biological and physiological mechanisms of symptom clusters in heart failure. She also leads a Women’s Health Research Interest Group at the School of Nursing. Dr. Denfeld has been mentored, and continues to mentor new scholars, within an interdisciplinary team science framework, including those with expertise in nursing, cardiology, exercise science, neuroscience, physiology, and advanced quantitative methods. Lastly, she is involved in numerous professional organizations and serves as an Associate Editor for the European Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing and an Editorial Board member for the Journal of Cardiac Failure.

Director of Scholar Advancement & Organizational Development

Leslie Garcia, MPA, EdD

Headshot of Dr. Leslie Garcia

Leslie Garcia, MPA, EdD, serves as the Associate Dean in the School of Medicine. She has been with OHSU for 31 years and plays a vital role in external recruiting and retention for the School of Medicine and OHSU as a whole. In that role, she has recognized the power of mentorship and the isolation that can occur particularly for junior faculty without mentoring. She is excited to bring the robust mentoring infrastructure of the BIRCWH together with other institutional people and resources to provide strong mentoring and support for BIRCWH Scholars.

Research team

Susan Rosenkranz, MA

Research Project Coordinator
School of Nursing
Mail Code: SN-ORD
Susan Rosenkranz