Dr. Hevener received her PhD from USC in 1998 in kinesiology and physiology and biophysics and performed a fellowship in endocrinology and metabolism at UC San Diego from 1998 to 2002. She was promoted to assistant professor in the Department of Medicine at UCSD in 2002 and recruited to the Department of Medicine at UCLA in 2007, where she is currently an associate professor of medicine in endocrinology, diabetes and hypertension.
Over the past two decades my research has focused on elucidating factors contributing to the loss of cellular responsiveness to the hormone insulin. Specifically, my laboratory has been hard at work studying the effects of estrogen receptor expression on cellular function in tissues normally responsive to the hormone insulin.
The primary goal of my research is to identify cellular mechanisms that contribute to metabolic dysfunction and heightened disease susceptibility — obesity and type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and breast cancer — in women. I hope my efforts advance women’s health research and clinical care for those suffering from chronic diseases associated with impaired metabolism.
