Dorothea K. Vafiadis MS, FAHA

Dorothea Vafiadis is the director of healthy living, strategic markets and consumer business innovation for the American Heart Association. She oversees prevention programs aimed at children and adults and leads a cross-functional team designed to integrate efforts focused on interventions that promote healthful lifestyle changes. Earlier, she was the science and medicine advisor, advising the association on matters related to scientific programming. Her focus was on nutrition, physical activity, metabolism, epidemiology and childhood obesity. In this role, she provided scientific counsel to programs such as Start, Heart of Diabetes and the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, a joint effort with the Clinton Foundation. Before joining the Heart Association, Vafiadis served as a nutritionist in the Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, where she co-led the development team for the 2005 dietary guidelines and participated on the project team for MyPyramid.gov.