Phoebe Tran
Phoebe Tran, PhD, MS, is a cardiovascular disease epidemiologist. She believes in an epidemiological approach that combines the power of large datasets with input from community stakeholders. Her research focuses on improving secondary cardiovascular disease prevention in medically underserved US populations. She is especially interested in identifying ways to improve access to care and quality of life among individuals with cardiovascular disease living in rural Tennessee. She has received funding from the National Institute on Aging to conduct research examining the influence of air pollution on stroke outcomes, trends in antihypertensive medication use in rural stroke survivors, cardiac rehabilitation use in rural heart attack survivors, and heart attack symptoms recognition in older adults with cognitive impairment. This research has provided her with opportunities to work with national survey data and administrative claims data.
Aside from her cardiovascular disease research, Tran has also published studies that identify disparities in chronic disease screening and management for conditions such as diabetes, HIV, and cancer among people with disability and those living in rural areas. Phoebe received her PhD in Chronic Disease Epidemiology from Yale University, MS in Epidemiology from Harvard University, and BA in Biology from Emory University. Having grown up in Knoxville, she is excited to return to her roots and reexplore the natural wonders of Tennessee.
Raj Baljepally (UTGSM)
Raj Baljepally, MD, is a program director for the University of Tennessee’s Graduate School of Medicine’s Cardiovascular Disease Fellowship and Interventional Cardiology Fellowship. He also serves as a Clinical Associate Professor. His clinical Focuses include intravascular radiation therapy, high-risk PCI, CTO (Chronic Total Occlusion) therapy, structural heart therapy, ASD closure and alcohol septal ablation.
Ben Fogelson (UTGSM)
Ben Fogelson, DO, is a postgraduate cardiology fellow at the University of Tennessee Medical Center. In the years following his graduation, he has found passion in researching cardiology, focusing on coronary artery disease and invasive intracranial coronary indices, before moving to researching the TAVI procedure.
Fogelson has contributed to many different research projects – in his time as an undergraduate, he worked researching vaccinology and infectious diseases, including how to use Salmonella bacteria to disrupt cancer cell growth. His work with coronary artery disease and invasive intracranial coronary indices found indicators of radial artery access failure. He then looked at factors that lead to discordance in the intracoronary pressure indices, fractional flow reserve and instantaneous wave-free ratio.
Robert E. Heidel (UTGSM)
Robert E. Heidel, PhD, is a Professor at the University of Tennessee’s Graduate School of Medicine. His clinical focus includes quality improvement, clinical outcomes, and simulation, while his research focuses on Biostatistics, research design, epidemiology, diagnostic testing, survey creation, psychometrics, and statistics education.
He earned his PhD in Education, with an emphasis in Counselor Education, and his M.S. in Mental Health Counseling.
Andrew Sorey
Andrew Sorey, MASc, BSN, RN, is a Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation Nurse Manager dedicated to improving patient outcomes by empowering front-line clinical staff and implementing innovative care models that enhance access to rehabilitation services.
His work focuses on optimizing cardiac, pulmonary, and vascular rehabilitation enrollment and adherence, particularly among underserved populations. He is especially interested in individualized operational improvements, leveraging telehealth and community-based initiatives to expand access to secondary prevention programs in rural Tennessee.
Andrew earned his Master’s in Population Health Management from Johns Hopkins University and his Bachelor of Science in Nursing from The University of Southern Mississippi. Before coming to Knoxville in 2021, he worked at academic medical centers across the country, gaining diverse experience in Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation. Now, he is passionate about applying that experience to serve his community and support initiatives that promote positive health outcomes across East Tennessee.
Survey Administrators
Madison Holmes, UT Class of 2025, Nursing Major
Reese Fels, UT Class of 2026, Kinesiology Major
Acknowledgement Statement
Funding: This work was supported by a CORNET award from the University of Tennessee System and pilot funding from the University of Tennessee Office of Community Engagement and Outreach