Omaida C. Velazquez, M.D., F.A.C.S., Professor with Tenure, DeWitt Daughtry Family Department of Surgery, David Kimmelman Endowed Chair in Vascular and Endovascular Surgery, University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine. Dr. Omaida C. Velazquez is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, member of the American Surgical Association, the Southern Surgical Association, and Distinguished Fellow of the Society for Vascular Surgeons, all elite societies composed of the nation’s most prominent and leading doctors and scientists in American Medicine.

She is a nationally and internationally renowned surgeon-scientist, recognized within her field and the broader community of physician scientists, as seen by her induction into the American Society for Clinical Investigators (ASCI) and the highly prestigious National Academy of Medicine. In 2021, she was appointed Treasurer of the SSA. Her preclinical research on stem cells and angiogenesis, wound healing, atherosclerosis, and limb salvage, are related to peripheral vascular disease (PVD) and vascular complications of Diabetes. Dr. Velazquez’s team publishes in high-impact scientific journals such as Nature- Metabolism, Stem Cells, Journal Clinical Investigation, Mol Cell Biol, Atherosclerosis, and PLoS One. She has continuous NIH funding for over 15 years. Her discoveries yielded several patents with translational potential on the homing and pro-repair functions of stem cells in post-natal revascularization of ischemic tissue. These findings have paved the way to ongoing clinical trials for PVD and diabetic non-healing wounds, unsolved pathologies that account for over one hundred thousand amputations annually, in the U.S. alone. Velazquez’s work led to the development of a new gene/cell regenerative therapy that may one-day eradiate most amputations. She publishes her clinical work in the top Surgery journals, such as Annals of Surgery and Journal of Vascular Surgery.