Endowed Director’s Chair in Cardiovascular Rehabilitation and Wellness Established at UC San Diego

In addition to a $2 million gift from the Step Family Foundation, the endowed chair was established with support from community leaders including Irwin Jacobs, Dene and Elizabeth Oliver, Kelli and Gary Glover, Julia Brown, UC Regent Richard Leib and his wife Sharon, Julie Regan, Arleen Kagan, Timothy and Cynthia Wollaeger, and Richard Shapiro and Marsha Janger.

Taub is a professor of medicine at the UC San Diego School of Medicine, director of Preventative Cardiology and founding director of the Step Family Foundation Cardiovascular Rehabilitation and Wellness Center at UC San Diego Health. She is an internationally recognized researcher and expert in cardiometabolic disease, with a clinical practice focused on preventive cardiology and research considering how behavioral, technological and pharmacological interventions can improve cardiometabolic health.

“Dr. Taub’s appointment to this prestigious chair reflects her unwavering commitment to advancing cardiovascular care through innovation, compassion and science,” said Ehtisham Mahmud, M.D., Edith and William Perlman Endowed Chair in Cardiology and chief of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine at UC San Diego School of Medicine and executive director of the Cardiovascular Institute-Medicine at UC San Diego Health. “Her leadership has allowed UC San Diego Health to set the standard for preventive cardiology, and this endowment will further empower her to transform how we approach recovery, prevention and lifelong heart health.”

Founded with the goal of redefining cardiac care, the Step Family Foundation Cardiovascular Rehabilitation and Wellness Center offers comprehensive programs for patients recovering from cardiovascular events or managing chronic conditions. The center takes an integrative approach to cardiovascular health — combining supervised exercise, nutrition counseling, stress management and behavioral therapy — to empower patients and improve long-term outcomes. It serves as an international model for how academic health centers can deliver personalized, preventive cardiac care that bridges clinical treatment and long-term wellness.

“The Step Family Foundation Endowed Director’s Chair in Cardiovascular Rehabilitation and Wellness will allow us to focus on closing gaps in diagnosis and treatment, ultimately improving outcomes for patients with cardiovascular disease,” said Taub, cardiologist at UC San Diego Health. “I am so grateful to the Step Family Foundation and the Step Family for their visionary support of our efforts to promote prevention and long-term wellness for our cardiac patients.”

Taub’s clinical practice focuses on preventive cardiology, lipidology and women’s cardiovascular health. She has extensive clinical trial experience and is active in clinical and translational research. Her research focuses on cardiometabolic disease. She is widely published (with over 150 publications) in high impact journals such as Cell Metabolism and Journal of the American College of Cardiology and her work has impacted clinical practice globally.

Taub earned her medical degree from Boston University in 2003, followed by her internal medicine residency from University of Washington Medical Center in 2007. She completed her cardiology fellowship at UC San Diego Health in 2010.

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