NYITCOM Student Receives American Heart Association Scholarship

Emma Koval, a student researcher from the College of Osteopathic Medicine (NYITCOM), has been awarded the American Heart Association’s (AHA) Student Scholarship in Cardiovascular Disease.

Each year, the prestigious $2,000 award recognizes student research related to cardiovascular disease, cerebrovascular disease, or stroke across basic, clinical, translational, or population science fields.

Koval is the sixth consecutive trainee from the laboratory of Associate Professor of Biomedical Sciences Maria Alicia Carrillo Sepulveda, Ph.D., BSN, to receive the honor. Her predecessors include Jac Lun Lin, expected to graduate in 2028; Nefia Chacko, expected to graduate in 2027; Nicole Maddie (D.O. ’24); Risa Kiernan (D.O. ’23); and Benjamin Kramer (D.O. ’19). “That is not a coincidence,” Sepulveda says. “It reflects a sustained, structured research-training program for medical students that has now produced six nationally recognized cardiovascular scholars.”

The Research

Working under Sepulveda’s mentorship, the second-year medical student is investigating “Early Microvascular and Metabolic Alterations in Perimenopause: Implications for Cardiometabolic Risk.” The award-winning project addresses a gap Koval sees clearly from her own training: most cardiovascular research and risk models were built around male physiology, despite heart disease being the leading cause of death among women in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Sepulveda lab studies perimenopause—the transitional years leading into menopause—using a mouse model of gradual ovarian decline to track cardiovascular and metabolic changes as they emerge. Koval’s specific focus is on resistance arteries, the small vessels that govern blood pressure regulation. Using quantitative structural (mathematical size and shape) analysis, she is identifying vascular changes that precede clinical disease.

The lab’s next phase will use ex vivo (outside the body) vascular reactivity studies to test how these vessels respond to specific physiological triggers, aiming to define the mechanisms behind Koval’s observed structural changes. “Altogether, this work is aimed at finding a window where we can catch vascular dysfunction early, before it becomes irreversible,” Koval says. “If we can pin down the earliest changes, we open the door to catching risk years earlier and preventing the development of disease instead of just treating disease once it’s there.”

The Research

Koval’s interest in advocating for women’s health extends beyond her work in Sepulveda’s lab. On the Long Island campus, she is president of NYITCOM’s chapters of both the American College of Osteopathic Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOOG) and the American Osteopathic College of Preventive and Occupational Medicine (AOCOPM). Through ACOOG, she works to expand student education in women’s health. Through AOCOPM, she develops programming that emphasizes disease prevention, public health, and the environmental and occupational factors that influence health across the lifespan.

Koval is also a training and development co-leader for NYITCOM’s student ambassadors, where she shares perspectives gained from her first year of medical school, helps applicants navigate their journeys, and equips ambassadors with the tools to help prospective students envision themselves as future physicians.

While busy in school, Koval already looks to her post-grad future with excitement. She envisions her early career at an academic institution that supports research, mentorship, and forward-thinking clinical care. If all goes according to plan, she will follow in Sepulveda’s footsteps and lead a laboratory of her own that is dedicated to advancing women’s health. “One of my deepest career goals is to become the type of mentor that I have been so lucky to have throughout my training,” Koval says. “Dr. Sepulveda and my previous research mentors have poured into me as an aspiring physician-scientist, and I want to give this same support and guidance to the next generation of physicians.”