Sharon Reimold, M.D.

Early Influences

Having not been raised with many scientific influences, Dr. Reimold had to forge her own path in medicine. “As a young girl growing up in a small farming community, I didn’t run into many people who had experience in STEMM,” she said.

“My high school physics teacher realized and encouraged my interest in science. He seemed to enjoy that I could keep up with the male students in my class and gave me extra challenges.”

Contributions to STEMM

Today, Dr. Reimold is a leading cardiologist at UT Southwestern where she “delivers a mixture of clinical cardiology care in the outpatient setting and noninvasive imaging.” As an expert in heart imaging, Dr. Reimold looks through the lens of cardiology to examine gender differences in the presentation of heart disease with a special emphasis on treating and diagnosing cardiac diseases in women. “My favorite types of cardiac issues to treat relate to valvular heart disease and heart disease in women,” she said.

Dr. Reimold also fulfills extensive administrative duties in the Department of Medicine and beyond. She is the Chair of the UT Southwestern Annual Compensation Equity Study to identify pay gaps between groups of faculty within their clinical subspecialties. This is important for ensuring gender and racial equity in compensations.

Taking Risks

“My decision to pursue a career in cardiology could have been considered a risk in the late 1980s,” said Dr. Reimold. “All I knew was that I truly enjoyed all my cardiology experiences. Going forward, I was fortunate to have many supportive faculty advisors during my fellowship. They gave me research and administrative opportunities during fellowship and early (on) as a faculty member.”

Support from mentors was key to Dr. Reimold’s success as a woman in cardiology. She recalled a specific experience during her fellowship training when a patient “did not want a female fellow doing her catheterization. My male attending took me to visit the patient and explained how the teaching model worked and how the two of us would be doing the catheterization. This had a major impact on me.”

The UT Southwestern Difference

“I have an amazing job where I get to combine clinical and administrative responsibilities with the goal of helping patients longitudinally and helping faculty members longitudinally,” Dr. Reimold said of her position at UT Southwestern.

“I am as excited to have patients understand their medical problems and get better as I am to get great news about a faculty member’s successes.”

Advocacy for Women

A passionate champion of women, Dr. Reimold supports her female colleagues through the Women in Science and Medicine Advisory Committee (WISMAC) at UT Southwestern. In her post as Co-Chair, she oversees the committee’s efforts to advance the careers of women by supporting them personally and professionally.