Dr. Pearson, a pediatric cardiologist, is currently Senior Pediatric Science Advisor at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), NIH.  Prior to transitioning to this role in April 2024, she served as Associate Director of the Division of Cardiovascular Sciences, and the Director of the Office of Clinical Research at NHLBI.  During her tenure of more than 27 years at NHLBI, her major accomplishments include spearheading the creation of the Bench to Bassinet Program, a comprehensive translational research program in pediatric cardiovascular diseases that includes the Pediatric Heart Network and the Pediatric Cardiac Genomics Consortium.  During the COVID pandemic, Dr. Pearson helped lead development and implementation of the federal research efforts to understand and combat Multi-system Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C).  She is also a senior pediatric lead for the NIH RECOVER program, focused on long COVID across the lifespan. 

Dr. Pearson earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Michigan, a Master of Public Administration degree from American University and Doctor of Medicine and Doctor of Science degrees from Johns Hopkins University.   She completed her pediatric residency and fellowship in pediatric cardiology at Children’s National Hospital.  In addition to her work at NHLBI, Dr. Pearson spent more than two decades caring for children with heart disease and mentoring fellows and junior faculty at Children’s National Hospital, where, until August 2020, she was an Adjunct Professor of Pediatrics, and is now Professor Emerita.  

Dr. Pearson has received numerous awards including the Children's National Jodi Pike Award for Excellence in Teaching, the AHA’s Cardiovascular Disease in the Young Meritorious Achievement Award, the NHLBI Excellence in Mentorship Award, and several NHLBI Director’s Awards and NIH Director’s Awards.  She is the author of more than 100 articles, book chapters and abstracts.