After receiving a national physiology award and in light of February’s designation as American Heart Health month by the American Heart Association, a University of Iowa professor and her team are working to study the link between pregnancy complications and heart disease developed later in life. 

Anna Stanhewicz, associate professor in the UI Department of Health, Sport, and Human Physiology, was awarded the 2026 Henry Pickering Bowditch Award in December. Administered by the American Physiological Society, the award recognizes outstanding early career accomplishments in physiology. The award invites Stanhewicz to deliver a lecture at the American Physiology Summit in April to discuss her research.

“I was really honored to be nominated and then be selected for the award,” she said. “I’m really excited to see women’s cardiovascular research getting this kind of recognition and this kind of attention because it really helps us spread awareness about the work that we’re doing.”

According to the American Heart Association, heart disease is the number one cause of death for women in the U.S., taking the lives of one in three women. 

RELATED: UI received $3.4 million grant to renovate hybrid cell lab

Stanhewicz’s research studies women with a history of preeclampsia, a serious blood pressure disorder that can develop during pregnancy according to the American Heart Association, and how and why the disorder affects long-term heart health. She also researches how blood vessels in women who develop diabetes in pregnancy respond later in life.  

The American Heart Association estimates that each day a woman remains pregnant after a preeclampsia diagnosis, she develops a 1 to 2 percent percent increased risk of developing heart disease later in life. 

Stanhewicz said the warning signs of heart disease for a pregnant mother who developed preeclampsia are often difficult to spot immediately after pregnancy. 

She said patients often recover from preeclampsia after delivery with normal blood pressure, blood cholesterol, and body weight.

“What we’ve found is that even though they seem clinically normal, they have dysfunction in their blood vessels,” Stanhewicz said. “They have reductions in how well their tiniest blood vessels are functioning, and we’ve been able to understand what’s contributing to that on a cellular level.”

Stanhewicz said tiny blood vessels give a reflection of what happens in deeper vascular beds like the heart and kidneys. 

Although the team is researching medicines that could be used to treat the dysfunctional blood vessels, Stanhewicz said, women can take simple interventive steps to reduce the risk of developing heart disease. 

“Reducing the amount of salt that you eat, sitting less and moving more, making sure that we’re getting enough sleep and high-quality sleep, although I am also a mom and I understand that sometimes that’s not under our own control, quitting smoking, all make a big difference,” she said. 

Kara Boeldt, the director of EndPreeclampsia, a charitable organization for patients with preeclampsia, said she is happy that Stanhewicz’s research is being recognized on the national stage. 

Boeldt developed preeclampsia in 2005 during her pregnancy, experiencing swelling in the brain and a failing liver and kidneys. Her baby was under 2.5 pounds, but survived. 

Boeldt said many women who were diagnosed with preeclampsia were not so fortunate. A fellow preeclampsia educational advocate of Boedt, John Warner, lost his pregnant daughter, Shelly Bridgewater, to the disorder in the same year. 

Bridgewater died at UI Health Care, but her treatment by UI doctors provided Warner, and later, Boeldt, key connections to educate the public on preeclampsia through the collaboration of UIHC experts. 

“Back in 2005, and there really wasn’t much information available online or anywhere else that I could read and understand without being a researcher or physician,” Boeldt said. “No one I had ever known had such an experience.”

Boeldt created the EndPreeclampsia site with women who experienced similar battles with preeclampsia to provide information and support for women with the disease. Boeldt now sits on the advisory board for the Institute for Clinical Translational Science at UI, which helps to engage patients with research. 

Boeldt said even though in 2011, the American Heart Association published a guideline in which a connection was found between pregnancy disorders and cardiovascular disease, primary care providers are still not encouraged to educate patients with pregnancy complications on their increased risk of heart disease. 

“Research takes about 15 to 18 years to trickle down to become the new normal or the standard of care,” she said. “It’s still not widely known that people who had preeclampsia have long-term cardiovascular disease increased risks.”

Boeldt said EndPreeclampsia encourages women with the disorder to continuously consult with a cardiologist even years after pregnancy to compare their heart health with years prior. 

Kelsey Schwartz, a postdoctoral fellow in Stanhewicz’s research, was excited to hear of Stanhewicz’s research receiving national recognition. 

“Anna has done really so much for me and scholars in the field of cardiovascular physiology, to see that really being awarded on a national level is just really awesome as someone who’s been with her the past four years,” Schwartz said. “I’m very proud of her.”

Schwartz said the Henry Pickering Bowditch Award reminds her of the human clinical impact the entire lab is working towars, and how the rigorous nature of lab work can often make researchers forget how they are affecting lives. 

“For us to be recognized on this preventative side, it’s really cool to see that we do have an impact,” she said. “Anna winning this award really shows that her research and our research does have an impact on the clinical level and on a national level.”