Biography

Laura B. Harrington, PhD, MPH, is an epidemiologist with expertise in cardiovascular epidemiology, the epidemiology of aging, and women’s health. As an Associate Investigator at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute (KPWHRI), her work leverages pharmacologic, medical-record based, lifestyle-based, and sex-specific exposure data to better understand associations between modifiable risk factors and cardiovascular and aging-related outcomes. She has particular interest and expertise in risk factors for incident and recurrent venous thromboembolism, in cardiovascular associations with brain health, and in sex-specific risk factors (e.g. endogenous sex hormone levels, vasomotor symptoms, hormone therapy use, characteristics of the menopause transition). She leads studies set in Kaiser Permanente Washington-based populations and existing epidemiologic cohort studies including the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI), the Adult Change in Thought (ACT) study, the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS), the Nurses’ Health Studies (NHS) I and II, the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, and the Heart and Vascular Health (HVH) case-control study. Dr. Harrington is actively leading a new National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute-funded inception cohort study of venous thromboembolism sequelae, the After Venous Thromboembolism Research (AFTER) Study.

Prior to joining KPWHRI in 2018, Dr. Harrington completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, earned her PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Washington, and her MPH in Epidemiology from the University of Michigan.

In addition to her role at KPWHRI, Dr. Harrington enjoys mentoring students and guest lecturing in her roles as Affiliate Assistant Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Washington School of Public Health and Assistant Professor of Health Systems Science at the Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine.