Charlene Blake, MD, PhD

"Work hard, be true to yourself. Listen to your body, listen to your heart."

Dr. Charlene Blake is a cardiac anesthesiologist and associate professor at UC San Francisco, where she works to educate future generations of medical workers. She received her bachelor's degree in chemistry from Fisk University, then completed her PhD and MD at Duke. She completed her Anesthesiology and Cardiac Anesthesiology residencies at Washington University in Saint Louis.

Dr. Blake has published numerous research papers, and has served as the principal investigator of research on EEG-guided cardiac anesthesia to reduce intraoperative burst suppression and postoperative delirium, and on the Enhancement of Thrombolysis through Inhibition of PAI-1 and Antiplasmin. She was also a member of the first all-women team to perform a heart transplant at UCSF.