Ray E. Hershberger, M.D., is professor of medicine at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, where he serves as associate chief of the cardiovascular division and director of Advanced Heart Failure Therapies Program and Translational Cardiovascular Genetic Medicine. He is the founder and principal investigator of the Familial Dilated Cardiomyopathy Research Project, an NIH-funded study since 1998, that seeks to identify and understand the genetic causes of dilated cardiomyopathy.