BIO

Rebecca E. Laird, MD, MPH, joined the cardiology team at Aspen Valley Hospital in 2024. She is certified in both internal medicine and cardiovascular disease by the American Board of Internal Medicine. Dr. Laird and her husband Stephen, a gastroenterologist, moved to the Roaring Fork Valley in 2008, after they completed fellowship training at University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. She earned her MD from Dartmouth College’s Geisel School of Medicine in 2001. As a physician, she is passionate about optimizing comprehensive cardiovascular disease services that include treatment, prevention, longevity and patient-centered care. The same passions are carried into the work she has done with other healthcare organizations where she works to improve systems of care and educate medical professionals. Dr. Laird was a staff cardiologist at Valley View Hospital and founded Mountain Cardiology PC, a private practice in Glenwood Springs, before joining Colorado Mountain Medical in the Vail Valley to build a multi-specialty practice. Following the sale of CMM in 2019, she returned to academics, earning a Master’s of Public Health from Dartmouth College’s Institute of Health Policy & Clinical Practice in 2021, and a Certificate of Global Health from Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She has worked on a project to bring cardiovascular disease care, education and fellowship training to Rwanda through a collaborative effort with the University of Rwanda and the country’s Ministry of Health. She continues to attend and teach at two of Rwanda’s most important teaching hospitals, King Faisal Hospital and the University Teaching Hospital of Kigali. Dr. Laird is currently an adjunct faculty member at Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine, allowing her to continue teaching and mentoring graduate students in public health projects that further equity in heart care. She is on the board of directors of GI Rising LLC, NGO, a charitable organization dedicated to reducing the burden of gastrointestinal and liver disease in Rwanda. She is also on the board of the Vail Valley Dartmouth Alumni Association. Dr. Laird and her husband love to ski, hike and bike, and more recently have branched out into fishing and SUPing. In 2021 they trained for and completed the Haute Route, skiing from Chamonix to Zermatt.