Dr. Jafari received her doctorate in pharmacy (Pharm.D.) and completed her residency at the University of California, San Francisco in 1995. She has held a number of positions in academia and pharmaceutical companies including clinical and faculty positions at UCSF, UCI, and Western University of Health Sciences and senior scientist and manager positions at Abbott Laboratories.

As a clinician and researcher, the general focus of Professor Jafari’s work was on the efficacy and toxicity of cardiovascular and anti-dyslipidemia drugs and metabolic complications of drugs affecting the nervous system. In addition to clinical research, she has extensive clinical experience in both inpatient and outpatient settings. As a Clinical Pharmacist in Coronary Care Unit (CCU) at both UCSF and UCI, she was an integral part of the cardiology team. In 1995, as an Assistant Clinical Professor at UCSF, she and her colleagues pioneered the concept of Pharmaceutical Care that eventually became the standard of practice at UCSF and many other hospitals. At UCI Medical Center, she founded and directed the Cholesterol Clinic and served as the Co-Director of the Cardiovascular Risk Reduction Program. In 2001, she joined Abbott Laboratories as a senior scientist and worked in the Neuroscience and Metabolic Groups and subsequently became the Regional Scientific Manager. While working for Abbott Laboratories, Dr. Jafari continued directing and seeing patients in the Cholesterol Clinic and maintained her teaching responsibilities at UCI School of Medicine.