It was a month of inspiring women for the Plainview-based American Heart Association, as the group honored two brave young ladies in their battle against heart disease while also naming two female members to important health posts.
Led by Mark S. Davis, Managing Partner of Deloitte’s Long Island location and Heart Walk Chair, and Plainview-based American Heart Association Long Island’s Heart Walk Red Cape Ambassadors, 6-year-old twins and heart survivors, Gabriella and Gianna Eaderoso, thousands of walkers stepped out on Sunday, September 22, a beautiful, warm and sunny day at Jones Beach, to help save Long Islanders from heart disease and stroke.
“It has been a pleasure and an honor to lead this campaign as Chairman and I appreciate each and every one that supported our efforts to make a difference and save lives.” said Mark Davis.
The Long Island Heart Walk was an opportunity for people to improve their health by walking, while simultaneously raising funds to help fight heart disease and stroke. The American Heart Association’s “My Heart. My Life.” movement will change how Americans live their lives. “My Heart. My Life.” is about making health a priority – as individuals and as families – by starting with small changes and building toward an ideal health goal. With a focus on personal and incremental change, “My Heart. My Life.” offers hands-on experiences and practical solutions to help people get physically active, eat healthy and pass healthy habits on to future generations. By making small changes to take care of their hearts, Americans engaged in the movement put themselves on a path to a longer, better life.
The day’s event also included a morning health fair, kid’s zone, blood pressure screenings, entertainment by the Adelphi University college cheerleaders and dance team, and music by Nico Padden.
To learn more about the “My Heart. My Life.” movement, call the American Heart Association’s Plainview office at 516-450-9104 or visit www.longislandheartwalk.org.
Meanwhile, two leaders of the Plainview-based American Heart Association are set to help even the health playing field.
Cheryl Pegus, M.D., M.P.H., executive vice president of HealthFleet and Jennifer Mieres, M.D., senior vice president, Office of Community and Public Health, North Shore-LIJ Health System, two long-time American Heart Association volunteers have taken a lead role in the upcoming Health Equity Summit to help remove disparities in care for the most at risk of suffering cardiovascular disease.
“The American Heart Association has set a 2020 impact goal to improve the cardiovascular health of all Americans by 20 percent while reducing deaths from cardiovascular diseases and stroke by 20 percent,” said Dr. Pegus, the Chair of the Health Equity Summit. “The key phase in that statement is ALL Americans. This summit is designed to bring together organizations and leaders in the community to build upon strategies that are working to improve healthcare for those most at risk.”
Pegus has more than 24 years of clinical practice and medical management experience. She currently is a Director of Glytec, LLC, a glycemic clinical software organization in the forefront of inpatients diabetes management and EVP of HealthFleet, Inc., an online interactive prevention company. She is the lead independent Director of Vision-Sciences, Inc. and is also the current president of the board of directors for the American Heart Association Founders Affiliate.
The Health Equity Summit: Making a Difference will enable attendees to learn the best practices for success from community leaders. They will learn about new initiatives in the region from the American Heart Association as well as from other expert organizations.
”A key goal of the summit is to deepen community relationships beyond the Summit to improve health equity outcomes,” said Dr. Mieres, a member of the Summit planning committee. “We want to build new partnerships that will help us provide cultural competency training while focusing on quality metrics within our healthcare institutions.”
