WASHINGTON, D.C. (January 26, 2015) — To bring increased attention to the number one killer of women, the Women’s Heart Alliance (WHA) has announced the creation of a powerful heart disease awareness campaign, to be conducted in partnership with the Clinton Health Matters Initiative (CHMI). The outline of the new campaign, which will launch in 2015, was announced at the Clinton Foundation’s Fourth Annual Health Matters Activation Summit.
British A. Robinson, CEO of the WHA, and Dr. C. Noel Bairey Merz, Scientific Advisor to WHA and Director of the Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Center at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute, announced a national campaign which will focus on raising awareness about heart disease among college aged women and in particular, those in communities of greatest risk. Young women will also learn about the importance of participation in heart disease research.
“Our intention is to create a network of heart ambassadors who will raise awareness around women’s heart health and empower women to know their risk,” Ms. Robinson said. “It is our hope to not only educate but activate. Through a planned series of college campus and community events, we intend to educate young women and provide them the tools to impact their classmates, friends, family and networks – and to make a profound difference in women’s cardiovascular health.”
Heart disease kills one woman every minute yet nearly half of women don’t know it’s their number one killer, killing more women than all cancers combined. WHA is fighting back, aiming to raise awareness, encourage action and drive new research to fight women’s heart disease. At the 2013 Clinton Foundation Health Matters Activation Summit, Barbra Streisand and the Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Center pledged to launch a national public affairs campaign for women’s heart health awareness, prevention, advocacy and change. That initial pledge led to a partnership with businessman and philanthropist Ronald O. Perelman and to the creation of the WHA.
The most recent Clinton Foundation Health Matters Activation Summit brought together leaders in healthcare, public policy, veterans affairs, business, education, and professional sports to identify and implement strategies for systemic health improvement.
About The Women’s Heart Alliance
The Women’s Heart Alliance (WHA) was formed in the fall of 2014 to raise awareness and generate action to fight the leading killer of women heart disease in the United States. WHA is a collaboration between Barbra Streisand, Ronald O. Perelman and teams at their respective heart centers: the Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Center at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute in Los Angeles and the Ronald O. Perelman Heart Institute at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City. Learn more at fighttheladykiller.org, on Facebook at facebook.com/fighttheladykiller and on Twitter at @FightLadyKiller.
About the Clinton Health Matters Initiative
The Clinton Health Matters Initiative (CHMI) works to improve the health and well-being of people throughout the United States across all generations. CHMI builds strategic partnerships to implement evidence-based systems and environmental and investment strategies, with the goals of ultimately reducing the prevalence of preventable diseases, reducing healthcare costs associated with preventable diseases, and reducing health disparity and inequity gaps. CHMI builds scalable solutions to address the drivers of health and wellness, serves as a catalyst for community health transformation by convening local partners and commitment-makers, and leverages the digital platform to innovate and disseminate best practices.
About the Clinton Foundation
The Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation convenes businesses, governments, NGOs, and individuals to improve global health and wellness, increase opportunity for women and girls, reduce childhood obesity, create economic opportunity and growth, and help communities address the effects of climate change. Because of our work, 26,000 American schools are providing kids with healthy food choices in an effort to eradicate childhood obesity; 36,000 farmers in Malawi and Tanzania have improved their incomes by more than 500 percent; 33,500 tons of greenhouse gas emissions being reduced annually across the the U.S.; more than 5,000 people have been trained in marketable job skills in Colombia; 8.2 million people have access to lifesaving HIV/AIDS medications; $200 million in strategic investments have been made, impacting the health of 75 million people in the U.S.; and members of the Clinton Global Initiative have made nearly 3,100 Commitments to Action to improve more than 430 million lives around the world.
Learn more at clintonfoundation.org, on Facebook at Facebook.com/ClintonFoundation and on Twitter @ClintonFdn.
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Media Contact: Wendy Heistad Carter
wheistadcarter@womensheartallianc.org
For more information about the Women’s Heart Alliance, please email: contact@womensheartalliance.org.
Please visit us at: womensheartalliance.org
The Women’s Heart Alliance is a project of New Venture Fund, a 501(c)(3) public charity. New Venture Fund hosts and incubates a wide range of conservation, education, global health, and other charitable projects.