Stacy Frelund, Government Relations Director
I have been working in the health advocacy field for over 7 years and have been through many ups and downs especially when it comes to trying to get legislation passed.  I think what drives me the most is the advocates and their personal stories.  It also makes me think of my own personal connections to cancer and heart disease, it drives me to make a difference by working tirelessly and get back up after we have a huge defeat on an issue.  I think of my grandma Walshire who died of lung cancer and started smoking when she was just 12 years old when I advocate for many of our tobacco control issues including youth tobacco prevention and tobacco free schools.  I think of my grandma McNamara who had a triple bypass and died of liver cancer when I advocate for our many prevention policies including research on new ways to treat heart disease.

When you get a win though, they are some of the best days of my life, it is up there with my wedding day, birth of my daughter, days that I will never forget because of the impact we made. When we passed the tobacco tax, I knew we would be helping save thousands of lives.  Two years later, we passed the Smokefree Air act that helped us protect 99% of the workforce and save many lives due to secondhand smoke exposure.  This is why I am so passionate about closing the loophole with making casinos smoke free, we told everyone we would come back to work to protect this workforce and we must do this.  I think of Buffy McKinney and her mom when I am up lobbying at the capital, how Buffy would still have her mom if we did protect all people at their jobs from secondhand smoke.