Thom Harvey

Delaware ranks 49th out of 50 for stroke mortality statistics in the country, and there are few people more aware of that than Thom Harvey. He lost his grandmother to a stroke, and his mother-in-law Carole suffered a debilitating stroke in 2018 and because of weather and transportation delays, was not treated for more than seven hours after the incident. Now, he’s setting out to transform the way the state treats stroke, one issue at a time.

Thom and his wife Robin first partnered with the American Heart Association to support a stroke-focused research symposium which convened leaders from across the state’s medical and health care community. In 2020, they launched the Transforming Delaware Heart & Brain Health Campaign and in March of 2022, their support funded a Community Health Manager in Delaware for two years.

In February of 2023, Thom & Robin made a $1M Second Century Cornerstone commitment that will further fund the Community Health Manager position, provide full mission support, expand hypertension control efforts, expand Kids Heart Challenge programming, and deliver programmatic support for the physical exercise advocacy initiative, It’s Time to Move. “Vascular health is and has been an issue that has touched my family directly, so there’s some mercenary motivation there. But I’ve lived, worked, and been educated in Delaware my whole life. This is my community. It’s been a wonderful place for me to spend my life and trying to improve these issues is a way of paying all that back.”