American Heart Association logoAmerican Heart Association

Southern California

A relentless force for longer, healthier lives in our community.

Southern California

CPR saves lives and Steve Munatones is here to prove it

Steve Munatones in hospital

When Steve suffered a cardiac arrest his son Skyler found him lying unresponsive on the bathroom floor and immediately began performing life-saving CPR until paramedics arrived. He literally saved his father’s life.

Featured Recipe: Huevos Rancheros

Huevos Rancheros

Need a breakfast or brunch recipe? Look no further than our Huevos Rancheros. In this healthier version, the yolks of the sunny-side-up eggs meld deliciously with the mild salsa, hearty beans, melted cheese and creamy avocado.

New initiative aims to promote healthy blood pressure in Southern California

New initiative

Four blood pressure self-monitoring kiosks are being placed in four under-resourced communities in Los Angeles and Orange counties to provide residents easier access to check, change and control their blood pressure.

Join 100 Ways In 100 Days

To celebrate our 100-year anniversary, we have a gift for you! Join our FREE, exclusive program to get an email each week for the next 100 days providing you with valuable health tips on eating better, moving more, and improving overall wellbeing.

Make 2024 your best year yet! Join now.

Woman celebrating while outside walking

Events in Your Area

Orange County Heart & Stroke Walk

Location: Angel Stadium of Anaheim

Date: Saturday, April 13, 2024 - 11:00 AM

Register

Los Angeles Heart Ball

Location: Los Angeles County

Date: Saturday, April 20, 2024 - 06:00 PM

Learn More

Inland Empire Heart Walk

Location: Rancho Jurupa Park

Date: Saturday, April 27, 2024 - 08:00 AM

Register

Orange County Go Red for Women Luncheon

Location: Balboa Bay Resort

Date: Friday, May 17, 2024 - 11:00 AM

Register

In Your Community

Libraries with Heart – Self-Monitoring Blood Pressure

As a champion of health equity, the American Heart Association is addressing the drivers of health disparities — including barriers to access to quality healthcare —by launching the Libraries with Heart initiative with the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health CalFresh Healthy Living Program and the Ontario City Library. 

This initiative provides self-monitoring blood pressure kits for library check-out, as well as information on blood pressure, nutrition, physical activity, and local resources in both English and Spanish. This allows Ontario Library card holders to access free blood pressure monitor kits that support taking their blood pressure accurately at home, knowing and understanding their blood pressure numbers, access to resources on how to control and manage their blood pressure and connection to clinical care.  

Libraries with Heart participants can scan a QR code or go to a link to access a step-by-step self-monitoring blood pressure video (English/Spanish) and link directly to heart-healthy tips, educational materials at the library and insight into finding local resources, including health centers.

The American Heart Association in Kern County is working with community collaborators to make an impact in four key areas: supporting residents managing high blood pressure, working to ensure our community has access to the healthy and nutritious foods that sustain health, ensuring everyone knows the lifesaving skill of CPR and raising awareness of the No. 1 killer of new moms – heart disease.

By bringing together organizations, sponsors, companies and community partners across Kern County, we will save and improve lives. Equity is always at the center of our work, and it will continue to guide all that we do. Thank you for your continued support.

Community Impact

The American Heart Association believes every person deserves the opportunity for a full, healthy life.

With your continued support, we are working to advance cardiovascular health for all by identifying and removing barriers to health, focused on:

  • Improving nutrition security. Los Angeles County is home to the largest number of food-insecure people in the country, affecting 1 in 5 individuals. Food and nutrition insecurity is linked to chronic disease, including high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease. We're advocating for policies that increase access to healthy food and water, collaborating with clinics and community organizations to establish nutrition security screening and referrals for high need individuals, and providing nutrition education to prevent cardiovascular disease and promote health.
  • Reducing uncontrolled high blood pressure. Out of the 2 million people with uncontrolled high blood pressure in LA County, over two-thirds are impacted by structural inequities that limit their access to health care. We're working with health centers and clinics to increase access to care and improve hypertension control by training staff, assisting with the adoption of system changes, and engaging patients in blood pressure self-monitoring. We're also establishing community-based blood pressure screenings and clinical care referrals for at-risk individuals.
  • Ending tobacco use and nicotine addiction. Big Tobacco has a long history of targeting youth and Black neighborhoods with minty menthol and candy flavored products. As a result, 80% of youth who have ever used any tobacco product started with flavors and 85% of Black smokers use menthols. We're protecting youth and communities of color from a lifetime of nicotine addiction by advocating for policies restricting the sale of flavored tobacco products in all Los Angeles cities and jurisdictions, as well as ensuring strong enforcement of tobacco retail laws.

Los Angeles Community Impact

As a local catalyst for collective impact, innovative ideas and partnerships, and scientifically driven content, the San Diego/SW Riverside County American Heart Association’s three greatest community impact focuses lie within:

  • Controlling high blood pressure to reduce the burden of heart disease and stroke. One in three San Diego & SW Riverside adults has been diagnosed with high blood pressure; even more are unaware they have this silent risk factor. We are strengthening clinical systems and practices relating to chronic disease management with strategic trainings and partnerships with clinics serving our most vulnerable populations. We are coming alongside communities to strengthen health literacy and increase at-home blood pressure monitoring.
  • Increasing equitable nutrition security. Nearly one in four people in Riverside & San Diego County are experiencing food insecurity, which has lasting effects on mental health and chronic disease. We are working with community stakeholders and healthcare providers to bridge gaps in food insecurity screenings, advocating for SNAP funding and incentives, pushing for increased drinking water and meal options in schools, and exploring innovative solutions with communities in food deserts.
  • Preventing and reducing the use of tobacco products. By graduation, one in six California students reports recent use of a tobacco product, and that number is rising. We are collaborating with cross-sectional stakeholders to eliminate youth access and use of tobacco products through concerted education and policy efforts in schools and communities. We are reducing the intended effects of targeted marketing to LGBTQ+, Black & Hispanic communities and youth, and tackling the cascading effects of nicotine addiction.

Advocacy has had a mission-critical role in the Association's work for more than 40 years. Our legislative and regulatory priorities help to mitigate risk factors and protect survivors in communities across the country. We support the enactment of evidence-based public policies that lead to longer, healthier lives.

Our efforts in California and its communities are focused on five major policy areas. These are: Tobacco Free, Quality Systems of Care, Healthy Eating, Active Living, and Access to Care.

Thanks to advocacy efforts, in November of 2022 Californians voted to end the sale of flavored tobacco products – including menthol cigarettes. Study after study shows the reason most young people start using e-cigarettes – and why they get hooked – is because they are sold in the candy, fruit and mint flavors kids like. California will now have the nation's strongest protections against the tobacco industry’s business model that markets deadly tobacco products to kids, especially those who live in Black and brown communities.

Join our network of You’re the Cure advocates to continue to improve the health of all Californians.

Advocacy

Jared Salvo, MD, President
Cardiologist,
Central Cardiology Medical Center

Kurt Vote, Chair
Attorney,
Wanger Jones Helsley PC

William F. Baker, MD, FACP
Internal Medicine,
Centric Health

Didra Cantu, MPA-HCM
Director of Quality and Risk,
Encompass Health
Rehabilitation Hospital of Bakersfield

Stacy Ferreira
Community Volunteer

Bonnie Her, MD
Family Medicine Physician,
Community Medical Providers

Nai Kasick
Vice President
Medi Cal Lead,
Healthnet

 

 

Kenneth Keller
CEO,
Dignity Health
Bakersfield Memorial Hospital

Lisa Kreber, Ph D., CBIS
Director of Operations,
Adventist Health Bakersfield

Felice Lin, MD
Cardiologist,
University Cardiovascular Center  

Luckvinder Malhi
VP of Operations,
Fresno Heart and Surgical Hospital

Paul Quinn, CPA, CFF
Partner,
Ryan, Christie, Quinn & Horn, LLP

Sarabjeet Singh, MD
Interventional Cardiologist,
Centric Health

Vivian Torio, DO
Adult and Family Medicine,
Kaiser Permanente

Rachel Yankey, MD
Physician,
Saint Agnes Center Physicians


John Baker, MD, FACC, FACP, FSCAI
Invasive/Interventional Cardiology

Eric Hoffman
Vice President Operations
McCarthy Building Companies, Inc.

Bruce Fischer
Chairman 
Co-Managing Shareholder – OC Office
Chair - West Coast Real Estate
Greenberg Traurig, LLP

Pranav M. Patel, MD, FACC, FAHA, FSCAI - OIC Board President
Chief, Division of Cardiology, Professor of Medicine & Biomedical Engineering, Director Cardiac Catheterization Lab, University of California, Irvine

Angela Grinstead Ahmad
General Counsel, Inari Medical, Inc.

Dana Asato, EdDC,MBA, BSN, CENP, CSSMBB
Division Executive Director
Providence

Ladan Davia
CEO & Founder, Beeya

Genevieve Elefante-Sigmund
President
Platinum Storage Group

Dareen Khatib
Manager, Health Sciences Health Education, Wellness, & School Safety, Orange County Department of Education

Nikole Kingston
Partner in Mergers & Acquisitions, O’Melveny & Myers LLP

Mark Lush
Principal & Chief Digital Officer
Deloitte

Mercedes Meseck
Senior Vice President, Partner
The Liberty Company Insurance Brokers

Christine Ouzounian
Vice President National Commercial Services
Commonwealth Land Title Insurance Co.

Mojgan (Mo) Sami, PhD, MA
Assistant Professor of Health Equity
MPH Internship Coordinator
Co-Director, Health Equity for All Lab
Faculty Advisor, SWANA
Cal State University Fullerton

Mohammad Shafie, MD, PhD
Neurology & Vascular Neurology Specialist, UCI Health


President
Richard Shemin, MD

Chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery,
UCLA Health System Distinguished Professor of Surgery
Chair of Robert and Kelly Day
Chair of Cardiothoracic Surgery
Chief of Cardiac Surgery
UCLA Medical Center and David Geffen UCLA School of Medicine

Chair
Paul Watkins

President and Chief Executive Officer,
Northridge Hospital Medical Center,
CommonSpirit Health

Leadership Development Chair
Ed Romano
Retired

Members at Large

Richard Azar
Chief Operating Officer,
UCLA Health

Carolyn Kaloostian, MD, MPH, FAAFP
Assistant Professor of Clinical Family Medicine and Geriatrics
Keck School of Medicine of USC

Smitha Ravipudi, MPH,
CEO,
USC Care;
CEO, Ambulatory Care Services,
Keck Medicine of USC

Ed Romano
Retired

Perika Sampson,
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Advocate and Strategist

David Sato, MD
President
Providence Specialty Medical Group

Kathryn Shirley, CPA, MBT
President
World Management Solutions, Inc.

Elsa Valay-Paz
VP of Gas Acquisition,
SoCal Gas


Juli Moran, MBA - Chair
Managing Director, San Diego Office, Deloitte

Ramón Hernandez, DrPH, MPH – President
Section Chief, Community Health, UC San Diego, School of Medicine

Robert Stein, MD, FACC, FAHA - Immediate Past-President
Cardiologist, Graybill Medical Group

Matthew Zubiller - Leadership Development Chair
CEO, e4

Debbie Day, MBA – Chair-Elect
EVP & GM – APD, Mitchell

Shiela Brown – RN, MBA, FACHE – President-Elect
Advisor to the CEO, Palomar Health

Natalie Hawryluk, PhD
Senior Director, Drug Discovery & Early Development, Edgewise Therapeutics

Andrew Ho, MD, FACC
Cardiologist, Temecula Center for Cardiac Care

Steven Hooker, PhD
Dean, College of Health & Human Services, San Diego State University

Tommy Le, MBA, MPH
CEO, Select Specialty Hospital – SD 

Joe Lo Duca, MBA, MPH
Vice President, Cardiovascular Service Line, Sharp HealthCare

Linda Naviaux Niggli
Retired Senior Executive, Luxury Fashion Industry

Ajay Srivastava, MD
Advanced Heart Failure Cardiologist, Scripps Health

Ernesto Villanueva, EdD
Senior Executive, Education Sector

Richard Armenta, MPH, PhD
Associate Professor, CSU San Marcos

Jason Broad, MBA, FACHE
VP Performance Excellence, Sharp

Kelly Davis
Chief Strategy Officer, Sony

David Hoffman, MBA, FACHE
Corporate Development, Scripps Health

Sharon Smith, MSN, PhD
President, San Diego Black Nurses Association

Sonia Tucker, MBA
VP Population Health, San Ysidro Health


Contact Us

Coachella Valley, Inland Empire and Orange County

Phone: (949) 856-3555

By appointment:
5251 California Avenue
Suite 230
Irvine, CA 92617

Kern County

For Mail Only
816 S. Figueroa St. Ste. 200
Los Angeles, CA 90017

Los Angeles

Phone: 213-291-7000

By appointment:
816 South Figueroa Street
Suite 200
Los Angeles, CA 90017

San Diego

Phone: (858) 410-3850

By appointment:
9404 Genesee Ave.
Suite 240
La Jolla, CA 92037

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Heart and Stroke News

Find science-based stories about heart and brain health and inspiring survivor profiles from American Heart Association News.