Advocate Spotlight: Meghan Azhar

Meet Meghan - an American Heart Association employee new to Madison, WI from Atlanta, GA!

What brought you to be an advocate for the American Heart Association?

I have seen successes and failures with heart disease and stroke in my family so I wanted to get involved to help change statistics. My first daughter had a rare disease that was affecting her lungs and heart and it was detected during a 20 week ultrasound. She had to have heart and lung surgery at age 6 months. So I've seen first hand the benefits of AHA's research.

Then on Christmas day 2011 my 59 year old father had a massive hypertensive stroke and we lost him. So I have seen how important knowing the warning signs for a stroke can be and how crucial getting a loved one to a stroke accredited hospital to receive TPA can be.

What issues or policies are you most passionate about and why?

Children's health issues. I have 2 little girls and a little boy on the way. want them to have healthy choices readily available and I want them to see a turn in the obesity epidemic that we as Americans have caused. I want the healthy choice to be the easy choice.

What is your favorite advocacy memory or experience so far and what made it great?

Seeing the CPR bill pass in 2013 in Atlanta Georgia and getting to work with Cory Wilson's family to see that every senior by the time they graduate high school knows hands only CPR. Cory lost his life at the age of 19 at Georgia Southern due to a cardiac arrest event where no one knew what to do and no AED was available. We honored his family at our Atlanta Heart Ball in 2016.

What is your favorite way to be active?

 run 5, 10, 15K's and half marathons. I also am an avid tennis player, even 7 months pregnant.

What is your favorite fruit or vegetable?

Strawberries and avocados (just not together)