As executive director of the Milwaukee chapter of the American Heart Association, Katie Connolly manages a yearly budget of $2.5 million and oversees its community impact work as well as its marketing and communications. Connolly has been with the AHA for nearly 19 years and has been the Milwaukee chapter’s executive director for almost 10. The Milwaukee chapter employs 11 in-office staff while the national organization employs more than 2,900 staff and recruits more than 35 million volunteers.
This year, the American Heart Association is celebrating 100 years of heart and whole-body health advocacy and programming in the U.S. While the Milwaukee chapter and others across the U.S. have not been incorporated for all 100 years, milestone anniversaries are recognized organization-wide. BizTimes reporter Sonia Spitz recently met with Connolly to discuss the chapter’s success and the national organization’s 100-year anniversary. The following portions of their conversation have been edited for length and clarity.
Duties of an executive director
“We have staff that focus specifically on fundraising and staff that focus specifically on community impact work. All of that is really geared toward sustainable change in the community. Some job duties focus on local policy through county or city government while others focus on policy in clinics in how they evolve, how they take a blood pressure or how they report on blood pressure work. There’s also marketing and communication in everything we do. From social media to press releases to day-of event coverage, that all falls under me as the executive director, and we’re doing really well from a financial standpoint. We’re hitting goals and then some. Our fiscal year ended June 30, and we were above goal.”
National to local
“AHA started in Chicago, and then we incorporated in New York. Each state started to build their own chapters, and we eventually agreed that we needed to have a regional presence. If you go into another market, you’re going to see the same staffing structure, the same ways that we involve the community and the same fundraising events for the most part.
“We have staff all throughout (Wisconsin). Some work in our schools on school engagement, some work in our CPR and first aid department, some work in our quality improvement department and some work on advocacy. We have a statewide footprint, but what we do here in this (Milwaukee) location really encompasses all six counties in southeastern Wisconsin. Previously, each state would have their own chapter and a number of years ago, we started becoming what we called at the time, affiliates, with neighboring chapters. Most recently, we’ve started classifying neighboring chapters as ‘regions.’ There are five regions across the country and we’re in the Midwest region, which encompasses 13 states.”
Community-Centered Programming
“The work that we’ve been able to do in the community that’s relatively new over the last five years is really focused on having more of a presence in community programming. For a long time, we didn’t do that. We were more focused on advocacy where we would advocate for policy change, but not necessarily incorporate any kind of direct programming that would benefit the community. Now, we’re really focused on that. We have blood pressure programming, CPR programming and training around access to healthy foods and nutrition security. We have what we call screen-and-refer blood pressure hubs. What we’re doing is shared across all regions and it’s part of the best practice of the AHA that we’re putting into each one of our communities.
“We get involved with coalitions, local community organizations and any kind of free charitable clinics we can partner with. Then, we sit around the table with the county and the city and we talk about how we can make Milwaukee one of the healthiest counties in the state. That’s really what the county executive is trying to accomplish and we know that we can help be a part of that.
“We really strive to be of the community. Our mission is to be a relentless force for a world of longer, healthier lives. Now, as we transition into the second century, we’re really focusing on health and hope for everyone in the next 100 years. We’re focusing on overall health in reducing those barriers to access care. We’re making it easier for you to have access to healthy food and to understand that you need to know your blood pressure numbers more than just that one time a year that you go to the doctor. We’re really invested in building a nation of lifesavers over the next five, six years.”
Breaking out of a niche
“I don’t think it was difficult to break out from heart and brain health exclusively. I think it actually created bigger and better opportunities for us because we could engage in a variety of ways. When we were focused strictly on heart or strictly on brain, we got narrowed into this disease state. Now, we have so many other topics around overall health that we can involve ourselves in. We know that we need to be part of the conversation around violence in the community. That’s not necessarily in our wheelhouse, but we know that we can play a role in it because if people feel safe, they’re going to go outside more often, they’re going to exercise more often, they’re going to get around the block, they’re going to have easier access to health care and better food options. We may not take the lead on it, but we know we need to be part of it.”
New Milwaukee community initiatives
“At the end of June, we implemented a blood pressure program at Clinton Rose Community Senior Center (3045 N. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, Milwaukee). Clinton Rose is one of five county-run senior centers starting the program and we are getting ready to implement the other four right now. Self-monitoring blood pressure allows an individual who is visiting the senior center to take their blood pressure by themselves. When you would take your blood pressure at Walgreens or CVS, you’d use one of those giant machines. Gone are those giant machines and now, it’s just a tabletop machine. The senior center provided the machines and we’re providing the resources and the training for the individuals that work at the senior center. The key piece of that program is that there’s information about referring seniors when there’s cause for concern. We are able to work with free and charitable clinics within the community that accept someone if they come in with elevated blood pressure.
“We have a similar type of programming involving self-monitoring blood pressure at all 12 of the Milwaukee libraries. It’s a little different in that it’s not a tabletop monitor. Guests actually get a cuff and a monitor in what looks like a shoe box, the same resources that are available to those at the senior center, and they’re able to check it out like you would a book or a movie. This service only exists at the 12 libraries currently in Milwaukee. When they’re done and the time is up, they just return the device back to the library. So again, it’s really meant for individuals that have to monitor their blood pressure and maybe don’t have the resources to get a blood pressure cuff at the local drugstore. High blood pressure is the silent killer and when your blood pressure is elevated and you don’t know, you could be at high risk for cardiovascular disease and stroke.”
Getting involved with AHA
“There are lots of ways to get involved with us. You can always volunteer your time at our events, or you can join ‘You’re the Cure’, our advocacy platform. We’re always looking for people that can leave a legacy, also. They can leave the American Heart Association in their will or give an individual gift to support the mission of the AHA.”
