American Heart Association Enlists 15 Youth Ambassadors to Combat Health Challenges

The American Heart Association is addressing rising mental and physical health challenges among young Americans by launching its 2025-26 Youth Heart Ambassador program, selecting 15 students from grades 1-12 nationwide. These ambassadors, representing the Association's Kids Heart Challenge™ and American Heart Challenge™ initiatives, each have personal connections to heart disease or stroke—as survivors or advocates—and will use their experiences to promote healthy habits, raise awareness about prevention, and advocate for Hands-Only CPR and AEDs in schools. Key players include Lee Shapiro, the Association's volunteer board chair, who emphasized the ambassadors' role in building a culture of health for future generations.

The ambassadors, hailing from states like West Virginia, California, and Texas, include inspiring individuals such as Ava, born with Tetralogy of Fallot, a congenital heart defect involving four heart problems, who had open-heart surgery at three days old; Heather, a 10th grader who survived cardiac arrest thanks to CPR and an AED and now advocates for stronger emergency response plans; and Ridge, a fourth grader who received a heart transplant in 2023. Other ambassadors, like Julianna with Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome, an arrhythmia affecting heart electrical pathways, and Diya with Transposition of the Great Arteries, where main arteries were switched, highlight diverse heart conditions and resilience. The program, grounded in science, aims to improve physical and emotional well-being, support academic success, and empower students to make a difference, with schools able to register at heart.org/getstarted and learn more about becoming ambassadors at heart.org/youthambassador.