Keynote Speaker
Meighan Girgus
Chief Mission Officer, American Heart Association
Meighan has been Chief Mission Officer of the American Heart Association (AHA) since 2009. In this role, she oversees all AHA efforts in consumer health, science operations, strategic planning, emergency cardiovascular care, global strategies, communications, health quality, mission aligned businesses, advocacy and field health strategies.
Prior to being named Chief Mission Officer, Meighan served for seven years as the AHA’s Executive Vice President of Healthcare. She has more than two decades of experience in healthcare marketing and administration.
Meighan has spent much of her career dedicated to helping change the care delivery system and has been integrally involved in multiple national panels and writing groups dedicated to fighting cardiovascular disease. She was a co-author of the groundbreaking “Recommendations for the Establishment of Primary Stroke Centers,” published in JAMA, which was the precedent for a radical shift in stroke care in the United States and the premise for The Joint Commission’s primary stroke center certification program. She was a co-author of the “Recommendations for Improving the Quality of Care through Stroke Centers and Systems: An Examination of Stroke Center Identification Options,” which was published in Stroke and has been instrumental in redefining the type of care that is provided to stroke patients. She was a writing group member for the CDC’s “A Public Health Action Plan to Prevent Heart Disease,” and an expert panel member for its workgroup which published “Establishment of Data Elements for the Paul Coverdell National Acute Stroke Registry” in Stroke.
Meighan participated in the NHLBI Workgroup on Peripheral Artery Disease: Developing a Public Awareness Campaign and on the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke, Stroke Progress Review Group. Most recently, she is a co-author of “Translating Research into Practice for Healthcare Providers: The American Heart Association’s Strategy for Building Healthier Lives Free of Cardiovascular Disease and Stroke,” and “Partnering to Reduce Risks and Improve Cardiovascular Outcomes - American Heart Association Initiatives in Action for Consumers and Patients,” both published in the journal Circulation. Additionally, she recently completed a three-year term on the Board of Trustees for the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology under the direction of Dr. Mark Leavitt.
Meighan received her undergraduate degree from the University of Texas at Austin, her Masters in Business Administration from Southern California University, and completed her Graduate Marketing Certification at Southern Methodist University.
Our Survivor
We are currently in the pursuit of a survivor speaker for our 2013 Luncheon. If you are interested in speaking, please contact caitlin.virtue@heart.org
