Laurence Sperling

Laurence Sperling

Candidacy Motivation and Relevance

Colleagues in Global Cardiovascular Disease Prevention,
Sincere thanks for supporting my consideration to serve as a member on the board of WHF. The vision of WHF is cardiovascular health for everyone. I have dedicated the past quarter century to this vision in many capacities. The World Heart Federation connects, leads, and inspires the global cardiovascular community to action. For the past decade I have served WHF in many roles, and have thoroughly enjoyed working with their outstanding, committed team. On behalf of WHF I have served as a delegate to the Global Alliance for CVD Prevention, as a special advisor to the Global COVID-19 Study and Use Heart for Diabetes Project, and as a key opinion leader for the World Heart Vision 2030. I continue to serve as the Chair of the WHF Roadmap on the Prevention of CVD in People Living with Diabetes. Our WHF team brought together members of the writing committee from 4 continents, and launched this roadmap at the 2019 ESC meeting in Paris. On behalf of WHF I presented this roadmap and served on a panel at a session during the 72nd WHO World Health Assembly. As Chair of this roadmap I have given presentations across the world including Geneva, Sweden, Mexico, and Japan. By request of WHF colleagues I have been involved in communications published in the World Heart News related to utilization of influenza vaccination as a strategy for CVD prevention, and a piece on silos in care that was published in the World Economic Forum. This past year I served on the faculty of the WHF Emerging Leaders Program, as well as the co-faculty mentor to the America’s group. In addition, this past year I provided a virtual educational session for the WHF staff on the intersection between diabetes and cardiovascular disease. I have significant experience in many of the WHF platforms and priorities including the impact of COVID on CVD, the importance of vaccinations as strategies for CVD prevention, diabetes and CVD, climate change and CV health, in addition to mapping FH globally. Service to the greater cardiovascular disease prevention community and WHF has always been a high priority. I would be grateful for the opportunity to serve the World Heart Federation as a Member-at-Large.

Currently, in addition to serving as the Katz Professor in Preventive Cardiology at Emory University School of Medicine, and Professor of Global Health in the Rollins School of Public Health I am serving in a National Leadership role in the U.S. In October of 2019 I was appointed the Executive Director of the U.S. Million Hearts Initiative for the Division of Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Million Hearts has the ambitious, but achievable aim of preventing at least one million heart attacks, strokes, and cardiovascular events in the U.S. by focusing on the priorities of building healthy communities, optimizing care, and focusing on health equity. These past several years have been a significant growth opportunity, especially in the midst of a pandemic, as Million Hearts works across all 50 states, and with several hundred Federal and private partners. Over the past year I have helped establish and now Chair the Federal Hypertension Control Leadership Council for the Department of Health and Human Services in the U.S.