Services are being planned for a nonprofit leader who you might not know by name, but who you likely know through impact.
Cass Wheeler served in various leadership positions for the American Heart Association for more than three decades. He was its CEO from 1998 until his retirement in 2008. Under his leadership, the association launched its famous Go Red for Women campaign.
Wheeler died earlier this month in the Austin area. He was 84.
Nancy Brown, current CEO of the American Heart Association, joined Texas Standard to talk about his legacy. Listen to the interview above or read the transcript below.
This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:
Cass Wheeler
Texas Standard: You took over this role in 2008 when Cass retired. Did you know him very well as a person?
Nancy Brown: Oh my gosh, yes. Cass was one of my dearest friends and a mentor all the way back to the early 1990s when I first met Cass as young professional working for the American Heart Association in Michigan.
He and I bonded instantly and became lifelong friends and, of course, business colleagues as well.
Can you talk a little about the kind of person that he was?
You know, Cass was the most visionary – yet humble – person I think I have ever met.
You know, he was a true Texan. He had that beautiful Texas draw and such a warm and inviting personality. But he had a real determination for what he felt the American Heart Association should be doing in service of people’s overall cardiovascular and brain health.
And he was wonderful at engaging people in the cause. I was a young, 27-year-old fundraising executive from the Detroit metropolitan area. Of course, I knew who Cass was because he was one of the leaders of the national organization at that time. I didn’t think he knew who I was.
We were here in Dallas, Texas, at an event going to a dinner, and he came and beelined right next to me on the shuttle bus to go to the dinner. And it was that moment that I could feel that Cass was taking an interest in my career and he really helped me all along the way.
I moved to Dallas in the year 2000, shortly after he was named the CEO, to become his chief operating officer. And then, of course, as you’ve said, when he retired in 2008, I was honored to be selected to be the next CEO of the AHA – and the first woman CEO of the AHA. And that’s a true credit to Cass’ vision and mentorship.
American Heart Association for 35 years. That’s a lot of work to summarize, but what would you highlight as some of his big accomplishments?
Cass was really an architect of a lot of the work that we did across the country to bring the affiliates together in unison around implementing certain programs and services… And his work in advocacy. When he became the CEO, you know, he really defined his leadership by a personal and deep focus in tobacco advocacy.
And then also, Cass really inspired us to think about setting a big, bold goal for a whole decade that the organization could work toward. And that was a goal we set in the year 2000 and achieved in the year 2010, and that was to reduce deaths from heart disease and stroke by 25% during that time period.
And thanks to Cass, we made that happen.
What do you want people to know about the American Heart Association? And I was just gonna ask, I mean, has it made a difference in the fight against heart disease and stroke? It sounds like you’ve documented that.
Oh, we absolutely have documented it. I will start by saying we just celebrated our 100th anniversary last year, and we’re very proud that during the first 100 years of existence of the American Heart Association, we’ve cut deaths from heart disease and stroke in half during that time.
That’s pretty incredible, yet there are so many lives to be saved, and so many environmental things that are happening that cause people to have, for example, obesity, type two diabetes, the way that our food system works, lack of physical activity, the social determinants of health.
So the American Heart Association really exists to provide health and hope for everyone everywhere. And we do that through our robust scientific enterprise with the second largest funder of cardiovascular research outside of the federal government. We do that through our compelling 50-state advocacy program, as well as advocacy at the federal level and in the global health space.
And we do it through our working communities – 30 million volunteers and supporters all across the country that rally around the cause of making their communities healthier. And we’re just honored for all of the support from people in Texas who have always been there for the AHA.
We are a Texas-based global organization. We’re very proud to be based in Dallas, Texas, and very proud of our Texas roots.
Clarification: This story has been updated to detail the dates of Wheeler’s time as CEO.
