A three-time heart attack survivor is leveraging her resilience to advocate, spread awareness, and prevent heart disease and strokes in the Black community.
By 40, Tara Robinson of Grand Prairie, Texas, would suffer from the same disease that has been a silent killer among Black men and women. The fight for her life would motivate her to be the conduit between the Black community and heart health.
“I suffered three heart attacks
over three days and died during the third attack. After volunteering for the American Heart Association for years, I noticed that there wasn’t a community connection between their organization and Black people,” Robinson said in an interview with Voyage Dallas.Now 48, Robinson is the CEO and founder of the Black Heart Association, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to “significantly lower the number of Black deaths caused by heart disease and stroke each year.”
“As a survivor, I believe there is no one better to take up the mantle of reaching and awakening the heart of trauma achieve their greatest level of overall well-being through mental, physical, and emotional healing,” she said.
“What sets us apart is that we target one group of people but will help anyone, but our data, research, and knowledge is all culture-specific.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), heart disease is the leading cause of death for Black women. The risks can be reduced by lifestyle changes and getting routine screenings for a variety of factors, including cholesterol, obesity, blood pressure, and more.
While taking action through advocacy, Robinson’s ambitious efforts continue to educate Black women about managing heart health. She has launched her organization’s mobile heart center, a bus that strives to be a pillar in the community by providing free health screenings throughout the Fort Worth, Texas, area.
“Our goal with the mobile bus is to make sure that we are wherever our people are — that’s at the car wash, the barbershop, the beauty shop, the church,” she told Good Morning America. “Wherever you are, that’s where the bus can pull up to.”