Cross & Crescent

The human heart is a strong, muscular pump, a little larger than a fist; beating an average 100,000 times a day. In a 70-year lifetime, it will beat more than 2.5 billion times, unless it experiences a heart attack or stroke; two of the nation’s top-three killers.

The American Heart Association, a voluntary health agency whose mission is to reduce disability and death from these two ailments, is on your side. And so is Mark Schoeberl (Simpson 1984), who serves as AHA’s executive vice president for advocacy.

Each year, about 500,000 Americans die from a heart attack and another 150,000 from stroke. To reduce these numbers, the AHA focuses its efforts on increasing medical research, raising money to fund research, educating public and healthcare providers on medical advancements, and advocating its mission by lobbying policymakers — what Schoeberl does best.

Paramedic Beginnings

A graduate from Simpson College, Schoeberl earned a bachelor’s in political science. While a student and after graduation, he worked as a paramedic to help finance his education. He described it as a bohemian lifestyle, “I worked in political campaigns in the fall, in the legislature in the spring, and full-time as a paramedic — allowing me to go back to graduate school.”

He graduated from Iowa State in 1988, with a master’s in public administration, which led him to work for the state of Iowa in the Department of Public Health. With his paramedic background, he began his career in emergency medical services inspecting ambulance services.

Eventually, he became deputy director for the Iowa Department of Public Health and served as the agency’s lobbyist in the Iowa General Assembly. Schoeberl considers the chance to lobby “a great opportunity for me to put my political skills, public administration, knowledge of public health, and EMS together.”

Schoeberl decided he didn’t want to spend the rest of his public service career in government and started looking toward the non-for-profit world. He searched out the American Heart Association because of some personal family experiences early in life and soon found that his background in politics, public health, and EMS made it a perfect fit.

In 2002, the AHA named Schoeberl vice president for state advocacy and public health. In this role, he was responsible for guiding the Association’s lobbying efforts in state legislatures and developing public health relationships with the Center of Disease Control and state health departments.

Schoeberl was then named executive vice president for advocacy in March 2006. He had been acting as the interim in the position since July 2005.

Advocacy

The American Heart Association is an organization committed to the prevention and reduction of risks associated with the number one and three killers of Americans, heart disease and stroke.

The AHA invested approximately $415 million during fiscal year 2004-2005 on research support, public and professional education, and community programs. It employs 3,400 people nationwide, including more than 100 individuals working on advocacy at the federal, state, and local level.

“Volunteer voices are essential to our success,” says Schoeberl. The AHA has more than 130,000 volunteer advocates nationwide, representing all 50 states. These volunteers contact their elected officials on behalf of the AHA to, as Schoeberl says, “Change the environment in which Americans live.”

The organization doesn’t make campaign contributions to elected officials. Instead, it relies on the voices of volunteers who are “passionate about heart disease and stroke, and want to reach out to their public officials to demand a change that can be made to reduce the toll these diseases have in our community,” he says.

An area in which the AHA is very active is the reduction of death associated with tobacco. In conjunction with the American Cancer Society and other groups, the AHA helped lead advocacy efforts for smoke-free indoor air ordinances.

Their grassroots effort of targeting local elected officials has been the key to AHA’s success. Political efforts to adopt stronger public health laws and ordinances at the city, county, and state levels are more difficult for big tobacco to derail.

Today, approximately 42 percent of the U.S. population lives in a community that bans tobacco use in restaurants, bars, and other public places. Schoeberl attributes this to, “Community after community saying no to secondhand smoke; no to risking their health and the lives of their loved ones.”

Another area of advocacy in which Schoeberl and the AHA focus much attention is obesity. Some studies suggest that the next generation of Americans could be the first not to outlive their parents. Contributing to this is a sedentary lifestyle which has become a societal norm.

“What the American Heart Association is doing in the arena of advocacy is to ensure schools across the country have meaningful, quality, physical education placed back in curriculum,” says Schoeberl. “With the No Child Left Behind Act and a growing emphasis on academic performance, sometimes physical education is the first thing removed.”

Educating Providers

The American Heart Association is probably best known for translating the latest science into guidelines for healthcare providers so they can bring life saving techniques and drugs.

When someone suffers cardiac arrest, 911 is called. First responders arrive with a defibrillator, the ambulance arrives with drugs on board capable of sustaining a heart beat, and trained professionals provide additional life-saving measures at an emergency facility; all so the person in need has a better chance to not only survive, but to return to a productive life.

Schoeberl points out that this whole process has evolved over the last 20-30 years. “Advances in science and the ability of the AHA and others to apply what we’ve learned,” he says, “ensures a rapid response to medical emergencies — emergencies that would have been fatal.”

As society moves to a system of more computer-driven medical records, the AHA will continue to work to ensure that guidelines are incorporated into electronic clinical records. “For instance, when someone is discharged from the hospital after a bypass, the physician can be prompted to ensure that their patient has the appropriate medicine prescribed and a proper follow-up scheduled.”

“Our organization has a health impact goal to reduce the instance the coronary heart disease and stroke by 25 percent by 2010,” Schoeberl says. “By working with hospitals to ensure that they are treating to the latest guidelines, we can significantly reduce death and disability associated with heart attacks and stroke.”

Simpson Experience

An Iowa native, Schoeberl chose to attend Simpson College in part to continue his football career, and because the school had a strong political science department.

The Lambda Chi chapter house was located in the center of campus, a location he passed everyday on the way to football practice. “Walking by and seeing the enthusiasm, excitement, and activity generated around the house made me think that this was a group of guys I would like to get to know better,” he says.

A few Lambda Chis were also on the football team, and often shared fun stories about the fraternity. When rush week came around, Schoeberl joined.

Within a couple of years, Schoeberl’s focus switched from football to academics and his involvement in the fraternity began to grow. As a sophomore, he served as the chapter’s High Rho. “The responsibility early on built my confidence in my emerging leadership skills and abilities,” he says. “I don’t think that would have been possible as a sophomore in the broader campus community.”

He went on to serve as the chapter’s treasurer and president in his senior year. “The increasing leadership roles in the fraternity really developed the political skills that I continue to benefit from today,” Schoeberl says.

Schoeberl’s fondest memory from his college days was the chapter’s Celebration of Life tradition, typically held at the end of every school year. “Individuals would share their thoughts, aspirations, and memories of each other. Every one of those moments would be truly inspiring,” he remembers. “Every brother would share very heartfelt comments. The sentiment you would hear from one brother to another was simply amazing.”

Even today, when he returns to Iowa, some of the first people Schoeberl calls upon are fraternity brothers. “I guess the adage is true; as you grow older you don’t build a close relationship as you did when you were young,” he says. “Even if I don’t talk to my brothers for a year, when we do connect we don’t miss a beat.”