The American Heart Association's mission is building healthier lives, free of cardiovascular diseases and stroke. Heart disease is the No. 1 killer in the world. Stroke ranks second globally and is a leading cause of severe disability. Too many families are losing loved ones of all ages. Each year, these diseases kill more than 800,000 Americans. Some form of cardiovascular disease affects more than one in every three adult Americans. The organization has already made a dramatic impact over time in reducing heart disease and stroke death rates through improved, evidence-based treatment and increased awareness. But we are going further by embarking on groundbreaking research initiatives to actually prevent, reverse and end coronary heart disease and its consequences, bringing together diverse teams of the world's best and brightest minds to solve one of the world's greatest health challenges so that we can live longer, healthier lives. Our 2020 Impact Goal is to improve the cardiovascular health of ALL Americans by 20 percent, while reducing deaths from heart diseases and stroke, all by the year 2020. And the path toward our goal is directed by our Guiding Values: bringing science to life, improving people's lives, building powerful partnerships, speaking in a trustworthy voice, inspiring passionate commitment, making an extraordinary impact, meeting people where they are and ensuring equitable health for all.

Meeting our goals requires changes in public policies, healthcare systems and personal choices. Along with our volunteers, we work with individuals, schools, lawmakers, healthcare providers, employers and others to ensure everyone has access to healthier lifestyle choices and proper health care. We are focused on creating a culture of health everywhere, where the healthy choice is the easy choice. To improve the lives of all Americans, we provide public health education and solutions in a variety of ways. We help people understand the importance of healthy lifestyle choices. We provide science-based treatment guidelines to healthcare professionals to help them provide quality care to their patients. We guide and support quality improvement initiatives in hospitals and practices, facilitating optimal levels of care. We're the nation's leader in CPR education and training. We educate lawmakers, policymakers and the public as we advocate for changes to protect and improve the health of our communities. We have invested $3. 9 billion in cardiovascular research, more than any organization outside the federal government.

As one of the leading cardiovascular organizations in the world, the AHA is uniquely positioned to bring the best and the brightest together to achieve its goals. Founded in 1924, our organization now includes 156 local offices, more than 3,200 employees and more than 30 million volunteers and supporters. The American Heart Association is recognized as one of America's greatest brands (American Brand Council), with 92% of consumers recognizing the brand name (Brand Tracker), and is ranked among the top 10% of all brands for quality (profit and nonprofit). Our media reach is 20 billion media impressions per year. The AHA is the leading funder of cardiovascular and stroke research outside of the federal government, investing $3. 9 billion in research funding since 1949, and we translate that science into evidenced-based guidelines and programs, and better outcomes. Our volunteers include some of the world's best scientists, doctors and health experts, many of the nation's top CEOs, Fortune 500 companies, educational institutions, healthcare providers and technology leaders, as well as communities, lawmakers and grassroots advocates, all fighting with us for a healthier world. Also crucial to this fight are the AHA's own highly-experienced staff, working in quality improvement, emergency cardiovascular care, science and research, development, advocacy, finance, communications, business technology and operations so that we can fund innovative research, fight for stronger public health policies, and provide critical tools and information to save and improve lives, while upholding the highest standards of professionalism, accountability and transparency in our work.

As a science-based organization, accurate measurement is critical to us. We carefully track our long-term and interim progress in the fight heart diseases and stroke, as well as our shorter-term accomplishments. The donations we receive are also key measurements, because we cannot reach any of our goals without resources. We use all of our measurements to guide our strategy for research, education, advocacy and other efforts. Progress toward the 2020 Impact Goal is how we hold ourselves accountable to our mission. Our national volunteer Board of Directors annually monitors progress toward all aspects of this goal, including death rates and the seven key factors that increase the risk for heart disease and stroke: diet, physical activity, body weight, smoking, cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar. Noted scientists and healthcare providers guide us in the tracking of progress toward the 2020 goal. These volunteer experts use federal statistics to track deaths and changes in health factors and behaviors. However, because a major focus of our 2020 goal is improving the health of all Americans, we also are seeking additional measurement tools to more precisely measure progress for African-Americans, Hispanics/Latinos and others at increased risk for heart disease and stroke. In the shorter term, we track our progress through various measurements. Among them: the amount of scientific research we are able to fund, the volume of public health policies enacted, the number of hospitals enrolled in our quality programs, impact of scientific journals, the number of attendees and research presentations at our professional meetings, the number of people enrolled in our educational and awareness programs, media impressions for our awareness campaigns and science news releases, and website visits.

The American Heart Association has contributed greatly to major advances in the fight against heart disease and stroke. Deaths have declined over the past four decades, significant new treatments have been developed, awareness has grown and many new laws are in place to protect the public health. We also were quite successful in the last 10-year national health goal we set: to reduce heart disease and stroke deaths and risk factors by 25 percent by 2010. We actually surpassed the 2010 goal in terms of deaths — and did so two years early. We also met the goals for lowering uncontrolled high blood pressure and high cholesterol by 25 percent. We are very early in our measurements of the 2020 goal, but we're already showing that deaths from heart diseases and stroke have dropped 13. 7 percent in the years for which statistics are available (2007-13). Going deeper, we find significant progress in the key areas of deaths from coronary heart disease (improvement of 20. 5 percent) and stroke (16. 8 percent). Despite these successes, there is much to accomplish. Heart disease remains the leading cause of death in the world. Stroke ranks second and is a leading cause of serious disability. With more resources, we can do more to combat these problems.