The Sister to Sister Foundation is a national 501(c)(3), founded in 2000 by Irene Pollin to prevent heart disease among women. Its mission is to help women take action to protect their hearts before heart disease strikes by offering heart health screenings, help women create personalized plans for treating their heart disease risk factors, and connect women to the people and resources to help them address their risk factors.
Sister to Sister has impacted the lives of thousands of women by providing life-saving screenings and educational resources. To date, we have screened more than 50,000 women for heart disease risk factors.
Please visit Sistertosister.org for more information
Founder and President
Irene Pollin, MSW, PhD (hon.)
Irene Pollin founded Sister to Sister in 2000 with the goal of educating women about heart disease. The primary features of Sister to Sister are health fairs in 21 cities where women are provided free screenings. The women are encouraged to change their behavior to prevent and minimize cardiac risk factors.
A psychotherapist, Mrs. Pollin has established organizations and foundations to help women change behavior on various health-related topics. She created both the Medical Crisis Counseling Center at the Washington Hospital Center and the NBA "Wives Save Lives" breast cancer awareness campaign. Mrs. Pollin, who earned a Master of Social Work degree at Catholic University, has also worked directly with patients in the mental health field for more than 30 years.
Howard University awarded Mrs. Pollin an Honorary Doctor of Humanities degree during commencement ceremonies in May 2007.
The author of two books, "Medical Crisis Counseling" and "Taking Charge: Overcoming the Challenges of Long-Term Illness," Mrs. Pollin has also written numerous articles on coping with chronic illness.
Mrs. Pollin has received awards from many organizations, including the International Psycho-Oncology Society, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and Woman's Day magazine, from which she received the Red Dress Award for 2004.
She is a current member of the Harvard School of Public Health Nutrition Round Table, The Columbia Presbyterian Health Sciences Advisory Council, and Howard University's Women's Health Institute Advisory Committee.
In addition to her extensive work in the health field, Mrs. Pollin also co-owns the Washington Wizards basketball team and the Verizon Center in Washington, DC.
Executive Director
Laurene T. McKillop, PhD
Dr. Laurene T. McKillop, who promotes transformational change in private and public sector programs, has served as Sister to Sister’s Executive Director since September, 2006. The Foundation encourages women to make the behavior and lifestyle changes they need to protect their heart health and prevent disease.
Since her arrival, Dr. McKillop has expanded the scope and the range of services provided by the Foundation. Now a year-long presence in seventeen cities, the Foundation conducts free cardiac health screenings nationwide, encourages women to participate in programs that will improve their heart health, and supports a thriving online community through its newly-designed website. To spread the Foundation’s urgent message that heart disease is a largely preventable killer of women, Dr. McKillop has overseen the development of a wide range of programs, and the promotional work necessary to brand and publicize them, bringing the Foundation to the forefront of women’s health organizations.
The driving force behind Dr. McKillop’s career is the desire to improve the delivery of necessary health and social services to families. For more than twenty years, Dr. McKillop has worked in the public and private sectors to create effective partnerships and programs. She has founded and managed non-profit and for-profit organizations, directed program-wide workflow analyses to design and implement best practices, managed large-scale national technical assistance programs to transfer expertise in an orderly and efficient manner, designed nationwide training programs for programmatic and automated systems rollouts, and worked extensively among the various branches of government, as well as the private sector, to create and implement improved health and social service delivery systems.
Dr. McKillop is an accomplished speaker and author, with additional expertise in strategic planning, coalition building, and fundraising. She holds a Ph.D. and an M.A. from the University of Virginia.
