About Us

About Sister to Sister

The Sister to Sister Foundation, a 501 (c) (3) charitable organization, is dedicated to educating women about heart disease and encouraging them to change their behavior to prevent or minimize their cardiac risk factors. Sister to Sister accomplishes this by providing free cardiac screenings to women nationwide, conducting and publishing research on women and cardiac health, and providing women with the tools to make constructive changes for improved cardiac health.

How We Work

To fulfill our mission, Sister to Sister assumes a national leadership role across the nation to ensure that heart disease in women of all ages, races and backgrounds is prevented or detected early by conducting the following activities:

• Screening opportunities for heart disease risk factors in all women of all ages, races and backgrounds
• Information through seminars, speakers, exhibits, fitness events and cooking demonstrations
• Support and encouragement from women helping other women
• True partnerships with companies that sponsor health fairs and encourage their female employees' participation
• Empowering women to "take charge" of their lives by making lifestyle changes that will reduce their risk of heart disease
• Researching women screened at our health fairs to show that screening saves lives - more than one-third of the women screened, even though they believed they were healthy, were found to be at risk for heart disease

The Sister to Sister Foundation was founded in 2000 on the premise of women helping other women. Through our expanding calendar of free local health fairs, in addition to our National Woman's Heart Day campaign, it is our hope that women will encourage their mothers, sisters, daughters, friends and coworkers to get screened for heart disease and live a healthy lifestyle.

Irene Pollin, M.S.W.
Founder and President of The Sister to Sister Foundation

Irene Pollin is the founder of The Sister to Sister Foundation, a 501 (c) (3) charitable organization dedicated to educating women about heart disease and encouraging them to change their behavior to prevent or minimize their cardiac risk factors. Sister to Sister accomplishes this by providing free cardiac screenings to women nationwide, conducting and publishing research on women and cardiac health, and providing women with the tools to make constructive changes for improved cardiac health.

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.

She has authored two books, "Medical Crisis Counseling" and "Taking Charge: Overcoming the Challenges of Long-Term Illness," and written numerous articles on coping with chronic illness. She is frequently featured in print, TV and radio programs, including The Today Show and Nightline with Ted Koppel.

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 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. She is a past member of the Advisory Council for the Harvard School of Public Health's Center for Health Communications, the Advisory Committee of the National Institutes of Health's Office of Research on Women's Health, the Advisory Committee of Columbia Presbyterian Hospital's Center for Women's Health, and the Board of the National Health Museum.

In addition to her extensive work in the health field, Mrs. Pollin also co-owns the Washington Wizards basketball team and the Washington, DC-based Verizon Center.

Donnica L. Moore, M.D.
Sapphire Women's Health Group

Dr. Donnica Moore, best known as "Dr. Donnica," is highly regarded as a women's health expert, advocate and educator. She is the President of Sapphire Women's Health Group LLC, a multimedia women's health education and communications firm. She is also President of DrDonnica.com, a popular women's health information Web site.

Dr. Moore has appeared in more than 500 television interviews on women's health topics including her role as the women's health contributor for NBC's Later Today and guest appearances on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," "The View," and many other shows. In addition, she has contributed to forty professional publications all focusing on women's health and career issues. She is currently a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Women's Health and is the "Doctor on Call" columnist for First for Women magazine.

She has received more than 30 awards for her achievements in medicine and business and has served on the Board of Directors of the American Medical Women's Association, the Society for Women's Health Research and the Friends of the National Institute of Nursing Research. Dr. Donnica was also a founding member and first co-chair of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists Corporate Advisory Board; a member of the Board of Trustees of the National Council on Women's Health; and is currently an emeritus member of the Board of Directors of Research!America.

Dr. Donnica is a cum laude graduate of Princeton University. She earned her medical degree from the State University of New York School of Medicine at Buffalo and undertook residency training in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Temple University followed by an additional year of training in family medicine at Memorial Hospital of Burlington County, NJ.

Contact us with questions or comments

The Sister to Sister Foundation
4701 Willard Ave. Suite 223, Chevy Chase, MD 20815

For media inquiries contact:
The Sister to Sister Foundation
(301) 718-8033
info@sistertosister.org