Michaela
J. Gagne was crowned Miss Massachusetts in June of 2006 and went on to
compete for the title of Miss America 2007. This title furthered her
continuing work of a platform issue she entitled Heart Health: Listen,
Learn, and Live, which was a reaction to having been diagnosed with a
life-threatening heart condition and having undergone surgery for an
implantable cardioverter defibrillator at the age of 17. She is
currently a national spokesperson for the American Heart Association’s
Go Red for Women Campaign, and she is a frequent speaker/lobbyist on
Capitol Hill, as well as a requested speaker across the United States
and Canada.
Michaela is a national spokesperson for the SADS (Sudden Arrhythmia
Death Syndromes) Foundation, as well as Parent Heart Watch, a group of
parents making great strides in legislative and national awareness in
memory of the children they have lost to Sudden Cardiac Arrest.
Michaela also serves as an international spokesperson for Heartbeat
International, an organization that provides surgery and the means for
pacemakers, defibrillators, and other devices to be implanted in some
of the one million people who are dying every year without these
procedures. In addition, Michaela campaigns on local and national
levels to make Automated External Defibrillators mandatory in our
schools and raise the need for heart screenings.
She is the recipient of many honors, including being featured on CNN,
Inside Edition, Fox News and in USA Today, along with various other
local and national publications. She has written articles for Newsweek
and EPLab Digest, and in 2008 she received the Toastmasters
International Communication and Leadership Award Recipient. She has
been given various advocate awards from the American Heart Association,
including being named Massachusetts’ top volunteer.
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