A breath of fresh air

Bernadette Toomey talks to EHM’s Rebecca Goozee about her professional healthcare background and her new role at the American Lung Association and the bright future of the industry.

Bernadette Toomey became the first female President and CEO of the American Lung Association on the 1st July 2007. Prior to this she was Executive Vice President for Strategic Partnerships and Development at the American Legacy Foundation, an organization that was created as a result of the 1998 agreement between the attorney generals in 46 states and five US territories and the tobacco industry. Toomey was recruited to join Legacy while she was a consultant to the Department of Education during the Clinton administration. Earlier in her career, Toomey worked at the Brookings Institution where she directed their public policy education programs. Toomey accredits her impressive CV to her early education and varied experiences growing up in Brooklyn, New York. She attributes seeing women in leadership roles from an early age, combined with her Catholic schooling at Marymount College as part of the reason why she has always had a strong drive to achieve.

Toomey believes her previous roles prepared her for her current position. They give her a frame of reference to create new ways for the Lung Association to continue to inform the public about the serious public health problems related to lung illnesses. “All of the experiences that I have had in my professional and private life,” says Toomey, “I learn from. They help me make informed judgments about new opportunities using a series of skill sets and past accomplishments. Even failures give you important insight into how to tackle a job as complicated and as important as leading an organization like the American Lung Association.”

In her new role Toomey hopes to be able to build on the prestige, hard work and good will of the American Lung Association and infuse it with new talent and innovative ideas, in order to retain the loyalty of its present donors and attract a younger generation of supporters for the organization. “I want to attract people who can look at our mission in a contemporary and culturally relevant way. This will help to form new strong partnerships that haven’t existed in the past,” explains Toomey. She aims to leverage the assets and equity of the brand she has with the resources of other healthcare organizations. “We’re up against a very powerful and serious foe when we challenge the tobacco companies. They have enormous resources, and not-for-profits like ourselves,” says Toomey, “are trying to counteract the terrible impact that tobacco has had on our society and culture globally.”

Toomey suggest locking arms with like-minded groups who are similarly energized to devise new strategies to combat the serious marketing campaigns that tobacco companies have employed to encourage young people to smoke. Toomey knows that tobacco companies need new people, our children, to take up the habit to replace those dying from this deadly addiction.

Our staff and volunteers are working hard to support research and programs to address this. “We are also looking to the federal government,” says Toomey. “There is legislation pending now in terms of giving the FDA some responsibility to regulate tobacco and the American Lung Association is joining with the American Cancer Society and American Heart Association to get the legislation passed in this Congress.”

The American Lung Association also focuses on creating an environment for clean indoor and outdoor air. It is about the air we all breathe. Among these concerns are finding partners for the American Lung Association to provide more services to educate young people and their families, schools, and communities about asthma. “There is a disproportionate amount of our children in inner cities, minority children who are in unsafe environments in their homes and schools,” remarks Toomey. “We have a huge job educating families and school systems about how to make the environment safer for children with asthma. We are also unfortunately seeing an increasing number of young adults suffering from asthma.

Challenges

One of the main challenges that Toomey faces is the need for more resources. The American Lung Association needs contributions but it also needs increasing numbers of volunteers and more dedicated staff to help meet specific goals.

Ground-breaking campaigns

Toomey is grateful she had the opportunity to create a number of innovative and comprehensive health programs. Among them the “Look Good…Feel Better” program, and with the American Legacy Foundation developed the “Great Start” and “Circle of Friends” campaigns. Toomey believes it is critical to create publilc private parternerships to leverage the impact of health initiatives. Using the “Great Start” campaign as an example Toomey explains her role was to get external support. “A lot of people were very involved in creating the program and my role was to get others to help us extend the impact of the advertising campaign and support the 800 number to help pregnant women learn how to quit.”

Toomey acknowledges it takes many different elements to get a program to be a success and have impact. At the American Lung Association she will be encouraging the national team to make sure they are focusing on all these elements. “You need support from individuals, corporations, foundations and you need to create communities of support across diverse populations and generations. It is critical to have a continuing dialogue with them.”

As Toomey is new to the American Lung Association, her initial focus is to understand the history, the resources, and equity in the brand and to immerse herself in the national campaigns in order to become as familiar as she can with the programs and their effectiveness. “I need to have a strong and meaningful dialogue with the volunteers and professionals in the field, and with our various CEO’s in different regions around the country. I want to understand the challenges they are facing,” says Toomey. “When I have that I know some new ideas will begin percolating and together we'll begin some new and innovative programs everyone can get excited about.”

The air we breathe

In April 2007, the annual American Lung Association State of the Air: 2007 report came out. For the first time the data revealed a split picture along each side of the Mississippi River as particle pollution – the most dangerous pollutant – increased in the east and decreased in the west. The number of counties scoring an A grade for ozone levels increased from 82 in 2000 to 145 in 2007 but particle pollution levels show an ominous trend, with F grades nearly doubling in just one year.

The quality of the air we breathe is a critical global issue and Toomey hopes that the American Lung Association can take a leadership role, forging partnerships with many environmental groups who have focused on clean air issues. “Companies are trying their best to become as green as they possibly can,” comments Toomey. “It is uppermost in the mind of many corporations today and I’m hopeful that one of the things we can do is break down the silos that exist between the public health and environmental groups and bring them together for a more meaningful strategy on what we can do together to become more effective.”

The future

Toomey is encouraged by our younger generation. The future looks bright to Toomey: “It’s very positive in terms of the commitment of our young people,” explains Toomey, “so many teens and young adults are sincerely committed to these issues and they actually try to live a lifestyle that reinforces that personal commitment. I’m very respectful of the current generation's emphasis on wellness and healthy living.”