Jo Ann McGowan
(1946-2096)

Yes, one person really can make a (huge) difference.

It all started with Jo Ann McGowan on a business trip to the Soviet Union to help organize the first Soviet-American film festival in 1988. Her interpreter, Elena Senotova, confided to Jo Ann that their family and doctors had exhausted all possible medical resources in the USSR to help her 7-year-old daughter, critically ill with childhood heart disease (CHD). Jo Ann’s compassion galvanized her to battle the Soviet bureaucracy and find a way to save this child in the United States. 

Returning to Northern California, Jo Ann wasted no time in enlisting Drs. Stan Higashino and Nilas Young and their colleagues at Children’s Hospital of Oakland, to perform necessary medical procedures pro bono. She then succeeded in overcoming administrative and fundraising hurdles to bring Elena and her daughter to the U.S. Masha’s heart was finally repaired in late December, 1988. The bond between Heart to Heart and Masha’s family was forged.

Having been a key part of this wonderful miracle, Jo Ann leapt at the chance to team up with Stan and Nilas to find a way to save more children. She dedicated herself to the formation of Heart to Heart. We are thankful that the tenacity and compassion that inspired her initial act of kindness are permanently imprinted on our organizational culture.