Illini Heartbeats is the result of the heart-conscious efforts of our president, Lisa Shiue. In a desire to bring heart awareness to the U of I campus, she decided to try and create an organization for that sole purpose. After gathering some other co-founders (Nishant Patel, Erica Cacioppo, Rohit Puranik, and Rayna Gokli) they all started to build the organization in late Fall of 2004.

Our goal was simply extending the American Heart Association’s goals into the college campus. Other than that we don’t really have much of a history since we are so new to campus, however, we intend to keep working on this goal until we’ve made a difference in the health awareness on the U of I campus.

Our initial founders have lead the group for two years and now the first new group of officers will take over for the ‘06 and ‘07 school year. So, there are a whole new set of opportunities that come with this new leadership so feel free to jump in and help in our effort to raise heart-healthy awareness…