Lorelei McIntyre-Brewer

Lorelei McIntyre-Brewer is the Founder/CEO of Heart Hugs, a global organization that provides tangible support and advocacy for congenital heart defect awareness, detection, and treatment. Her work includes several educational publications explaining the Total Artificial Heart, 3-Stage Palliative Reconstruction, and the effects of trauma on patients. She has been instrumental in funding various medical response programs, advocating for transplantation approval for children with intellectual disabilities as well as better cardiac care for Wounded Warriors, providing compression heart pillows to over 68,000 open heart patients around the world, and advocating for informed and culturally responsive health programs to help detect congenital heart defects. During this COVID-19 crisis, Heart Hugs has provided in-home medical PPE and equipment to Indigenous families in a coordinated effort to provide the best medical care possible during a pandemic. She was recognized as Military Child of the Year for the Army, a National Prudential Spirit of Community Award Recipient, an Everyday Health Hero by Dr. Mehmet Oz, an Ambassador for the Wildlife Leadership Academy, and Marvel’s newest superhero ‘The Dazzling Lorelei’ on Marvel’s Hero Project on Disney+, as well as numerous other distinctions. Her Cherokee heritage greatly influences her approaches to Resiliency and Healing as she faces her own complicated diagnosis of Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome, an incurable severe congenital heart defect. Lorelei’s ability to make extremely complicated diagnoses understandable to the public creates hope and understanding in each community she serves. She wishes to thank her mom, dad, Aunt Julie Thornton-Brison, Uncle Michael Nephew, Auntie Lena Epps Brooker, Aunt Julie and Uncle Drew Jardine, and Tana Twist for their love and support. She writes in memory of her Poppy Bill Twist.