{"id":45345,"date":"2025-09-29T18:38:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T18:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/45345\/"},"modified":"2025-09-29T18:38:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T18:38:08","slug":"a-qa-with-the-ahas-lisa-suennen-stat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/45345\/","title":{"rendered":"A Q&#038;A with the AHA&#8217;s Lisa Suennen| STAT"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"author-bio\">Elizabeth Cooney is a cardiovascular disease reporter at STAT, covering heart, stroke, and metabolic conditions. You can reach Liz on Signal at LizC.22.<\/p>\n<p>She\u2019s the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/2018\/06\/06\/lisa-suennen-health-care-gatekeeper\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Venture Valkyrie<\/a>. Long a prominent figure in the Bay Area known for working with health care entrepreneurs seeking an infusion of capital, Lisa Suennen still writes a <a href=\"https:\/\/venturevalkyrie.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">blog<\/a> under that nom de plume. And she still advocates for women in health care.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Her vantage point is different now. Since January 2024, Suennen has been the \u00a0managing partner of the American Heart Association Ventures, overseeing $200 million in assets. Its goal is to translate science, research, and clinical knowledge into commercial products and services, in some cases amplifying donors\u2019 philanthropic contributions. The AHA isn\u2019t the only medical organization of its kind to have a venture group under its umbrella: The American Cancer Society and Breakthrough T1D (formerly known as the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation) also have venture arms to encourage new companies that align with their health goals.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Now, given the current less-than-red-hot climate for venture capital and the sharp decline in government funding of academic biomedical research, AHA Ventures\u2019 investments have taken on even more luster. So far this year, thousands of grants awarded by the National Institutes of Health have been halted because they don\u2019t align with the Trump administration\u2019s political agenda. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/2025\/08\/15\/inside-trump-nih-stalled-grants-political-control-threatened-research\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">New policies and new layers of political review<\/a> come on top of an estimated <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/2025\/07\/28\/nih-cuts-new-study-says-long-term-they-will-cost-more-than-saved\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">40% budget cut<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"restricted-text\">STAT+ Exclusive Story<\/p>\n<p class=\"restricted-login\">Already have an account? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/login\/\" data-stat-login=\"\" data-stat-paywall-cta=\"breaker login cta\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Log in<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"restricted-content-breaker-bg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/stat-plus-breaker-bg.png\" alt=\"STAT+\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/stat-plus\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"stat-plus-logo\" src=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/wp-content\/themes\/stat\/images\/stat-plus-logo-white.svg\" alt=\"STAT+\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\tThis article is exclusive to STAT+ subscribers<br \/>\n\t\t\t\tUnlock this article \u2014 plus in-depth analysis, newsletters, premium events, and news alerts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"restricted-content-breaker-wrapper-cta mobile\">Already have an account? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/login\/\" data-stat-login=\"\" data-stat-paywall-cta=\"breaker login cta mobile\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Log in<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tIndividual plans<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tGroup plans<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/stat-plus\/\" class=\"stat-button view-all\" data-stat-paywall-cta=\"breaker view all plans\" aria-label=\"View All Plans\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">View All Plans<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"restricted-content-text\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tTo read the rest of this story subscribe to STAT+.\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/stat-plus\/\" class=\"stat-button restricted-button\" data-stat-paywall-cta=\"breaker subscribe cta 1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Subscribe<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Elizabeth Cooney is a cardiovascular disease reporter at STAT, covering heart, stroke, and metabolic conditions. You can reach&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45346,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[6351,163,521,85,46,1360,15830,997],"class_list":["post-45345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-cardiovascular-disease","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-research","tag-stat","tag-venture-capital"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45345\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}