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Kulleni Gebreyes was an emergency room doctor and Lynne Sterrett a cardiac nurse before they entered the business world.

Today, Gebreyes is the U.S. chief health equity officer at Deloitte and founding executive director of its Health Equity Institute. The Institute partners with organizations to advance health equity through investments, data insights and knowledge sharing.

In that role, she reviews Deloitte's policies to ensure they consider social determinants of health — conditions in which people are born and live.

"Only 20% of preventable deaths are driven by clinical care," she said. "Main root causes are linked to the drivers of health, which include social, economic and environmental factors that impact each of us."

Sterrett is a consulting leader and managing principal for the Life Sciences and Health Care practice at Deloitte. Her experience as a nurse — and growing up with a brother with a congenital heart defect — directly impact her approach to business.

"Empathy has always been a huge part of my leadership style," she said.

Eager to give back, she is a longtime AHA Bay Area board member and a leader in the Western states for many years. In addition, she is involved in the AHA's national stroke efforts.

Working with the AHA inspired to her "contribute in a deeper way," she said. "I wanted to build something meaningful."

United by a common goal, Gebreyes and Sterrett joined forces on a groundbreaking initiative to reduce health care disparities in the workplace and beyond. Specifically, they spearheaded an innovative, data-driven strategic collaboration between the ľ¹ÏÖ±²¥, the Society for Human Resources Management Foundation and Deloitte Health Equity Institute.

"We wanted to work with organizations that had a proven track record of making meaningful change and that had selected health equity as a priority," Gebreyes said.

For their unyielding efforts, Gebreyes and Sterrett will receive a 2023 Award of Meritorious Achievement, which the AHA presents annually to organizations and individuals for contributions of national significance. They'll be honored on June 14 during the AHA's from 6 to 8 p.m. Central.

The collaboration, dubbed the Health Equity in the Workforce initiative, brings together employers and community organizations and provides tools to measure impact and recognize achievements across the business landscape.

"We need the sizzle and the steak," Gebreyes said. "The sizzle mobilizes others, but you have to have substance as well."

The initiative's playbook considers health equity disparities that might exist within organizations. For example, if CEOs know that pregnant Black women have higher rates of heart disease, they can develop programs that more effectively support them, Sterrett said.

The initiative aims to enable positive health outcomes for 10 million U.S. workers by 2025.

"If you get big companies with thousands of employees activated, it will have a cascading effect and really activate change," Sterrett said. "We can make a huge difference."

As both these women know, health equity is not only a public health issue, but also a business issue. "Purpose and profit need to align," Gebreyes said. "If you want your company to succeed, you have to have a healthy workforce."