Association of Black Cardiologists and Executives Alliance Fund Partner to Expand Brother to Brother: Know Your Numbers Campaign Nationwide

Strategic investment will expand the campaign through storytelling, community engagement, and trusted voices, encouraging Black men to know their numbers.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- It's World Heart Day — a good time to ask a simple question most Black men can't answer: Do you know your numbers? Black men continue to experience some of the nation's highest rates of hypertension and cardiovascular disease, and for too many, that risk goes unnoticed until it's a crisis. The Association of Black Cardiologists (ABC) and Executives Alliance Fund are partnering to change that, expanding Brother to Brother: Know Your Numbers — a culturally grounded campaign built to get Black men talking to other Black men about their heart health, before a number becomes an emergency.

Originally launched as a grassroots pilot in 2025, the campaign will now expand nationally through new investments in community engagement, digital storytelling, and trusted messengers who can inspire conversations about heart health where they matter most.

The need is urgent. Black men are more likely than any other group of American men to live with high blood pressure—57.5% compared with 50.4% of U.S. men overall—and Black adults account for more than half of all heart failure hospitalizations among adults younger than age 50, according to the American Heart Association's 2025 Heart Disease and Stroke Statistical Update. These statistics represent fathers, sons, brothers, mentors, and community leaders whose lives can often be changed through earlier awareness and action.

"Too many Black men are living with dangerously high blood pressure without knowing it," said Kevin F. Kwaku, MD, PhD, President of the Association of Black Cardiologists. "Brother to Brother is about meeting Black men where they already are—on college campuses, in barbershops, at churches, in neighborhoods, and through the voices they trust. It starts with one simple question: Do you know your numbers? With this partnership, we're expanding a campaign that empowers Black men to take control of their health, support one another, and build healthier families and communities."

The campaign began with a simple but powerful idea: encourage Black men to talk openly with one another about heart health. Supported initially through a collaboration with the American Medical Association's Release the Pressure® campaign, Brother to Brother demonstrated the power of peer-to-peer engagement during Tougaloo College's 100 Men in Suits Day, where students created their own campaign videos encouraging one another to know their numbers. The peer-led content generated nearly 17,000 combined views through the college's digital channels, illustrating the impact of culturally relevant storytelling.

Building on those early successes, the next phase of the campaign will expand across the country through partnerships with historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), barbershops, churches, community organizations, health fairs, and physician leaders. Initial activities will focus on Southern states—including Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi—where cardiovascular disease continues to disproportionately affect Black communities.

While the campaign launched with a focus on blood pressure through Release the Pressure, ABC intentionally designed Know Your Numbers as a broader call to action. Future campaign phases will expand to include cholesterol, blood sugar, and other important cardiovascular risk factors, helping Black men better understand and manage their overall heart health.

With support from the Executives Alliance Fund, the ABC will enhance the "Brother to Brother" campaign by creating culturally relevant digital content, expanding community-based activations, engaging trusted physicians and community ambassadors, and developing new educational resources.

"Executives Alliance Fund exists to invest in efforts that strengthen the lives of young men and boys of color—not only through opportunity, but through health and longevity," said Roland Kennedy, Jr., Executive Director of Executives Alliance Fund. "Brother to Brother reflects that vision by empowering Black men to take charge of their health while creating conversations that ripple across families and communities. Healthy communities begin with healthy men."

For more information about Brother to Brother: Know Your Numbers, visit www.abcardio.org.

About the Association of Black Cardiologists
Founded in 1974, the Association of Black Cardiologists (ABC) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving cardiovascular health through physician leadership, professional education, community outreach, research, and advocacy. Guided by the belief that Every Heart Counts, ABC works to improve heart health outcomes and expand access to high-quality cardiovascular care for communities across the United States and around the world.

About Executives Alliance Fund
Executives Alliance Fund is an alliance of philanthropic leaders established to improve life outcomes and increase life expectancy for young men and boys of color. Since 2024, the Schott Foundation for Public Education has served as the Fund's fiscal manager, supporting investments in innovative campaigns, messaging and narrative change, and convenings that advance this mission.

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SOURCE Association of Black Cardiologists