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Women Vision SC: Keisha Hawes

Keisha Hawes
SCETV
Keisha Hawes

Keisha Hawes was age 31 when she had a heart attack. She was a wife and mother, who was holding down several part-time jobs in the Charleston area to help to make ends meet.   She has taken the experience of her heart attack as a way to “serve another purpose.”  She said, “when I was stuck on the fact of suffering a heart attack, I actually suffered. I continued my suffering. When I took a moment and I stopped and I said, ‘no, let's look at this from the lens of you survived a heart attack. So now, what is the purpose in your survival? How can you repurpose this to now be a benefit to people?’ "  Hawes has been tireless in her work to benefit peopleShe was the first American Heart Association national spokesperson from the state of South Carolina, and she has lobbied for better health care overage, research and treatment of women’s issues.  She is a PreK teacher, actor, voice-over artist and a youth pastor, as well as an active community volunteer. 

Linda O’Bryon is a nationally recognized journalist and broadcaster; she is the founding executive editor of Nightly Business Report, a program she co-anchored daily for more than a decade, and a series that was a mainstay on public television for more than 40 years. She started her career as a news reporter, and she has worked at all levels of broadcasting for 45 years, with 40 of those years in public media. O'Bryon is also former president and CEO of South Carolina ETV and SC Public Radio.