Miss America 2026

Inspired by her family’s challenges, Miss America Cassie Donegan advocates for heart health

Long before she was crowned Miss America 2026, Cassie Donegan was learning lessons about strength, resilience and perseverance from her mother’s battle with multiple strokes and a heart attack.

“I still vividly remember at 10 years old being picked up from school and driven to the hospital to see my mother after she had her first stroke,” said Donegan, now 28.

The experience was magnified by the fact that her mother, Traci, was only 30 years old and pregnant.

“At that age, your parents are invincible,” she said. “Watching your mom go through something that traumatic breaks a lot of that security for a child. It also raised fears about if I would be able to help her if it happened again.”

Her mother recovered and later gave birth to Donegan’s sister, but the health challenges were far from over. In the years that followed, her mother faced additional cardiovascular complications and eventually suffered a heart attack.

Other family members, including her father and stepfather, also faced heart issues. Watching their determination gave Donegan a deeper understanding of the physical and emotional toll cardiovascular disease can take on families.

Donegan found comfort and confidence by competing in pageants and through arts education. Singing, dancing and theater became outlets where she could express herself and find stability amid uncertainty at home, she said.

“The arts gave me a place where I felt empowered,” she said. “I learned perseverance, communication and confidence.”

Winning Miss America gave Donegan, who represented New York, a national platform to bring attention to two causes that have shaped her life: arts education and heart-health awareness.

Suddenly, she said, the personal experiences that shaped her childhood could reach a larger audience. As Miss America, Donegan serves as an ambassador for the national alliance between the American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women movement and Miss America’s Scholarship Foundation. The collaboration aims to improve women’s health through education and awareness.

For Donegan, the partnership is deeply personal.

“Heart disease doesn’t discriminate by age,” she said. “The more we can educate people, the more lives we can save.”

Since 2004, the Go Red for Women movement has worked to advance health policies and reduce cardiovascular disease, the No. 1 killer of women. Miss America’s support includes awareness campaigns, community outreach and fundraising.

Last year, Donegan was honored to join Heart Association leaders, cardiac arrest survivors and fellow advocates in Washington, D.C., to support funding for the HEARTS Act. The bipartisan legislation creates grant opportunities that help schools purchase automated external defibrillators (AEDs), develop cardiac emergency response plans, and expand CPR and AED training nationwide.

For Donegan, the legislation represents a practical way to save lives by ensuring that students and staff have the tools and training they need to respond during a cardiac emergency.

She said another favorite experience with the Heart Association was participating in the Go Red for Women Red Dress Collection Concert. The annual music and fashion event brings together celebrities, survivors and advocates to promote women’s heart health.

“You realize that drawing awareness to heart disease spirals so far and wide,” she said. “Being in that one room with so much power you see the magnitude of the voices. That is when change starts to happen.”

As a voice and theater educator, Donegan helps young people discover confidence through performance and self-expression. She sees many of the same qualities she developed through the arts in the students she teaches today. She often reminds them that opportunities in the arts can improve mental health and open doors they never imagined, just as they did for her.

“Without access to arts education, I wouldn’t be where I am as an educator, as a professional, I just wouldn’t be here,” she said. “My life would look very different.”

She hopes her experience can inspire others to prioritize their health, support the arts and overcome challenges in their own lives.

“It’s really special to serve in this role because of my family journey and lived experiences,” she said. “To do work with tangible and lasting impact is so meaningful and to be discussing heart health with young people every single day means everything to me.”