CoreLife Strengthens Commitment with the American Heart Association

This year, CoreLife employees across Maryland and North Carolina are coming together to support the American Heart Association through fundraising, Heart Walk participation, and community engagement. While the Greater Maryland Heart Walk includes the Torch Journey, CoreLife teams in both states are helping advance the American Heart Association’s mission by participating in their local Heart Walk related events.

Maryland Team Directory

North Carolina Team Directory 

While the Heart Walk provides an opportunity for employees to support the American Heart Association through fundraising and community engagement, CoreLife’s commitment to improving cardiovascular health extends into its clinical work as well.

CoreLife has joined the American Heart Association’s CKM Health Initiative™, a nationwide effort to close gaps in care, improve access to evidence-based therapies, and address the interplay between cardiovascular, kidney, and metabolic conditions.

Through the initiative, CoreLife joins healthcare organizations across the country to share best practices, participate in quality improvement initiatives, and advance evidence-based care for patients living with interconnected cardiovascular, kidney, and metabolic conditions.

CoreLife’s integrated model of medical providers, dietitians, behavioral health specialists, and fitness experts working together, was built on one idea: lasting weight loss and metabolic health comes from treating the whole person. The CKM Health Initiative gives us a framework and a community of peer organizations to keep pushing that work forward, because for our patients, this is about far more than the scale. It’s about real metabolic health.

Heart disease remains one of the leading causes of death in the United States, and cardiovascular health is closely connected with conditions such as obesity, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, and metabolic disease.

As a healthcare organization focused on obesity and metabolic health, CoreLife recognizes the important relationship between weight management, lifestyle change, and long-term cardiovascular wellness. Our integrated care model brings together medical providers, registered dietitians, behavioral health specialists, and fitness experts to help patients address many of the underlying factors that can contribute to chronic disease.

Supporting initiatives like the Heart Walk, alongside participation in the American Heart Association’s CKM Health Initiative™, reflects CoreLife’s ongoing commitment to improving health not only through patient care, but also through community involvement and clinical collaboration.

Follow our Heart Walk journey throughout the coming weeks as we share fundraising milestones, Torch Journey highlights, team updates, and photos from CoreLife’s American Heart Association efforts across Maryland and North Carolina. This article will be updated throughout the campaign as our teams come together to support healthier communities.

The 2026 Greater Maryland Heart Walk Torch Journey 

The 2026 Greater Maryland Heart Walk Torch Journey has officially made its way through CoreLife’s Maryland locations, bringing team members together in support of the American Heart Association and its work to fight heart disease and stroke.

The ten-week Torch Journey began at MedStar Franklin Square Medical Center, where this year’s Maryland Heart Walk Chair, Dr. Stuart M. Levine, officially launched the torch. From there, it traveled through several Maryland healthcare organizations and community partners before arriving at CoreLife on September 14.

CoreLife President and Founder Sean Kostkowski accepted the torch from Randy Komenski, Executive Director at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, marking the beginning of its journey through CoreLife’s Maryland communities. Over the following weeks, the torch visited each of our Maryland locations, giving teams across the state an opportunity to come together, take part, and show their support for the American Heart Association.

This year’s Heart Walk effort at CoreLife was championed by Fermin Barrueto, Jr., MD, MBA, FACHE, who helped bring our team together around the cause.

After making its way through all of our Maryland locations, the torch was passed to our friends at CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield as it continues toward the 2026 Greater Maryland Heart Walk on Saturday, October 10.

The Torch Journey has been a reminder of what can happen when healthcare organizations, employers, and community leaders come together around heart health. From welcoming the torch at each location to supporting fundraising efforts and participating in the Heart Walk, CoreLife teams have helped carry the spirit of the initiative throughout our Maryland communities.

As we head toward Heart Walk Day, we’re proud to have been part of the Torch Journey and look forward to coming together again on October 10 in support of the American Heart Association.