The Virginia Department of Health has added a new position in an effort to reduce heart disease and stroke in Southwest Virginia.

As the region’s heart disease and stroke prevention coordinator, Sophie Wenzel will be based at the New River Health District in Christiansburg. She will work with local partners – coalitions, health departments, hospitals, pharmacies, volunteers and non-profits – from Roanoke and Lynchburg south to Danville and west to Lee County, the health department said in announcing the position.

Wenzel will also promote the national Million Hearts Initiative, which Virginia was the third state in the nation to join, according to the health department. This campaign, sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Center for Medicaid Services, seeks to prevent one million heart attacks and strokes in the U.S. over a five-year period.

Heart disease and stroke are two of the leading causes of death and disability in Virginia and nationwide. Cardiovascular diseases – including heart attacks, other heart diseases and strokes – are responsible for one of every three deaths in the U.S.

To learn more, go to www.vdh.virginia.gov/ofhs/prevention/hdsp/millionHeartsva. Or call Wenzel at 540-381-7100, ext. 124.