b'With that vision guiding her, Mae made a decision. I love Greensboro, she says. I decided to commit my life to community service here. Thats when I really started to understand the notion of philanthropy and what philanthropy can do. I knew this would be my lifes work: to use my volunteerism, my service to nonprofits, my voice and my financial resources to address issues that I care about.As Mae began considering the impact she wanted to make, a wave of momentum began to build in Greensboro. I was serving on a number of boards, including the Cone Health Board of Trustees, and I started getting into conversations about health equity and what was going on in the Black community, she explains.She and her fellow board members studied Cone Healths medical data. Statistics pointed to health disparities between members of predominantly Black neighborhoods and their white counterparts. COVID-19 brought into sharp focus the fact that Black community members experienced worse outcomes.About that same time, voters across the county said Yes to the 2022 bond campaign, supporting a key investment in East Greensboro, an area that had not kept pace with the growth happening in other parts of the city. Mae thought about her vision for her life. She considered Cone Healths commitment to health equity.And she reflected on the community where she grew up.This had been Maes home, where she and her brother spent afternoons and summers with their friends. Played basketball. Learned to swim. Jump-roped. Rode bicycles. And just outside the sphere of the community center, where they were regulars at Sunday service and Vacation Bible School at Mount Zion Baptist Church; attended Bluford Elementary School, Lincoln Junior High and Dudley High School; and shared dinners prepared by Maes mother, known among their friends for being a fantastic cook. That was my life, and it was surrounded by love, and by amazing teachers who provided encouragement and spoke into my life at all levels, she says.It excites me that investment is now coming to this area in a major way, especially as it has become more and more clear that there are health issues to address and needs to be met. Cone Health is on a similar journey, thinking about its own mission and how the health system could support the momentum around investment in East Greensboro. We know from data that the residents in this area experience greater rates of hypertension, high blood pressure and diabetes, says Michelle Schneider, VP & Chief Philanthropy Officer. We have an opportunity to identify individuals in the community that lack access to care, and with Maes 16Cone Health Philanthropy'