I’m Elisa, the founder and president of BeyonDNA and The Heartline Project.

My story, and this organization, start in a small apartment and the quiet kind of stress that settles over a family when money is never quite enough. Growing up in the humble confines of apartment E303 at the YWCA housing units, I learned very early what it feels like to be grateful for help and embarrassed by needing it at the same time.

Those experiences are why I care so much about health equity and why I’m obsessed with the details that often get ignored: the language on a brochure that makes you feel judged, the way stigma can keep someone from reaching for help even when it’s right in front of them. BeyonDNA and Heartline are my way of reaching back to the kids and families who are in the painful position I once knew so well.

Through Heartline, I work with an incredible team of students to design and distribute wellness kits. things like hygiene items, stress-relief tools, and resource guides, to teens and families accessing food banks and community services.

I also spend time in hospitals and research settings, learning how policy, medicine, and lived experience collide. My hope is to carry all of this (my background, my community work, and my future in health and science) into something that keeps opening doors for people who were never meant to be in the room in the first place.

Underneath everything I do is the same promise that no young person nor any family should have to go through what I did feeling alone.