HEALTHY PETALUMA HONORS LOCAL LEADERS AT 80TH ANNIVERSARY EVENT
As we marked eight decades of service at our 80th anniversary celebration, we paused to reflect on the partners who bring our mission to life.
To honor that shared commitment, Healthy Petaluma presented two signature awards recognizing exceptional leadership, compassion, and long-term impact: the Golden Heart Award and the Health Hero Award.
Heartsafe Community Golden Heart Awardees: Petaluma City Schools
Established in 2016 in partnership with the Petaluma Fire Department, the Golden Heart Award recognizes individuals, businesses, and community organizations that go above and beyond to champion heart safety, expand emergency readiness, and save lives across southern Sonoma County.
This year, we were honored to present the award to Petaluma City Schools (PCS) in celebration of their 10-year HeartSafe Community Schools membership anniversary. PCS actively trains and certifies staff and students in CPR, First Aid, and AED use, while maintaining approximately 35 rescue-ready AEDs within the district’s 13 campuses. Thanks to PCS’s dedication, approximately 2,500 Petaluma public and private school 7th graders were trained during the 2025–2026 school year alone.
Thank you, Petaluma City Schools, for making cardiac emergency preparedness a priority and putting life-saving skills directly into the hands of our school community.
HeartSafe Community Program Manager Tami Bender presented the award to PCS Assistant Superintendent Dr. Lori Rhodes and College and Career Pathways Coordinator Dan Ostermann.
Health Hero Awardees: Babs Kavanaugh & Dr. Mike Witte
Our Health Hero Award, also introduced in 2016, honors individuals whose dedication has made a lasting difference in the health and well-being of southern Sonoma County. We were pleased to present it to Babs Kavanaugh and Dr. Mike Witte.
Babs has spent more than 30 years helping healthcare organizations and California school districts. Her leadership includes guiding a rural community health center, facilitating local input on Petaluma Valley Hospital, contributing to countywide health assessments, and championing local youth and our watershed as a longtime board member and former president of Friends of the Petaluma River.
Mike has dedicated decades to clinical care and expanding access across our region as a founder of both Coastal Health Alliance and Petaluma Health Center. He later elevated this work statewide as Chief Medical Officer of the California Primary Care Association and continues coaching future clinic leaders through the Western Clinicians Network.
Both Babs and Mike have also served on the Blue Zones Project Petaluma steering committee, continuing their involvement in this community's health and well-being.
Thank you, Babs and Mike, for your extraordinary decades of service, leadership, and care.