Two Columbia Nursing Faculty Awarded Hillman Foundation Grant  

Assistant Professor Billy Caceres, PhD, and Associate Professor Corina Lelutiu-Weinberger, PhD, have received a grant from The Rita and Alex Hillman Foundation to pilot test their heart disease  intervention among sexual minority adults, which includes lesbian, gay, and bisexual people.  

Sexual minority adults face an increased risk of heart disease, according to research by Caceres and others, which has also identified higher rates of heart disease risk factors including tobacco use, illicit drug use, and poor mental health among sexual minority men and women.   

Caceres and Lelutiu-Weinberger’s project, ‍“Reducing Cardiovascular Disease Risk among Sexual Minority Adults,” received one of eight $50,000 Hillman Emergent Innovation grants awarded by the New York City-based foundation in 2025. 

Their nurse-led intervention, “My Heart, My Pride,” consists of 12 weeks of one-on-one and group sessions with a nurse coach, education on heart disease risk reduction, content to reduce discrimination-related stress, and remote monitoring of blood pressure and health behaviors such as sleep and physical activity. 

"This will be the first community-informed, nurse-led behavioral intervention to simultaneously address heart disease risk and discrimination-related stress among sexual minority adults,” Caceres said.  

The investigators will enroll 30 sexual minority adults over an 18-month period, along with 20 primary care providers serving sexual minority adults to provide feedback on the intervention's potential implementation in clinical practice. 

“The emergent innovation awards continue to address a critical gap in philanthropy by providing essential resources for bold, untested ideas,” the Hillman foundation’s vice president of programs, Rachael Watman, said in a September 23 press release announcing the awards. “We received a record number of high-quality applications in 2025, which reflects the demand for this type of funding and the growth of innovative ideas during these turbulent times.”