A decade of coverage, earliest to most recent.
Broadcast television, international media, corporate patient advocacy, digital health publishing, podcast, and community press.
August 2016
Voice of America / YALI
Profile: Boubacar Dieme, Mandela Washington Fellow
VOA featured Bouba as part of its coverage of President Obama’s Young African Leaders Initiative. Captured him at a pivotal moment: engineer, co-founder of Yeelen energy company, and emerging African leader, before his diagnosis redirected everything toward community health.
voazimbabwe.com/a/yali-mandela-2016-bouba-dieme-senegal-/3445408.html ↗2016
UC Davis Global Affairs
Mandela Washington Fellow: Boubacar Dieme
UC Davis profiled Bouba as part of its inaugural Mandela Washington Fellowship cohort. Describes his engineering background, Yeelen, and his vision for Africa’s energy future.
globalaffairs.ucdavis.edu/mandela/fellows/boubacar-dieme ↗November 2016
The Afro Optimist Blog
Meet Bouba Dieme: An Inspirational Social Entrepreneur
Pan-African blog featured Bouba as one of its social entrepreneur profiles, describing his work with Yeelen and his vision for Africa’s development. One of the earliest English-language profiles of Bouba as a leader.
theafrooptimist.com/2016/11/01/meet-bouba-dieme-an-inspirational-social-entrepreneur/ ↗September 4, 2019
Abbott Newsroom
What Does Heart Failure Look Like?
Abbott’s flagship patient story for the HeartMate 3 LVAD program. Bouba was the face of the campaign: a towering, athletic, healthy-living 32-year-old living with a heart pump. The piece made the case that heart failure has no look.
www.abbott.com/en-us/corpnewsroom/healthy-heart/what-heart-failure-looks-like ↗2018
Abbott / HeartMate 3 Patient Stories
Patient Story: Bouba
Bouba’s personal story on the Abbott HeartMate LVAD patient stories page. His experience living with the device, maintaining energy, spending time with his children, and waiting for a transplant.
cardiovascular.abbott/us/en/patients/treatments-therapies/heartmate-lvad-therapy/personal-stories.html ↗September 2018
American Heart Association
Thousands Walk for Heart Health in Boston
Bouba led his Heart of a Giant team at the Boston Heart Walk at the Hatch Shell while living with his LVAD.
easternstates.heart.org/thousands-walk-for-heart-health-in-boston/ ↗September 2019
American Heart Association
Two Boston Heart Patients Bond Over Shared Struggle
Bouba and Julius Johnson, 17, connected at the Boston Heart Walk over their shared experience living with the HeartMate 3 LVAD.
easternstates.heart.org/two-boston-heart-patients-bond-over-shared-struggle/ ↗September 14, 2019
The Boston Herald
Two Boston heart patients bond over shared struggle
The Boston Herald covered the bond between Bouba and 17-year-old Julius Johnson, two Boston heart patients living with the HeartMate 3 LVAD who connected at the Boston Heart Walk.
www.bostonherald.com/2019/09/14/two-boston-heart-patients-bond-over-shared-struggle/ ↗Note, Article is behind a paywall.
2015–2021
Heart-Failure.net
Patient Advocate and Contributing Writer: Bouba Diemé
Bouba wrote twelve articles for Health Union’s Heart-Failure.net community platform, one of the largest patient health networks in the US. The series covers the full arc of living with advanced heart disease: support systems, relationships, parenting, panic, mindfulness, community, and medical care teams.
heart-failure.net/community/community-advocates/bouba-dieme ↗c. 2018–2019
Tenaya Therapeutics
Patient Story: Bouba
One of the most intimate written portraits of Bouba in existence. Told through the texture of a meal at home, the smell of West African food, the sounds of his sons.
tenayatherapeutics.com/patient-stories/bouba/ ↗2010–2019
The Sacramento Bee
Feature on Bouba Dieme and the HeartMate 3 LVAD
The Sacramento Bee published a feature on Bouba’s case, quoted in the Abbott Newsroom campaign. Dr. Zijian Xu of Sutter Medical Center Sacramento spoke to the Bee about the challenge of finding a donor heart for a patient of Bouba’s size.
Note, Behind paywall.
August 2021
Nefertiti Media
Heart of a Giant Foundation Launches to Improve Community Health
The first major press coverage of HGF as a formal organization. Bouba articulated the founding vision.
nefertitimedia.com/2021/08/16/heart-of-a-giant-foundation-launches-to-improve-community-health/ ↗2021, present
Living With Heart Disease Podcast
Host: Somaneh Bouba, Heart of a Giant
Bouba’s own podcast series. Conversations with heart disease survivors, LVAD patients, transplant recipients, and caregivers. Over ten episodes. Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Amazon Audible.
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/living-with-heart-disease/id1567454596 ↗2022
Lenny Zakim Fund
Grantee Partner Spotlight: Heart of a Giant Foundation
The LZF profiled HGF as part of its Transformational Leadership Cohort.
thelennyzakimfund.org/spotlight-heart-of-a-giant/ ↗2021
Cooking For a Cause. Mediacorp Channel U, Singapore
特别的食物给特别的你
Produced by August Pictures. An 8-episode documentary series. Bouba appeared in an episode filmed in March 2020, telling his story as a heart transplant patient and founder. The series won a Bronze Medal at the New York Festivals in the Human Concerns category.
Note, Episode number and meWatch link available on request.
2024
Vital Connections
Community Health Infrastructure Profile
Vital Connections profiled HGF as a model for community-based cardiometabolic infrastructure, featuring dose-response outcome data and CHW-led engagement.
vitalcxns.org/bouba ↗December 2023
WCVB CityLine / Chronicle
Heart of a Giant
Chronicle’s Nicole Estaphan told Bouba’s story on CityLine: survivor, transplant recipient, and founder of a community health infrastructure organization in Greater Boston.
youtube.com/watch?v=jj0jr23BeBc ↗April 2, 2026
WBZ-TV / CBS Boston
Milton Heart Transplant Recipient’s Foundation Helps Improve Health Care Access
WBZ-TV’s Lisa Hughes reported on HGF’s work across 19 Greater Boston communities.
cbsnews.com/boston/video/milton-heart-transplant-recipients-foundation-helps-improve-health-care-access/ ↗April 3, 2026
WBZ-TV / CBS Boston
Change Makers: Bouba Diemé and Heart of a Giant Foundation
CBS Boston’s full Change Makers feature. The most comprehensive broadcast profile of HGF to date.
cbsnews.com/boston/news/bouba-dieme-heart-of-a-giant-foundation-change-maker/ ↗
Two approved versions. Use either.
Short version, 100 words
Somaneh “Bouba” Diemé is the Founder and Chief Inspiration Officer of Heart of a Giant Foundation, a Boston-based community cardiometabolic health organization rooted in Mattapan, Dorchester, and Roxbury. Malian Senegalese, raised in Mali, Bouba received a heart transplant at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in October 2022 after six years on the waiting list and nearly six years living with a mechanical heart pump. He founded HGF to build the community health infrastructure he needed but could not find during his own illness. He leads HGF’s vision, external partnerships, and fundraising. He signs every note: In health.
Long version, 250 words
Somaneh “Bouba” Diemé is the Founder and Chief Inspiration Officer of Heart of a Giant Foundation, a Boston-based community cardiometabolic health organization serving residents across Greater Boston through free screenings, health education, and community health worker-led care coordination grounded in Ubuntu philosophy.
Bouba was born in Senegal, grew up in Mali, and completed his engineering and management degrees at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. He began building his career next door in Johannesburg, met his wife, Desirée, and became a father. In 2012, at 26, he was diagnosed with left ventricular non-compaction cardiomyopathy. In 2017, surgeons implanted a mechanical heart pump that sustained him for nearly six years while he waited for a transplant. At 6′8″, the wait for a compatible heart was long. He received his transplant at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in October 2022.
He founded Heart of a Giant Foundation because he knew firsthand what it meant to navigate a health system not built with his community in mind, and because the relationships and social capital that sustained him through his illness became the design brief for the organization he built.
Today HGF operates 19+ active sites across 10 Greater Boston neighborhoods, has delivered 2,340+ cardiometabolic screenings, identified 47+ hypertensive crises, and achieves a participant retention rate 3.2 times the industry baseline. Bouba also serves on the PCORI Advisory Panel and as Patient Ambassador for Abbott’s HeartMate LVAD Program. He is a 2016 Mandela Washington Fellow.
He signs every note: In health.
For accurate use in coverage.
All figures from HGF FY2025 data, verified through Essyl. Please contact us before publication to confirm current figures. Numbers are updated annually.
- ·2,340+ cumulative cardiometabolic screenings delivered across Greater Boston
- ·1,500+ total participants served
- ·47+ hypertensive crises identified and referred, 22 in calendar year 2025
- ·3.2x participant retention rate versus 8% industry baseline
- ·25.5% retention overall, 52% at East Boston site
- ·Blood pressure improvement: 26.6% at 1–2 visits, rising to 74% at 6–9 visits
- ·304% screening growth from 2022 to 2025
- ·Total program ROI: 8:1 to 29:1
- ·19+ active sites across 10 Greater Boston neighborhoods
- ·5 community languages: English, Spanish, Kreyòl ayisyen, Kriolu, Vietnamese
- ·FY2025 fiscal period: March 1, 2025 to February 28, 2026
High-resolution editorial photography available on request.
Photographs of Bouba, the CHW team, and community screening sites are available for editorial use. All photographs credited to Heart of a Giant Foundation unless otherwise noted.
Request press photography- Founded
- November 2018
- 501(c)(3) status
- January 2020
- EIN
- 84-2900386
- Headquarters
- 524 River Street, Suite 800, Mattapan, MA 02186
- Website
- heartofagiant.org
- Social
- @heartofagiant on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube
We respond quickly.
For interviews, filming requests, and coverage of community screenings. Melissa Richardson, Communications and Marketing.
Press inquiries
press@heartofagiant.orgInterviews with Bouba directly
bouba@heartofagiant.org