2026 Caregiver Hero:
Felicia Veasey
Felicia Veasey divides her life into two eras: before her mother’s second stroke and after it, when she rearranged her life around her mother’s needs and became her full-time caregiver. Despite the intense demands of the caregiving role, Felicia’s loving care has spurred significant improvements in her mother’s health. Felicia, wanting to help others in the same situation, coordinated and facilitated Empowered Minds and Hearts, a public webinar that explored stroke prevention as well as the mental health and well-being of caregivers.
Felicia’s mother faced her first stroke in 2013, but recovered. But another one, in 2019, caused disability and limited independence. Meanwhile, Felicia advocated for her mother’s medical needs and helped a great deal with day-to-day living.
When another neurological event in 2023 affected her mother’s vision and memory, Felicia became a full-time caregiver. Since then, she arranges medical appointments, manages medications, cooks meals, monitors her mother’s symptoms and provides loving emotional support in her everyday struggles.
Despite the constant responsibility of caregiving, Felicia learned not to neglect her own well-being.
In her role as a community health director, which focuses on chronic disease prevention, Felicia incorporates her personal story about caregiving and oversees programs that teach people about the importance of managing blood pressure and other chronic health conditions, which can help prevent strokes.
She shares how chronic health conditions like her mother has raises stroke risk, the early symptoms of her mother’s strokes and the critical need to seek prompt medical attention when someone shows symptoms of a possible stroke, like slurred speech and imbalance. Felicia’s webinar in 2024 provided stroke prevention education and support to struggling caregivers who face Felicia’s same challenges.
Felicia considers it a full-circle honor to care for her mother, which she performs with devotion, love and resilience.
