Meet the Team Behind The Co-op @ HeartWorks: Lori Riess and Drew Narwold
Two familiar faces at HeartWorks are taking on evolving roles to help families connect with research and make the most of the information they share.
At HeartWorks, we believe the people living with congenital heart disease (CHD) should play an important role in shaping the research and treatments being developed for them. That’s the vision behind The Co-op @ HeartWorks, a patient-driven platform designed to bring together medical histories, lived experiences, and research opportunities to help advance our understanding of CHD.
As the Co-op continues to grow, so does the importance of making participation easier for families and ensuring the information they contribute can help guide meaningful research. Two longtime HeartWorks team members, Lori Riess and Drew Narwold, are taking on evolving responsibilities to strengthen both sides of that experience.
Having worked with the Co-op for years, Lori and Drew bring a deep understanding of HeartWorks, our research, and the families we serve. Their experience gives them a unique perspective on how the Co-op can support our mission, and their evolving roles will help us make even greater use of its potential. While their responsibilities are different, their work supports a shared goal: maximizing the potential of the Co-op to help transform the future of CHD.
Lori Riess: Helping Families Take the First Step
For families interested in joining the Co-op, knowing where to begin can sometimes feel overwhelming. That’s where Lori Riess, Co-op Coordinator at HeartWorks, comes in.
Lori serves as a personal point of contact for patients and families who want to learn more about the Co-op and begin the registration process. Whether someone has questions about participating, needs help creating a profile, or wants to better understand how their information may contribute to research, Lori is there to help guide them.
With years of experience at HeartWorks, Lori understands both the science behind our work and the importance of building meaningful relationships with the CHD community. Her familiarity with our programs allows her to help families understand how their participation connects to the broader mission of developing new treatment options. By making the registration process more approachable and helping families feel confident about participating, Lori is strengthening the connection between the CHD community and the research happening at HeartWorks.
Drew Narwold: Making the Most of the Data
While Lori helps families connect with the Co-op, Drew Narwold is working behind the scenes to make the platform and its information more useful.
Drew’s work focuses on analyzing data, improving how information is organized, and streamlining the database so HeartWorks can more efficiently understand and use the information participants choose to share. The Co-op has the potential to bring together valuable information about CHD patients across different ages, diagnoses, medical histories, and treatment experiences. Organizing and analyzing that information is an important step toward identifying patterns, better understanding patient needs, and supporting future research decisions.
One immediate application of Drew’s work is helping HeartWorks make informed decisions about manufacturing personalized cardiac cells. As we work to process the skin biopsies collected from our first 100 participants, information shared through the Co-op can help our team prioritize and schedule manufacturing more efficiently — particularly important because developing patient-specific cardiac cells is a complex, time-intensive process. Drew’s years of experience at HeartWorks give him valuable insight into how our research, manufacturing, and clinical development efforts connect, helping ensure the information families contribute can support meaningful progress in our labs today.
Better Together: Maximizing the Potential of the Co-op
Lori and Drew bring different strengths to the Co-op, but their work is connected by a shared purpose: making every participant’s contribution as valuable as possible.
As the Co-op grows, so does its potential to help HeartWorks better understand the needs of people living with CHD, make more informed research decisions, and identify opportunities to improve treatment options. With Lori supporting the families who make participation possible and Drew strengthening how that information is analyzed and applied, HeartWorks is building a stronger connection between patient experiences and scientific progress. Because the goal isn’t simply to collect more data — it’s to use what we learn to make a meaningful difference for the children and adults living with CHD today.
Ready to Join? Lori Can Help.
Whether you’re living with CHD, caring for a loved one, or honoring someone you’ve lost, your experience matters. By joining The Co-op @ HeartWorks, you can help build a better understanding of congenital heart disease and contribute to research aimed at creating more treatment options. Creating a profile is the first step, and Lori is available to help you get started. The initial registration takes less than 10 minutes, and participation is voluntary.
Every participant brings something valuable to the Co-op, and with Lori and Drew helping strengthen the experience and systems behind it, HeartWorks is working to make the most of every contribution.
We Build Hearts.
