Teresa Heinz

Teresa Heinz

Maria Teresa Thierstein Simões-Ferreira is a Portuguese-American businesswoman and philanthropist. She is the widow of former U.S. Senator John Heinz and the wife of former Secretary of State and 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry. In July 2013, she was taken by ambulance to Nantucket Cottage Hospital after showing symptoms consistent with a seizure.

About Teresa Heinz in brief

Summary Teresa HeinzMaria Teresa Thierstein Simões-Ferreira is a Portuguese-American businesswoman and philanthropist. She is the widow of former U. S. Senator John Heinz and the wife of former Secretary of State, longtime U.S. Senator, and 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry. In addition to Portuguese, Heinz speaks English, Spanish, French, and Italian. In December 2009, Heinz revealed that she was being treated for breast cancer. In July 2013, she was taken by ambulance to Nantucket Cottage Hospital after showing symptoms consistent with a seizure. She was described as being in “critical but stable’ condition. Her condition was upgraded to fair the next day, and doctors were able to rule out a heart attack, brain tumor, stroke, and other triggers. On July 17, 2013, from Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital to continue her recovery. Teresa Heinz is chair of the Heinz Endowments and the HeinZ Family Philanthropies. She has been elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the St.

Paul’s School of Public Service. In 2003, she received the Albert Schweitzer Medal for Humanitarianism for her contributions to the environmental movement. In May 2004, she said: “My legal name is still Teresa. Heinz Kerry is my name… for politics.” She has received honorary degrees from the following institutions: The University of Pittsburgh, the University of Pennsylvania, and St. John’s University of the Incarnate Word in New York City. In 2011, she became a member of the Board of Trustees of the Pittsburgh Museum of Art and Science, where she has been a Trustee for the past eight years. In 2012, she joined the board of trustees of The Heinz Foundation, a philanthropic foundation that provides grants to the City of Pittsburgh and the Pittsburgh Public School System. In 2014, she announced that she would be stepping down from the board to focus on her philanthropic work.