About Us
Our Story
A Legacy of Health, Education, and Community Care
Heartbeats Life Center was founded in New Orleans in 1983 by Keith C. Ferdinand, MD, and Daphne P. Ferdinand, PhD, RN. From the beginning, the center was created to do more than provide medical care. It became a trusted place for patient education, nutrition guidance, exercise and dance programs, motivation, and community-based support.
Over time, Heartbeats Life Center earned national recognition for helping people better understand their health and take a more active role in improving it. After Hurricane Katrina caused extensive damage in 2005, the center later returned with a renewed purpose and an expanded focus on health coaching, chronic disease prevention, and practical health education.
Today, under the leadership of Dr. Daphne Ferdinand, Heartbeats Life Center helps adults turn medical recommendations into realistic daily action. Through personalized wellness coaching, clients receive support with nutrition, movement, sleep, stress, weight management, and cardiovascular risk factors such as high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, smoking, and physical inactivity.
Our approach is grounded in partnership. We listen to your concerns, respect your lived experience, and help you create a plan that fits your routines, responsibilities, goals, and values. So, if you are trying to prevent chronic disease, improve your heart health, regain your energy, or feel more confident managing your care, let's work together to help you move forward with clarity and confidence.
The People Behind Heartbeats Life Center
Daphne P. Ferdinand, PhD, RN
Certified Health Coach, Cardiovascular Health Educator, and Community Advocate
Dr. Daphne P. Ferdinand is a New Orleans native with more than 40 years of cardiovascular nursing experience. She is a Certified Health Coach, a Diabetes Prevention Program Lifestyle Coach, and trained in functional nutrition. Her work combines clinical knowledge, compassionate support, and a deep commitment to helping people become confident decision-makers in their own care.
Dr. Ferdinand understands how difficult it can be to follow medical advice while managing work, family, stress, finances, and everyday responsibilities. Through personalized health and wellness coaching, she helps clients bridge the gap between a Practitioner recommendations and the practical changes required at home.
Her coaching supports adults who want to improve nutrition, reduce cardiovascular risk, prevent chronic disease, increase energy, strengthen self-advocacy, and build routines they can maintain. She meets each client where they are and helps them move forward at a pace that feels realistic.
Dr. Ferdinand has authored and co-authored peer-reviewed research on cardiovascular disparities, hypertension, diabetes management, metabolic syndrome, nutrition, and community-based prevention. She has also served on community advisory boards connected with Tulane University and the Louisiana Clinical and Translational Science Center, supporting stronger partnerships between researchers and underserved communities.
As a Certified Advanced Master Gardener through the LSU AgCenter, she also promotes gardening, fresh food access, and increased fruit and vegetable consumption as practical pathways to better health.
Education and Credentials
PhD, Southern University and A&M College
Master of Nursing, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center
Bachelor of Science in Nursing, Dillard University
Certified Health Coach and Functional Nutrition Training, Mindbodygreen
Certified Diabetes Prevention Program Lifestyle Coach
Certified Advanced Master Gardener, LSU AgCenter
Kamau Ferdinand, BA, MA
Certified Health Coach
Kamau Ferdinand joins Heartbeats Life Center carrying forward the mission Keith and Daphne Ferdinand established in 1983: that lasting health change comes not from a generic plan, but from real partnership, education, and support tailored to the life in front of you. After Hurricane Katrina nearly ended that work in 2005, Heartbeats was rebuilt around health coaching and education — and Ferdinand's own career has run along much the same path.
For over fifteen years, Ferdinand has worked at the intersection of community health, education, and behavior change. As Program Manager of the Healthy Heart Community Prevention Project, he has designed nutrition, heart-health, and food-access programming for New Orleans families — tackling the very risk factors Heartbeats was founded to fight: hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol, inactivity, smoking, and stress. Alongside that work, Ferdinand has served Silverback Society Inc. since 2019 — first as Partnership Coordinator, analyzing the organization's partnership portfolio and building the data systems that track its impact, and since 2024 as Programs Director, leading vendor management, performance reporting, and the strategic operational work that keeps a growing nonprofit running. Guided by the belief that it is easier to raise healthy children than to fix broken men, The Silverback Way mentors New Orleans boys into capable, contributing men — a mission that resonates deeply with the preventive, whole-person approach Ferdinand brings to his health coaching work at Heartbeats.
That community commitment is backed by a strong academic foundation: a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology (with a minor in English) from Simpson College; a Master of Arts in Environment, Development and Sustainability from Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, where his thesis examined governance and community resilience in post-Katrina New Orleans; a Certificate in Business and Entrepreneurship — covering Finance, Accounting, Market Research, and Project Management — earned through the Japan Market Expansion Competition; and ongoing doctoral coursework in Clinical Psychology at the Chicago School of Professional Psychology at Xavier University of Louisiana, deepening his understanding of how people actually build lasting habits and change their mindset. He has also served on the Community Advisory Board of LA CaTS, the Louisiana Clinical and Translational Science Center.
At Heartbeats, Ferdinand leads our Men's Health & Wellness coaching, meeting men where they are — whether they're managing stress and burnout, navigating the physiological changes of midlife, or simply trying to eat better and move more. He speaks from experience: a lifelong learner who has lived and worked in Tokyo and Bangkok and is conversational in Japanese, Ferdinand is also an avid tennis player who competes three to four times a week and a dedicated yoga practitioner — drawn to the practice for its benefits to both physical health and mental clarity — living proof of the integrated, whole-person approach to wellness he brings to every client.
Whatever brought you to Heartbeats — heart health, nutrition, stress, or simply wanting your energy back — Ferdinand combines research rigor with real community roots to help you get there, one heartbeat at a time.