4. Kathi Finch, 32
Volunteer, mentor and epilepsy educator

Professionally, Kathi Finch is the director of communications for the Epilepsy Foundation, working on educational and outreach projects. "When someone has a seizure, people freak out... That climate of hysteria can lead to social isolation, teasing or bullying," she says, noting that seizures aren't usually emergencies and should be handled calmly. "We're trying to eliminate some of the myths and assumptions that still exist about epilepsy." But Finch's day doesn't stop here. She's active in community theater and serves as a mentor for Big Brothers/Big Sisters. In addition, Finch volunteers with Dress for Success to enable women to look professional on interviews when they re-enter the workforce. "It's not a handout; it's a hand up," she says.

5. Lilith Bailey-Kroll, 29
Therapeutic yoga practitioner

As a teenager, Lilith Bailey-Kroll suffered from severe scoliosis. She began practicing yoga at 17 to manage her discomfort. It worked - relieving her pain and helping straighten her spine. "I really got into the therapeutic aspects of ...yoga to reposition [the] body and alleviate pain," Bailey-Kroll says.

Now, more than a decade later, X-rays show little evidence of scoliosis, and Bailey-Kroll is a master instructor. She opened Pratique Therapeutic Yoga Studio in Lawrenceville last year, and this year launched a campaign called "Yoga Is My Health Insurance" to raise awareness about the long-term therapeutic benefits. She doesn't advise her clients to treat medical conditions without traditional physicians. But she sees yoga as a powerful complementary tool to improve or to prevent many health issues, including pain, arthritis, stress and depression, and to manage cholesterol or blood pressure. "The majority of my clients wish they had done it sooner," she says.

6. Amit N. Patel, 34
Cardiac surgeon and researcher

Most days you'll find Amit Patel in surgery, but his work mending broken hearts continues in his research and outreach efforts. Patel is a pioneer of stem-cell research that injects a patient's own stem cells back into his or her heart to see if the regenerative qualities of the cells lead to improvement. "This is the first place in the U.S. where we were allowed to inject stem cells into patients' hearts," Patel says. "We're starting to see interesting results, and it's safe so far."

Patel also founded Mending Broken Hearts, a heart-failure screening and educational-outreach program. Patel observed far more male patients receiving preventative care than women. To address this disparity, he developed the program to screen women for a specific hormone that's present when a patient's heart is under stress. "A lot of these things not only are preventable, but you can also slow down the progression of disease. And over the last two years, there have been over 4,000 women screened in the Pittsburgh area."

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