NEW YORK, NY, May 8, 2009—The United Hospital Fund is presenting Distinguished Trustee Awards to 39 trustees from metropolitan area hospitals at a luncheon today at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. The honorees are being recognized for their leadership, generosity, and extraordinary service to not-for-profit and municipal hospitals in New York City and nearby communities.
For the first time in the 19 years that the United Hospital Fund has bestowed Distinguished Trustee Awards, honorees from outside New York City are also being recognized. The 39 honorees are all trustees from the Fund’s beneficiary not-for-profit hospitals, New York’s municipal hospital system, and hospitals participating in the United Hospital Fund/Greater New York Hospital Association quality improvement collaboratives. The theme of this year’s event is “Saluting exemplary service and recognizing groundbreaking partnerships improving quality and patient safety.”
Among the award recipients are prominent leaders in business, medicine, education, and law, as well as those involved in human services and volunteerism. (See the list of honorees and the hospitals they serve, below.) TD Bank (through its charitable giving arm, the TD Charitable Foundation) is the generous underwriter of the 2009 Tribute to Hospital Trustees, reflecting its commitment to hospitals and health care in New York, community involvement as a corporate value, and customer focus. Greg Braca, President of Metro New York for TD Bank, joined United Hospital Fund President James R. Tallon, Jr. and luncheon co-chairmen Patricia S. Levinson and Howard P. Milstein in recognizing the 39 Distinguished Trustees honored at the event.
The luncheon co-chairmen are themselves both longstanding board members of New York health care institutions. A previous recipient of the Distinguished Trustee Award, Ms. Levinson is both a trustee of The Mount Sinai Hospital and an active and committed member of the Fund’s board since 1994, as well as its vice chairman since 2006. Mr. Milstein, in addition to being the chair, president, and CEO of New York Private Bank & Trust and its operating bank, Emigrant Bank, has served on the board of Weill Cornell Medical College for more than 20 years and joined the Fund’s board in 2005; he also serves as chair of the New York Blood Center and American Skin Association.
The trustees were nominated by their respective institutions, which include community hospitals, academic medical centers, and public hospitals representing all five boroughs of New York City and nearby communities in both New York and New Jersey.
“Metropolitan area hospitals have certainly faced their share of challenges this past year, and, as has happened countless times over the past 150 years, our voluntary leaders have played a key role in addressing those challenges,” said Fund President James R. Tallon, Jr. “Often, voluntary leaders are in a unique position to bring specialized knowledge and expertise to the table, to be sensitive to community needs, and to focus attention on specific issues and concerns from a different perspective. The leaders we honor today are among the region’s best at guiding their institutions when help has been needed most. That’s why we at the United Hospital Fund feel privileged to have this opportunity to recognize the exemplary efforts of this remarkable group of voluntary leaders.”
The United Hospital Fund is a health services research and philanthropic organization whose mission is to shape positive change in health care for the people of New York.
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United Hospital Fund
2009 Distinguished Trustees
John W. Alexander
Staten Island University Hospital
Victor A. Ayala
Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center
Peter R. Barra, MD
Flushing Hospital Medical Center
Richard A. Berman
Westchester Medical Center
Edgar M. Cullman
The Mount Sinai Medical Center
Caroline A. Davis
Lenox Hill Hospital
Joan DePrizio
New York Methodist Hospital
Hector Estepan, MD
Jamaica Hospital Medical Center
Lizanne Fontaine
The Brooklyn Hospital Center
Livingston S. Francis
North General Hospital
Lai Wah Fung
New York Downtown Hospital
Jonathan N. Grayer
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Eugene P. Heslin, MD
The Kingston Hospital
Arthur Kalish
North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System
David H. Komansky
NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital
Reverend Diane E. Lacey
New York City Health & Hospitals Corporation
William A. LeDoux
Benedictine Hospital
Howard H. Lee
New York Hospital Queens
Royden A. Letsen, Esq.
St. John's Riverside Hospital
Susan Liebowitz
The New York Eye & Ear Infirmary
Gerald Luterman
Lutheran Medical Center
Carol R. Maslow
Continuum Health Partners, Inc.
George W. Miner, MD
Nassau Health Care Corporation
Joseph Muré, Jr., Esq.
Peninsula Hospital Center
Bishop Dr. R.C. Hugh Nelson
The Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center
John Nikas
New York Community Hospital
Steven D. Oppenheim
Maimonides Medical Center
Douglas A. Phillips, CPA
NYU Langone Medical Center
Victor M. Richel
Trinitas Regional Medical Center
Vincent L. Riso
St. Mary's Healthcare System for Children
Kathryn Krause Rooney, Esq.
Richmond University Medical Center
Susan W. Rose
Hospital for Special Surgery
Howard Safir
St. Barnabas Hospital
Joseph Semidei
Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center
Joseph Simunovich
Hackensack University Medical Center
Gerald C. Tobin, Esq.
Calvary Hospital
The Right Reverend Orris G. Walker, Jr.
Episcopal Health Services Inc. Interfaith Medical Center
Kenneth D. Weiser
Montefiore Medical Center
Vaughn C. Williams
Saint Vincent Catholic Medical Centers