Hitting us with their best shot! CNG honors Carib healthcare workers!
By Shavana AbruzzoPosted on
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Caribbean Life and Community News Group honored 32 of Gotham’s greatest Caribbean healthcare workers for their fine work and proud island heritage during a June 23 awards gala at Paradise Caterers in Gravesend — the salute topping our 2016 Caribbean American Healthcare Awards magazine, published last week to commemorate national Caribbean American-Heritage Month.
The honorees, who included doctors, nurses, officer workers, and trade unionists, were exceptional New Yorkers for helping to advance the national healthcare system, said the mistress of ceremonies.
“They are contributing to the shaping of America,” said Claudette D. Powell, the Jamaican-born assistant director of nursing at the Health and Hospitals Corporation Home Health Care Regulatory Affairs, and a registered nurse for more than 35 years.
The awardees were as diverse as the prism of cultures pulsating through their ancestral lands, representing a healthy cross-section of the Caribbean’s more than 700 islands, islets, reefs, and cays, and hailing from Antigua, Barbados, and Cayman Islands, among other isle nations.
All of them were following in the footsteps of their pioneering forbears, including Jamaican microbiologist and pathologist Louis Grant [1913–1993] who helped to isolate the deadly dengue virus, and compatriot Mary Seacole [1805–1881] who brought her mother’s herbal remedies to the Crimean War’s battlefields, self-financing her trip to the Black Sea peninsula to treat wounded soldiers after being passed over by Florence Nightingale.
Their combined efforts were a dose of greatness for New York, according to Community News Group’s publisher.
“The Caribbean community is a large and integral part of our city’s healthcare system — from nurses to doctors to home healthcare workers to administrators — and it is safe to say our world-class healthcare system would be a far lesser system without it,” said Jennifer Goodstein.
The illustrious ranks included a pastor’s daughter inspired to become a nurse by her father’s kind service to neighbors, a union vice president who started her career as a volunteer first responder, and a nurse who cared for injured civilians in the Middle East.
Internationally known HIV specialist Dr. Ricardo Orlando Dunner provided a touching moment when he accepted his award still recovering from the multiple facial fractures, concussions, and other serious injuries he suffered during a winter volunteer health mission in Honduras, when his bus careened into a ravine and tragically killed several mission workers.
The medical marvel was a testament to the local medical industry, said Caribbean Life’s associate editor.
“Dr. Dunner is living proof that we have the best treatments, services, and healthcare workers in New York,” said Kevin Williams.
Grroovin’ and movin’: Motivational speaker Dennis Rahiim Watson stirs up the celebration.
Photos by Louise Wateridge
Top nurse: Kirstie Toussaint’s (left) empathetic nature drew her to a career as a registered nurse and director of Patient Care Services for Nursing Administration at Lenox Hill Hospital.
Photos by Louise Wateridge
Local rep: Registered nurse Eva James (left) is a union contract administrator representing the 1,000 registered nurses at Mount Sinai Beth Israel.
Photos by Louise Wateridge
Thanks, grandma: Dr. Maurice E. Wright, chief medical officer of Harlem Hospital and senior associate dean of Columbia University, credits his grandmother, a farmer’s wife, as having the most influence on his three-decade-long career.
Photos by Louise Wateridge
Two of a kind: Sybilla Daniel-Douglas (left), a registered nurse and asthma educator at Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center, shares the spotlight with fellow honoree Lorena McEachrane, a private duty nurse with Beverly’s Home Care.
Photos by Louise Wateridge
Silver tenure: Claudya C. Verdiner (third from left), site director at NYU Lutheran Family Health Centers-Caribbean American, has dedicated nearly 25 years ensuring people have access to quality health care.
Photos by Louise Wateridge
She’s a hero: CNG executive vice president of advertising Amanda Tarley (left) presents an award to army nurse Adella Bodden (center), who tended to wounded civilians in the Middle East.
Photos by Louise Wateridge
Humble beginnings: Northwell Health registered nurse Yasmine Beausejour began her 21-year career in health care as a teen volunteer at Downstate Hospital.
Photos by Louise Wateridge
Climbing the ladder: Verginia Stewart (center) was head nurse in the medical surgical unit at Metropolitan Hospital for 28 years before being appointed to her current position of ambulatory staff nurse.
Photos by Louise Wateridge
Career lesson: Fay Randall’s interest in nursing peaked when nurses visited her school in St. Thomas, prompting her rewarding career as head nurse of the surgery clinic at Bellevue Hospital Center.
Photos by Louise Wateridge
Heart to heart: Joan Bruce, a staff nurse at Bronx Lebanon Hospital Center, has fun at the podium.
Photos by Louise Wateridge
Photos by Louise Wateridge
Lovin’ sis’: Liesl S. Hall-Grant — a clinical nurse manager for pediatrics at New York Presbyterian Hospital Queens — began her career helping her ailing brother as a girl growing up in Guyana.
Photos by Louise Wateridge
Grassroots gladiator: Manuela Butler (center) became active in the Home Care Employees Union because she saw the need to fight for the rights of home care workers, and change the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act.
Photos by Louise Wateridge
Role model: Celia Bramble was inspired to become a Florence Nightingale after seeing her aunt in St. Vincent and the Grenadines — a community midwife with limited formal training — deliver hundreds of babies successfully.
Photos by Louise Wateridge
Right direction: Sandy Freeland, operations director at Village Nursing Home, sought a career in health care after watching medical workers try in vain to save her ailing mother. She accepts her award from CNG executive vice president of advertising Amanda Tarley (right).
Photos by Louise Wateridge
Awesome ascension: Natasha Burke worked her way up from being a teen volunteer at Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center to being the chief of staff at Kings County Hospital, assisting the chief executive officer.
Photos by Louise Wateridge
Bard of health: Multi-faceted Meve Shakespeare (center), director of nursing at the Cobble Health Center,teaches, trains, supervises, and monitors her workers.
Photos by Louise Wateridge
Tireless tutor: Margarett Alexandre (center), an assistant professor in the Department of Nursing at CUNY York College, has spent 30 years teaching nursing students, and registered nurses seeking higher certification.
Photos by Louise Wateridge
Lauded nurse: Elverine Cadogan-Smartt has received numerous commendations and awards for her work in medical, surgical, psychiatric and emergency units.
Photos by Louise Wateridge
Determined doctor: Dr. Cary Daniel, a family practitioner at Maimonides Medical Center, mapped out his career as a young boy in Haiti, after seeing a neighbour struggling with childbirth.
Photos by Louise Wateridge
Well connected: Cynthia James-White, director of nursing at the Phoenix Rehabilitation & Nursing Center, is also a former vice president of the Jamaica Nursing Group of New York.
Photos by Louise Wateridge
Doctor, doctor: Internist Dr. Frank Denbow (center) was inspired to become a physician by his mother — a pioneering doctor in Guyana. Caribbean Life associate director Kevin Williams makes the presentation.
Photos by Louise Wateridge
Oh, baby: Kings County Hospital staff nurse Patricia James works in the maternal child department, caring for pregnant women and providing them with pre-natal care.
Photos by Louise Wateridge
Frontline warrior: Dr. Patricia Marthone (center), a vice president of the Healthcare Union in the Registered Nurses’ Division, began her medical career in the trenches, as a volunteer first responder, then an Emergency Medical Technician, and finally a dispatcher for an ambulance service.
Photos by Louise Wateridge
Wonder woman: D. Beverly Foster (center), an adult nurse practitioner at the Zucker-Hillside Hospital, has coordinated and participated in medical missions to Grenada, Carriacou, Haiti, Ghana, Ethiopia, and Tanzania.
Photos by Louise Wateridge
Dr. Feelgood: Dr. Tanesha Lawrence is a staff physician at the New York Children’s Health Project, providing comprehensive medical care to domestic violence victims in homeless shelters, including walk-in medical care services.
Photos by Louise Wateridge
Medical marvel:Internationally known HIV specialist Dr. Ricardo Orlando Dunner provided a touching moment when he accepted his award still recovering from the multiple facial fractures, concussions and other serious injuries he suffered during a winter volunteer health mission in Honduras, when his bus careened into a ravine and tragically killed several mission workers.
Photos by Louise Wateridge
Ace nurturer: Phyllis Payne-Dublin’s (center), former associate director of reimbursement at the Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation, and director of education and assistant director of nursing at River Manor Nursing and Rehabilitation, accepts her award from Caribbean Life associate director Kevin Williams.
