Publisher's Section
The 2026 Trailblazers in Health Care
New York’s notable policymakers, providers and practitioners in the medical field.
City & State presents the 2026 Trailblazers in Health Care. Krystal Pagán; Francisco Guiterriez Visual Artistry; Healthcare Distribution Alliance
When people think about health care, they tend to think primarily about doctors and nurses. But getting proper medical attention goes much deeper, relying on a multilayered, interconnected system of medical specialists, business leaders, insurance executives, technology professionals, educators, scientists, drugmakers, labor union chiefs, social services providers, and government regulators and policymakers – not to mention the advocacy organizations and interest groups that influence health care policy.
Of course, public health depends on an innumerable array of factors, starting with having a safe place to live and earning an adequate income, which expands the scope to an even broader group of individuals and institutions that contribute to a healthy society. As the COVID-19 pandemic illustrated, investing in public health and ensuring communication and collaboration among the many players at the local, state, federal and international levels are utterly essential.
City & State’s annual Trailblazers in Health Care, written and researched in partnership with journalist Lon Cohen, puts a spotlight on many of these key figures in New York, including high-ranking elected officials, high-powered health care executives and highly effective advocates.
Maryam Akbari
Leading surgical services at NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst, Dr. Maryam Akbari, a former co-host of a medical podcast, is positioning the hospital as a trusted destination for gender-affirming care. A trained dentist and physician, Akbari brings all of her credentials to surgical care in New York City’s public hospital system. Akbari is an advocate for transgender patients, including working to get their care covered by insurance. At Elmhurst, she reorganized the oral surgical department, hired new attending physicians and made the hospital a destination for transgender patients to receive gender-affirming care.
Elizabeth Amato
A health information exchange strategist who climbed from operations to the corner office, Elizabeth Amato is guiding HealtheConnections – a nonprofit health information exchange serving multiple counties – through a critical moment for health data infrastructure. After joining in 2022 and becoming CEO in 2025, Amato secured two Statewide Health Information Network for New York service contracts in under a year and led the launch of a new technology platform to create usable intelligence for providers, public health agencies, patients and community partners.
Shelly Anderson
A trusted figure guiding a vast cancer care system spanning New York and New Jersey, Shelly Anderson runs hospital operations at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, keeping inpatient care and an expanding outpatient network in sync. In 2025, Anderson oversaw a systemwide electronic health record rollout and advanced a continuum-of-care management model to improve access and patient flow. She is in the process of creating a new inpatient pavilion at the hospital, with a planned 2030 opening. Anderson is committed to patient quality and safety with new program development and peer review.
Adam Aponte
A native of East Harlem, physician-executive Dr. Adam Aponte has taken his training as a pediatrician and put the skills to use in creating comprehensive community health programs. Since taking the helm at the East Harlem Council for Human Services in late 2023, Aponte has led a multisite organization serving tens of thousands annually while strengthening coordination among neighborhood safety net clinics. He hosted the East Harlem Council’s successful inaugural gala, which raised $500,000, while celebrating the council’s first 60 years.
Tricia A. Asaro
Tricia A. Asaro helps shape New York state’s health care decision-making, co-chairing Greenberg Traurig’s Health Care and FDA practice while serving as the Albany office’s administrative shareholder. She advises health plans, payers, providers and health systems on compliance, governance and complex business negotiations. A go-to expert for transactions involving managed care organizations, she’s known for guiding approvals tied to ownership changes and other consequential regulatory hurdles. In 2025, she was chosen as an American Bar Association Health Law Section vice chair for managed care and insurance. She is also on the board of Upper Hudson Planned Parenthood.
Christopher Assini
As opioid settlement spending to backfill federal cuts is being questioned as part of Albany’s budget math, Christopher Assini has become a voice for urgency. He warned that the state is moving too slowly with settlement dollars, prioritizing process over outcomes. As policy director at Friends of Recovery-New York, Assini, a former state Senate staffer, worked to get both the Peer Reentry and Recovery Act and the Recovery Ready Workplace Act across the finish line. He also advocated for increasing the percentage of opioid settlement funds spent on recovery.
Michael Backus
A former Oswego County clerk, Michael Backus brings a public service mindset to hospital leadership, which he perfected during the COVID-19 pandemic. He uses his public service background to help shape health care policy from his perch leading Oswego Health. Backus is one of the state’s top rural health advocates, warning that Medicaid cuts would be catastrophic for communities and arguing that “every dollar we earn is reinvested into expanding access, modernizing services and ensuring quality care close to home.” Under his leadership, Oswego Hospital is undergoing a $14 million emergency and imaging expansion, expected to be completed at the end of this year.
Vanessa Bongiorno
Deeply embedded in the state’s health policy ecosystem, Vanessa Bongiorno has built a career translating complex regulations into wins for providers and patients. After starting off in organized labor, she went on to shape legislative and regulatory strategy at leading law and government relations firms before joining Hodes & Landy in 2025. Last year, Bongiorno advocated for improving access and insurance reimbursements for autistic New Yorkers to receive vital services and helped advance legislation to improve patient access to testing, services and treatments. Her clients include the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center and Council of Autism Service Providers.
Sundeep Boparai
Fresh off a 2025 Health Advocacy Award that recognized advocacy leaders with measurable community impact, Sundeep Boparai is reshaping how large health systems show up for marginalized communities. As the first administrator of a transgender health program on Long Island, he helped establish the region’s first dedicated center, supporting roughly 4,500 patients in 2024 alone. He describes the work as ensuring patients receive care he once lacked saying his “ability to help them live a happy, healthy life is both rewarding and empowering.” He serves on Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz’s LGBTQ+ Advisory Council.
Matt Castelli
Recently promoted to Northeast president at the tech-powered platform Pearl Health, Matt Castelli applies a disciplined, data-driven approach to value-based care, shaped in part by earlier experience as a CIA intelligence officer and White House national security official. The former congressional candidate now drives company growth and operational strategy across the Northeast, building partnerships that align incentives, data and clinical judgment to improve outcomes and reduce cost of care. He is helping accelerate a shift from volume to value in Medicare-focused primary care, using artificial intelligence-enabled tools that identify patient needs.
June Chin
As New York is balancing recreational cannabis legalization with patient care, Dr. June Chin is helping ensure cannabis remains grounded in evidence-based medicine. As chief medical officer at the state Office of Cannabis Management, she shapes the state’s public health strategy, research agenda and clinical engagement. She and her team are working with clinical partners on research, launched the Cannabis Education Advisory Panel and are working with BOCES to bring public health education to young people. A former vice chair of the state Cannabis Advisory Board, Chin also teaches cannabinoid science at Syracuse University and New York University.
Ruth Clements
From COVID-19 pandemic response to long-term access, Ruth Clements has made diagnostics a lever for equity. She oversees one of Quest Diagnostics’ most complex footprints, building on her leadership of Quest for Health Equity, a $100 million-plus initiative launched during COVID-19 that paired large-scale diagnostic deployment with trusted community partners to deliver nearly 100,000 tests and vaccinations in underresourced communities. She has since positioned routine testing as a front-line tool for closing racial care gaps.
Jantra Coll
As youth and young adult mental health indicators worsen, signaling a generational crisis, Jantra Coll is helping shape New York City’s broader community mental health response, with empathy and a focus on turning ideas into programs that work. Grounded in clinical training and public system leadership, she brings a practitioner’s lens to her vision for the care program. She led the development of Vibrant Emotional Health’s new Staten Island Family and Youth Peer Support office, which is an expansion of its network and increases access to care for the borough.
David Collymore
David Collymore has been at the forefront of health care advocacy in New York for a decade and is now taking on his biggest issue yet, heading off Medicaid cuts by President Donald Trump. Collymore is the executive director of the Healthcare Education Project, a joint initiative of 1199SEIU and the Greater New York Hospital Association, focusing on state and federal advocacy. Formerly Healthcare Education Project deputy director, Collymore is a veteran of the Trump health wars, directing campaigns in the first Trump administration to prevent the repeal of the Affordable Care Act.
Joseph Conte
Joseph Conte is the longtime leader of the Staten Island Performing Provider System, a borough-based population health organization launched a decade ago as part of the state’s Medicaid Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment Program. The effort, a collaboration among local hospitals and a network of community organizations, targets health inequity and chronic disease and has helped reduce the number of opioid overdose deaths on Staten Island. On Conte’s watch, the Staten Island Performing Provider System has reached 25,000 individuals and also offered workforce training to hundreds of local residents.
Marco Damiani
Marco Damiani leads a workforce that supports over 15,000 neurodivergent children and adults across New York City. His accomplishments include working at a nonprofit involved with the dismantling of the infamous Willowbrook State School, an experience that shaped his approach to care. Since taking the helm of AHRC New York City, he has advanced integrated care models for constituents, while tying disability services to workforce equity and employment. Damiani received the NGO Zero Project 2025 Employment Innovation Award at the United Nations’ Vienna offices, where he met with the president of Austria.
Andrew L. Davis
Andrew L. Davis has helped steer one of Western New York’s most complex health institutions through a decade of transformation. Since arriving at Erie County Medical Center in 2016, he has overseen over $100 million in campus modernization efforts, expanded trauma and emergency capacity, and advanced regional collaboration with the Great Lakes Health System, which also involves Kaleida Health, the University at Buffalo and the Center for Hospice and Palliative Care. In January, he started a one-year term as chair of the Healthcare Association of Western and Central New York.
Glen Davis
Trained as a public sector psychiatrist, Dr. Glen Davis spent two decades working across behavioral health, housing and public systems. At the Institute for Community Living, he guides clinical work for 140 programs serving over 13,000 New Yorkers annually, delivering a holistic health approach to people facing serious mental illness, substance use and homelessness. Davis created the Whole Health Learning Collaborative to boost professional development, expanded integrated mobile treatment and supportive housing partnerships, and worked to reduce opioid overdoses.
Chris Del Vecchio
Chris Del Vecchio has made partnership the key part of regional health care growth, arguing that an insurance plan cannot serve a community without being part of it. Rising from strategy and operations roles to the corner office, becoming CEO in 2019, he has forged alliances with Mass General Brigham and Belong Health. He is bringing Independent Health into MVP Health Care’s family of companies, pending regulatory approval, which would serve almost 1 million members with $7 billion in annual revenue. He has created MVP’s Empowered Well-Being vision, along with programs to focus on digital engagement and evidence-based innovation.
Emma DeVito
Emma DeVito retired at the end of 2025 after a remarkable tenure running VillageCare, a continuing care organization offering community services and managed care options in New York City. On her watch, the organization expanded from around 1,000 members to nearly 40,000 at the end of last year, while its Medicaid managed long-term care plan is one of the largest in the state. She served on New York’s second Medicaid Redesign Team and remains a vice chair on the board of Amida Care.
Sean Doolan
Sean Doolan has spent more than three decades as a powerful yet under-the-radar shaper of the state’s health policy. Leading Hinman Straub’s Health Practice, he has developed a reputation as a central strategist on the state’s most complex health care matters, from insurance regulation to large-scale transactions. His expertise goes beyond the halls of the state Capitol and includes mergers and acquisitions, negotiating transactions, implementing state and federal requirements, compliance and navigating the regulatory approval process, allowing Doolan to be a key counselor for his clients.
Jonnel Doris
Jonnel Doris leads one of New York City’s most historically significant behavioral health providers as disparities and access challenges persist citywide. Since becoming CEO of StartCare in 2022, he has helped secure more than $9 million to expand behavioral health, housing, workforce and reentry services and opened StartCare’s first South Bronx location. Doris is a former commissioner of the city’s Department of Small Business Services and headed the city’s Office of Minority and Women-owned Business Enterprises. He served on Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s small business transition committee.
Kevin P. Fiori
Dr. Kevin P. Fiori has made community health workers central to how care reaches families in the Bronx. He founded and leads the Community Health Worker Institute at Montefiore Einstein, where he is the inaugural vice chair for community health and engagement. Since 2022, his team has offered a complete range of health care to almost 15,000 patients. His approach traces back to his Peace Corps service in Togo, where early work integrating community health workers later evolved into the co-founding of Integrate Health in West Africa.
Susan Fox
Susan Fox has spent the past decade leading White Plains Hospital through sustained growth, helping turn it into a Hudson Valley destination for advanced care. Rising from senior administrator to chief executive in 2015, she is now overseeing a major expansion that will nearly double the campus, including a new emergency department and 240 private inpatient rooms. Her leadership is shaped by an early career as a pediatric intensive care nurse, and later on in health system strategy, has been paired with national policy influence through service on The Joint Commission’s board.
Susan Wirka Fox
Susan Wirka Fox has dedicated her career to serving people with developmental disabilities. In her nearly a decade leading the Westchester Institute for Human Development, she has spearheaded unprecedented growth for the vital Hudson Valley facility. She has launched new programs for young adults with developmental disabilities and has made expansion of services a top priority. Next up for Fox is a major capital campaign, having recently found a new home for WIHD and its growing program of vital services.
David Gentner
Over more than two decades, David Gentner has played a central role in reshaping elder care in Westchester County, steering capital projects expanding rehabilitation, adult day services, memory care and affordable senior housing, while Wartburg has maintained a 5-star rating with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. He recently broke ground on the $74 million all-electric Waltemade Residence, converting a former skilled nursing facility into 102 affordable senior apartments and 30 supportive units for older adults who have been experiencing homelessness. The project is supported by state, county and Mount Vernon funding.
Carmen Renée Green
Under Dr. Carmen Renée Green’s leadership, a 100% residency match for the class of 2025 capped a milestone year for CUNY School of Medicine, reinforcing a model aligned with the state’s workforce needs. She guided the school’s transition into CUNY’s 26th independent college, expanding its authority to grow, including the approval of a traditional four-year doctor of medicine track and securing a $19.3 million National Institutes of Health award to build a center for minority health equity. Roughly half of graduates now enter primary care.
Junior Harewood
Junior Harewood’s 25-year career across care coordination, sales and regional leadership informs his approach to growth, performance and New York’s complex legislative and regulatory landscape, as employer-sponsored insurance faces mounting cost pressure and rising expectations. A Long Island native, he brings direct accountability to the role while advancing priorities that include maternal-fetal health, health equity and addressing social drivers of health. Through board service with the Long Island Association and The Business Council of New York State, he serves as a key voice in business and economic advocacy.
Debora Hayes
Debora Hayes has spent four decades at bedsides and bargaining tables, translating experience into policy. In her role, she represents about 15,000 health care workers statewide and has pressed state lawmakers to stabilize hospital funding while confronting chronic understaffing, arguing that “we will only fix the workforce shortage if we fix the staffing crisis.” In Buffalo, she helped found Nurses United CWA Local 1168 and has since grown it from 750 nurses into more than 4,500 members across multiple employers. Her advocacy also helped pass New York’s 2021 clinical staffing committee law.
Paloma Izquierdo-Hernandez
Raised in the Bronx, Paloma Izquierdo-Hernandez has spent decades turning community health into a conduit for care, education and economic stability. Under her leadership, Urban Health Plan has grown from a single South Bronx clinic into one of the state’s largest federally qualified health center networks. Services now include school-based care, mental health services and workforce development, with more than 89,000 patients treated annually. Last year, UHP launched new and expanded partnerships, including the new Community Psychiatry Residency Program, which grows mental health care.
Miki Kapoor
As New York moved to overhaul its Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program, Miki Kapoor stepped into the top job at Public Partnerships LLC in June with years of experience. A former PPL board member, he guided the consolidation of more than 600 fiscal intermediaries into a single statewide system, one of the largest Medicaid home health care transitions in American history. The transition is projected to save taxpayers $1 billion with new oversight and controls and lower administrative costs.
William Keefer
William Keefer sits at the center of the risk management universe dealing with HIPAA, Medicare, Medicaid and state Department of Health requirements, providing expert counsel to hospitals, physicians, payers and long-term care providers. He also holds leadership roles within the New York State Bar Association, including chairing its Payment, Enforcement and Compliance Committee and serving as vice chair of the Health Law Section. He collaborates with his firm’s Psychedelics and Mental Health Therapies practice, advising clients in emerging treatment areas.
Bryan T. Kelly
Dr. Bryan T. Kelly became the first surgeon to lead Hospital for Special Surgery in its 160-year history, becoming president and CEO as the renowned orthopedic institution moved toward clinician-led governance. After decades shaping orthopedic sports medicine and hip preservation, he has guided expansion while maintaining the top national rank for orthopedics. Surgical volumes have increased while access is expanding to HSS facilities in the tristate area and in south Florida. He oversaw the first cohort at the HSS Leadership Development Institute and new collaborations with General Atlantic, Deerfield and Peloton.
Carolyn Kerr
Over the past 14 years, Carolyn Kerr has helped build Brown & Weinraub’s health care practice, which she now leads. She expanded its scope from hospital transactions into policy strategy, lobbying and regulatory work across the sector. Health care clients now represent roughly a third of the firm’s portfolio. Her work draws on earlier experience leading New York government affairs for UnitedHealth Group and advising on Medicaid and mental health issues inside the governor’s office.
Shawn Kingston
After Westchester County proclaimed Nov. 19 “Shawn Kingston Day” in 2025, Shawn Kingston received public recognition reflecting decades of service to veterans’ needs. In his role, he steers development and civic engagement as veteran services expand despite federal workforce reductions and cost-cutting. Rising from a high school work study volunteer to senior leadership, Kingston secured more than $1.5 million in donations while driving $2 million in savings. His team’s food pantry provides nonperishables to over 4,000 veterans annually, alongside partnerships advancing housing, wellness and whole health needs.
Joshua Klein
Joshua Klein oversees strategy and business operations at the New York Psychotherapy and Counseling Center, a community behavioral health organization serving tens of thousands of New Yorkers each year. He has led technology and workflow changes that rebuilt referral and intake systems, cut response times and helped sustain a no-waitlist model. He also has authored new artificial intelligence and data security policies. Klein is focused on making sure the center’s innovations are accomplished with detailed risk management and compliance policies that meet federal and state laws. He is a thought leader on issues of technology, AI, staff retention and innovation to deliver high-quality care.
Riquelmy Lamour
Riquelmy Lamour oversees trauma-informed programs that embed mental health screening into primary care visits, regardless of why a patient walks through the door. Bilingual and community-focused, she promotes trusted primary care and faith-based referral pathways to reduce stigma in Latino communities. Earlier experience at New York City’s Department of Homeless Services informs her focus on access, crisis response and continuity of care. An adjunct professor and the National Association of Social Workers’ New York state chapter Social Worker of the Year in 2025, Lamour is molding both the practice and the minds of future mental health workers.
Leah Lindahl
With nearly a decade navigating statehouses for pharmaceutical distributors, Leah Lindahl oversees state legislative and regulatory strategy at the Healthcare Distribution Alliance, a national network linking more than 1,200 manufacturers with hundreds of thousands of pharmacies, hospitals and care sites. Her work centers on patient access, drug safety and reinforcing distributors’ role in keeping medicines moving under any circumstances. Earlier in her career, Lindahl advanced policy issues as vice president of the Colorado BioScience Association. Lindahl serves as co-vice chair of Women In Government’s business council.
Michael A. Lindsey
Michael A. Lindsey has emerged as a central figure in redefining mental health. As the dean of the NYU Silver School of Social Work, he guided the Congressional Black Caucus Emergency Taskforce on Black Youth Suicide and Mental Health in publishing its landmark “Ring the Alarm” report on Black youth suicide. Lindsey is ranked in the top 2% of scientists internationally, shared advice for parents to talk to their teens about mental health and co-authored a study showing that improved economic security, limited alcohol access and restricted access to lethal means reduce suicide. He is a member of the New York City Board of Health.
Eric Linzer
As fears mount over rising premiums and affordability, Eric Linzer has become a leading voice in the state health care debate. Since 2018, he has represented insurers covering over 10 million New Yorkers while pressing policymakers to enact reforms like exempting Medicaid from the state’s out-of-network payment dispute system to address what he called “egregious” rates from providers. In 2025, his Albany agenda focused on affordability, including navigating the state’s shift of the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program to a single fiscal intermediary, elevating concerns from consumers and their personal assistants.
David Lubarsky
A Hudson Valley native, Dr. David Lubarsky returned last year and is setting about transforming the Westchester Medical Center Health Network. In Lubarsky's first year as president and CEO, the health system received $100 million from the New York Safety Net Hospital partnership to accelerate the integration of three Bon Secours hospitals into the system. He also is launching a $25 million capital campaign for the Fareri Pavilion this year and is addressing compensation gaps. Lubarsky, who started his medical career at WMCHealth, was previously the vice chancellor of health and human services at University of California, Davis, and CEO of UC Davis Health.
Rashanna Lynch
Dr. Rashanna Lynch has spent more than a decade inside New York City’s community health system, joining Ryan Health in 2014 and rising from primary care into her leadership role. She has pushed the network to broaden access points by expanding geriatric services, planning new in-house pharmacies and a new Harlem site opening this year. Beyond operations, Lynch brings a primary care perspective to mental health policy as the only primary care provider on the New York State Suicide Prevention Council, keeping equity, prevention and outcomes tied to day-to-day practice.
John Marshall
Promoted to chief medical officer in 2023, Dr. John Marshall oversees medical affairs at Brooklyn’s largest hospital, guiding more than 1,300 physicians across trauma, cardiac, cancer and pediatric care. An emergency physician who joined Maimonides in 2003, he helped expand emergency services, including the creation of Brooklyn’s first and only pediatric trauma center. He is a decorated Air Force veteran who deployed to Afghanistan after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Among Marshall’s priorities is a focus on strengthening physician operations, performance and patient experience.
Misha Marvel
Misha Marvel is focused on ending hunger in New York. Between leading Hunger Solutions New York’s early childhood nutrition policy and engagement program, co-chairing the WIC Association of New York State’s Legislative and Public Policy Committee and serving on the WIC Outreach national advisory council, Marvel sits at the nexus to deliver real results for expanding benefits for women, infants and children. She developed the state’s first statewide WIC needs assessment, secured the funding for the WIC Association’s first executive director and has built the partnerships needed for increased awareness.
Briana McNamee
Briana McNamee works in Albany advancing health care regulation, workforce policy and legislative strategy. After senior staff roles in both state legislative chambers, she brought her institutional knowledge to the New York State Dental Association, where she led its governmental affairs program until September. Her work helped advance legislation expanding preventive oral care, adding oral health to statewide public health education and reforming insurer payment practices. Now the Albany director at Tonio Burgos & Associates, McNamee has led government relations for the New York Library Association and worked in government relations for the New York State School Boards Association.
Jim Moore
Known for translating policy into wins for providers, Jim Moore has played a central role in securing funding and regulatory relief for safety net health systems across New York. His work includes advancing support and Medicaid reimbursement reform for federally qualified health centers, securing a Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic designation for a Western New York provider and helping providers stabilize operations during the COVID-19 pandemic. He has also steered millions through state budgets and federal appropriations. Earlier in his career, Moore served as U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s Southern Tier deputy regional director.
Greg Mustaciuolo
Under Monsignor Greg Mustaciuolo’s leadership, the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation has grown into the state’s largest health-focused grantmaker, moving $1 billion since 2019 into access, workforce stability and broader conditions that influence health. In 2025, he launched a more than $50 million nursing initiative supporting 13 safety net hospitals and convened a statewide Mental Health Summit. A former vicar general and chancellor of the Archdiocese of New York, he frames mental health as a public good, arguing mental illness, addiction and homelessness are “threads of the same fabric,” with dignity, housing and community as the way forward.
Katie Neer
A regulatory lawyer and lobbyist, Katie Neer has become a central defender of New York’s medical cannabis program. Serving as executive director of the New York Medical Cannabis Industry Association for more than five years, she has advanced changes that expanded patient access, reduced fees and taxes, while helping nearly 20 new operators obtain licenses. She guides clients through the labyrinth of state regulations and frameworks while accomplishing such feats as cutting the excise tax in half and increasing patient supplies. Her 2026 agenda includes tax-free medical cannabis.
Julie Notaro
Julie Notaro has built her career expanding the reach of community-based care across Western New York. Since joining Spectrum Health & Human Services in the late 1990s, she has risen from care coordination into systemwide leadership, now overseeing care coordination, supportive housing and reentry programs. She has expanded assertive community treatment services to two counties outside of Spectrum’s Erie County base, is a part of the team awarded one of the first Flex ACT teams in the state and has grown community-based services.
Cora Opsahl
Cora Opsahl directs one of New York’s largest self-insured health plans, overseeing roughly $1.5 billion in annual health care spending for more than 200,000 union members and families. Through a data-driven purchasing strategy and renegotiated medical and pharmacy contracts, she has delivered more than $35 million in annual savings and reinvested into expanded benefits, including fertility coverage. Beyond operations, she has positioned the fund as a leading statewide voice on hospital pricing, advancing contract-first medical requests for proposals and public-facing tools that push transparency and accountability across the market.
Kevin Owens
Kevin Owens has worked on the state’s health and public sector technology initiatives for more than 16 years, advancing through NYSTEC to the role of president and CEO. With a background in health information technology delivery, he has overseen large-scale system implementations for city and state agencies. He has expanded NYSTEC’s role convening agencies, providers and researchers through its Population Health Innovation Summit, linking population health, data modernization and climate resilience. Owens’ health care involvement also includes board service with the Community Hospice Foundation.
Mike Palmateer
Mike Palmateer’s rise at EmblemHealth reflects nearly two decades inside the organization following a long career in insurance finance. Since joining, he has moved through senior leadership roles across finance, strategy and operations, eventually overseeing product design, provider networks, population health and large-scale business transformation. That depth and breadth of experience mattered when EmblemHealth secured the first new health plan for New York City employees in nearly 40 years, extending coverage to roughly 750,000 city workers and their families.
Pretima Persad
Pretima Persad shapes philanthropic strategy across Greater New York City, connecting major donors to cancer research and patient services through an equity lens. She brings more than 15 years in New York City health care, including grantmaking leadership at the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, where she oversaw Crohn’s disease-management grants and assessed new initiatives to improve care. With a master's degree in epidemiology and health policy, she also serves on the Generation Patient board and co-chairs grant review for Impact100 Westchester.
David V. Pomeranz
David V. Pomeranz rose from overseeing RiverSpring Living’s day-to-day services to guiding systemwide strategy, helping grow the organization from a $100 million nursing home serving 1,000 residents into a $1 billion system reaching 18,000 older New Yorkers. He has advanced a model that pilots and evaluates emerging technologies in live-care environments, translating tools like artificial intelligence and virtual platforms into safer, more personalized aging services. Alongside his executive role, his role as board president at LiveOn NY tied innovation to statewide advocacy for older adults.
Isa Puello
Isa Puello brings more than a decade inside state government to her role at Hollis Public Affairs after serving in various roles in the Assembly. While there, she helped shape telehealth expansion legislation alongside reimbursement reforms to make it more workable for providers and patients, while advancing equity-focused health measures, including expanded Medicaid coverage for prenatal and maternal care. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she coordinated statewide resource and vaccination efforts. Fluent in Spanish, Puello strengthens the firm’s ability to engage diverse communities and client needs.
Kendra Ray
A licensed music therapist with more than two decades working in dementia care and aging research, Kendra Ray leads a nationally funded research portfolio backed by the National Institutes of Health, the Alzheimer’s Association, the Women’s Alzheimer’s Movement and Columbia University, translating evidence into real-world care. Ray joined CaringKind in August, after designing and implementing the nationally recognized memory care program at MJHS Menorah Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing Care. A recognized music therapy expert, she is a research assistant professor at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine.
Maureen Regan
A longtime advocate for modernizing clinical practice, Maureen Regan has spent two decades strengthening the voice and reach of physician associates across New York. Reelected president of the New York State Society of Physician Associates in July, she leads the volunteer-driven organization through high-stakes workforce and regulatory debates. In a prior stint as president, she helped position physician associates as front-line responders under emergency executive orders during the COVID-19 pandemic. Regan pressed for permanent removal of supervision requirements for experienced physician associates well before Gov. Kathy Hochul’s proposal to do so.
Karines Reyes
Assembly Member Karines Reyes’ work on health policy is different from most lawmakers – it is grounded in her experience as a registered nurse. She joined the Assembly Higher Education Committee, which allows her to focus on reforming and updating medical professional licensing. Reyes passed the state’s abortion shield law, secured the development of the Latinos United for Change Equity Fund and expanded funding for nursing programs. She chairs the Puerto Rican/Hispanic Task Force and serves on the Health, Social Services, and Alcoholism and Drug Abuse committees.
Ali Rimkunas
Ali Rimkunas is an expert health care policy lobbyist in Albany. Her client portfolio includes 1199SEIU, CVS Health and independent practice associations statewide. She supported CVS in combating retail theft challenges, helped advance hospital and nursing home reimbursement improvements, and has passed programs to address pharmacy technician and nursing home workforce shortages. Prior to joining Cordo & Co., Rimkunas worked in the state Senate, specializing in health, mental health and higher education policy.
Gustavo Rivera
State Senate Health Committee Chair Gustavo Rivera has been hyperfocused on health policy since winning his Bronx seat in 2010. He has steered laws targeting medical debt, pushing to expand postpartum and undocumented individual coverage, setting hospital and nursing home staffing standards, and championing single-payer health care. In 2025, he advanced state-backed drug manufacturing legislation to curb prescription prices and shortages, pressed congressional Democrats to protect expiring Affordable Care Act tax credits and launched oversight hearings on the state’s Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program transition.
Kristy Rodriguez
With more than 15 years in behavioral health work, Kristy Rodriguez has helped modernize outpatient addiction treatment for communities hard hit by overdoses. She leads bilingual, culturally responsive programs while overseeing state-funded opioid response initiatives that align staffing, performance metrics and care delivery with evolving standards. Her leadership blends harm reduction and trauma-informed care with stronger infrastructure, regulatory readiness and workforce training. Experience across large providers and community clinics honed her ability to pair clinical judgment with operational discipline to improve outcomes.
Todd Rogow
As health systems push to move data beyond hospital walls, Healthix has become the connective tissue for coordinated care across New York City and Long Island. Under Todd Rogow’s leadership, the exchange now links records for more than 21 million patients, while expanding into artificial intelligence-assisted clinical tools, national patient record access through CommonWell and social care data sharing aligned with New York’s 1115 Medicaid waiver. He has also positioned Healthix as a force in value-based care, pairing large-scale interoperability with measurable community impact.
Dogeli Rojas
At Public Health Solutions, Dogeli Rojas helped build the data and technology infrastructure behind WholeYouNYC, connecting more than 2.3 million Medicaid members to food, housing and transportation support. Earlier, at NYC Health + Hospitals, she helped launch the Maternal Medical Home program across all locations. A former Peace Corps volunteer in Zambia, Rojas is a doula and also serves on the New York City Maternal Mortality Review Committee.
Michael N. Rosenblut
Michael N. Rosenblut has overseen the strategic growth of Parker Jewish Institute for Health Care and Rehabilitation over the past 24 years, helping make it the only skilled nursing facility in the region with an on-site vascular surgery center. He has expanded the Parker At Your Door service into a multicounty medical house call program for homebound adults. Most recently, he led the launch of state-approved bedside blood transfusions, bringing hospital-level care directly to residents through a partnership with the New York Blood Center and the Blood Bank of Delmarva to ensure the highest clinical and safety standards, while allowing residents to avoid hospital trips.
Lisa Santeramo
Lisa Santeramo brings a wealth of local, state and federal government experience to her role spearheading government affairs and public policy for Catholic Health on Long Island. Santeramo previously served as assistant deputy secretary for intergovernmental affairs for the governor and was also deputy county executive and chief of staff in the Suffolk County Executive’s Office and district director for a member of Congress. Among her current responsibilities are advocating for legislative changes and overseeing Catholic Health’s Food Insecurity Initiative.
Sanjiv S. Shah
Dr. Sanjiv S. Shah brings decades of infectious disease practice and managed care leadership to his role at New York City’s vast public health plan. Joining MetroPlusHealth just before the COVID-19 pandemic, he helped redeploy clinical staff and expand testing and vaccination outreach. Since then, he has pushed mental health parity from principle into practice by bringing behavioral health services in-house and expanding free dietitian access for city workers. He also helped launch medically tailored meals with God’s Love We Deliver and NYC Health + Hospitals, linking nutrition, chronic care and outcomes.
David Shippee
David Shippee brings decades of community health leadership to one of the Capital Region’s most essential safety net providers. He oversees an unusually broad continuum of care spanning primary, dental, behavioral health and addiction treatment for patients regardless of income. Shippee has launched one of the Albany region’s only dental residency programs to provide for expanded Medicaid dental access. He recently initiated a $12 million capital improvement plan for the primary care center and opioid treatment program.
Michael J. Spicer
Michael J. Spicer has spent four decades shaping Saint Joseph’s Medical Center into a cornerstone of care in Westchester County. Rising through the organization since joining in the 1980s, he became its first lay president and has steered growth by building a system that links hospital treatment to follow-up care and community programs. He also pushed clinical affiliation with Montefiore to broaden access to advanced specialty care locally. In 2025, he secured a $19.68 million state grant to modernize operating rooms. He is the longest-serving hospital CEO in Westchester County and a former chair of the Healthcare Association of New York State.
Jangir Sultan
A licensed occupational therapist with experience at hospitals, nursing homes, rehabilitation settings and home care, Jangir Sultan founded Patient Advocates of America to keep people safely at home and ease the handoffs when hospitalization is unavoidable. Over the past year, he has helped redesign payer and provider workflows to cut down on delays and administrative drag while developing a digital platform to ease the administrative burden on caregiver teams. Previously, he served on the advisory board of Stonewall Community Development Corp. supporting care for LGBTQ+ older adults in New York City.
Jonathan Teyan
Jonathan Teyan is making the case to Gov. Kathy Hochul and state lawmakers that biomedical research is not just good for health care but that it’s an economic engine for New York. He has driven a proposal to launch the Empire Biomedical Research Institute with an initial $500 million and a path toward a full $6 billion commitment, while publicly linking National Institutes of Health funding to jobs and innovation statewide. His strategy at AMSNY has been focused on making the case that medical schools are driving innovation, care and the economy. Since joining AMSNY in 2011, he has sharpened its policy voice and expanded diversity pipelines and oral health training to close access gaps.
Pat Tursi
Pat Tursi leads Elizabeth Seton Children’s work serving kids with complex medical needs, helping grow a $150 million nonprofit system that supports more than 2,000 families each year. A licensed nursing home administrator with over 30 years in health care and long-term care, she drew on her geriatric care background to design pediatric long-term care services, launching New York’s first long-term care unit for ventilator-dependent children and guiding major expansions. Over the past decade, she has led the development of a first-of-its-kind young adult center, slated to open in 2028.
Mark R. Ustin
Mark R. Ustin has become an in-demand guide for health care players navigating the state’s regulatory terrain. In 2025, he tripled his firm’s Albany footprint, deepening its health care practice while serving as chair of the New York State Bar Association’s Health Law Section. His work has protected nonprofit hospice care, raised early intervention rates and secured Medicaid coverage for emerging treatments. He also provides pro bono counsel to medical students from underrepresented backgrounds committed to serving underserved communities. He held health policy roles in former Gov. George Pataki’s administration.
Jaime Venditti
Through her work at J Strategies, Jaime Venditti leads patient advocacy and alliance-building that supports research, drug discovery, early detection and access to emerging treatments. She has also designed multistate corporate social responsibility efforts that deliver health screenings and practical assistance to communities in need. As New York Health Works’ state coordinator and a former analyst in the Assembly majority leader’s office, Venditti pairs coalition craft with first-hand legislative insight, translating proposals into progress. Besides health policy, she focuses on aviation, energy, telecommunications, agriculture, technology, liability reform and insurance.
Lisa Volk
After years as an administrator and director of nursing within New York’s long-term care system, Lisa Volk joined the New York State Health Facilities Association in 2016 and now leads its Foundation for Quality Care. Since stepping into that role in 2023, Volk has driven grant-funded initiatives that turn clinical standards into daily practice, including Project Firstline New York, which has trained 5,428 front-line staff, reaching 161 skilled nursing facilities and 42 assisted-living communities. She has launched an escape room experience as a fun and interactive training program for front-line staff.
Jameela Yusuff
Since joining Episcopal Health Services, Dr. Jameela Yusuff has ensured safety is part of the organization’s daily operations, helping achieve a full year without a central line bloodstream infection while driving broader reductions in hospital-acquired infections. She has also reshaped patient-facing services, including the launch of a new labor and delivery suite, while integrating health equity into clinical workflows for the Rockaways. Beyond the bedside, she contributes to national standards through the National Quality Forum’s Opioid and Behavioral Health Committee, drawing on her earlier leadership in academic medicine and addiction treatment.
Ken Zimmerman
Amid renewed battles over Medicaid funding and involuntary treatment policy, Ken Zimmerman has positioned Fountain House as both an operator and advocate for community-based mental health care. He was pleased that last year’s state budget included investments to expand clubhouses – voluntary community-based mental health centers – beyond New York City, arguing the model can help prevent crises and lower costs. Leading the organization that originated a clubhouse approach now replicated globally, Zimmerman has warned that “the notion that Medicaid cuts are the best way to offset spending is fundamentally flawed.”
Correction: An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated that Misha Marvel at Hunger Solutions New York helps expand SNAP benefits. In fact, she has focused on WIC benefits.
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