Diversity and Inclusion | Mount Sinai Today

Mount Sinai Health System Profiles in Pride 2020

Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Community, Diversity and Inclusion

In the annual Profiles in Pride, the Mount Sinai Health System recognizes employees for their leadership and dedication to LGBTQ+ health equity. This year, we salute the following employees.

Michael Cruz, MS (they/theirs/he/his)

Program Manager, Institute for Advanced Medicine

Bringing HIV Prevention and Health Education to Diverse Communities

Michael is a first generation Latinx American, born and raised in Miami, Florida. They joined the HIV outreach team at Mount Sinai’s Institute for Advanced Medicine in 2014 and as Program Manager have used their role to expand Mount Sinai’s outreach to women, transgender and non-binary, incarcerated, and immigrant communities. As an active leader in Mount Sinai’s LGBTQ Employee Resource Group, Michael coordinates the MSHS outreach booth every year at Pridefest, the annual Pride month street fair (on hiatus this year due to COVID-19).

Patti Cuartas, PA-C, MBA, PMP (she, her, hers)

Executive Director, Information Technology, Population Health and Payer Systems

Mentoring and Supporting LGBTQ Employees and Allies

Patti is responsible for leading the development and implementation of business-aligned IT services to support Population Health activities for all populations, including commercially insured, Medicare, and Medicaid patients. She has been a tireless advocate for the inclusion of sexual orientation and gender identity data across all of Mount Sinai’s patient data collection. As co-chair of the corporate Employee Resource Group, she helped to establish, and is an “out” role model in, Mount Sinai’s corporate employee mentoring program. In her spare time, Patti and her wife volunteer for Sugar Mutts Rescue, a 501(c)(3) dog rescue and farm sanctuary organization in Pennsylvania.

Leona Hess, PhD (she, her, hers)

Director of Strategy and Equity Education Programs, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Transforming Medical Education to Undo Racism and Bias

Leona brought her background and experience as an LGBT and anti-racism educator and a lesbian activist for social justice to the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai as its first Director of Strategy and Equity Education Programs, where she is leading a structured process to support complex change with a focus on the people side of change related to the School’s Racism and Bias Initiative.

Ellis Luka Katz, RN, MSN, CCRN, CMC (they, them, theirs)

RN, Neurosurgical ICU, Mount Sinai West

Promoting LGBTQ Affirmative Inpatient Care

El has been instrumental in advocating for and bringing educational resources to providers and staff within inpatient settings at Mount Sinai West on best practices in LGBTQ-sensitive and culturally competent care. They were able to get the inpatient whiteboards to accurately reflect each patient’s name and pronoun, which has become a model for the rest of the Health System. Their courage in coming out to colleagues as non-binary has also inspired efforts to increase colleague-to-colleague sensitivity and respect.

John Henry Pang, MD (he, him, his)

Department of Surgery/Division of Plastic Surgery, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Leading Research in Transgender Medicine and Surgery

John completed Mount Sinai Health System’s Transgender Surgery Fellowship two years ago, and today he specializes in the care of transgender and gender-nonconforming people. As a native of Hawaii and a longtime LGBTQ activist, he has a special interest in ensuring that medical education is inclusive of the needs of his community. He has published and lectured broadly on both plastic surgery and transgender care. He is the Research Group Lead for the Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, is an active member of the World Professional Association of Transgender Health, and has received multiple awards for his leadership and research in this area.

Julio C. Ramos (he, him, his)

MD Student, Class of 2021, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Engaging Student Activism for LGBTQ Equity and Inclusion

Julio is an active member in the Stonewall Alliance and oSTEM, the two LGBTQ student organizations at the Icahn School of Medicine. He participated in raising more than $7,000 during the Second Annual Mount Sinai Charity Drag Race and appeared in the contest in his drag persona, “Penelope.” During the pandemic, he led the PPE distribution task force at The Mount Sinai Hospital and Mount Sinai West.

Pamela Abner Receives Seed to Bloom Award for Corporate Community Service at Mount Sinai

Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Community, Diversity and Inclusion

Pamela Y. Abner, MPA

Pamela Y. Abner, MPA, Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer, Office for Diversity and Inclusion, has received the 2020 Corporate Community Award from the nonprofit group Seeds of Fortune Inc. The award, which Ms. Abner accepted at a virtual gala on Saturday, June 13, recognizes “a corporate employee or company that leverages their resources, expertise, and talent to make a positive impact.”

The group praised Ms. Abner for her thought leadership and strategic management, saying that she “continuously seeks to implement initiatives to identify disparities and eliminate barriers to medical care, employment, and education for underserved and underrepresented groups as well as foster relationships with community partners.” The honor was one of several Seed to Bloom Awards, which celebrate women who are inspiring the next generation of women in finance, entrepreneurship, and community activism. The awards are an initiative of Seeds of Fortune, a scholars program that aims to financially empower young women of color—helping them apply for college scholarships and build financial and career skill sets during their college years and beyond.

Vigils for Justice, Equality, and Health Equity

Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Diversity and Inclusion, Featured, Public Health

Clinicians across New York City joined in a “White Coats for Black Lives” march on Saturday, June 6, from Central Park’s East Meadow down Fifth Avenue to Columbus Circle. Hundreds of health care workers and medical students—wearing the requisite face masks—were demonstrating to address a range of issues, including the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis and structural racism that has contributed to disparities in health, both during the COVID-19 pandemic and long before.

The event was led by White Coats for Black Lives, a medical student-run organization that was born out of demonstrations in 2014 after Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner in Staten Island were killed by police. Since then, the group has formed chapters around the nation with this mission statement: Eliminating racism in the practice of medicine and recognizing racism as a threat to the health and well-being of people of color.

Sites across Mount Sinai have also held vigils—including powerful events on Tuesday, June 2—in which participants observe 8 minutes and 46 seconds of silence, the amount of time George Floyd was held under a police officer’s knee, suffocating to death. Demonstrations also focused on Breonna Taylor, an African-American emergency room technician who in March was killed by the police in her own home in Louisville, Kentucky.

At noon on Thursday, June 11, 1199-SEIU encouraged its members to take that pause to show solidarity for George Floyd and so many others who came before him. Many 1199 members gathered outside of Mount Sinai Beth Israel to participate. And at Mount Sinai West and Mount Sinai Morningside, vigils were led by unions including 1199 and the New York State Nurses Association. Members of hospital leadership at the sites joined in solidarity.

View References and Resources from the Office for Diversity and Inclusion

Mount Sinai is United in Solidarity

The Impact of COVID-19 Within Black and Hispanic Communities

May 28, 2020 | COVID-19, Diversity and Inclusion, Public Health

The COVID-19 pandemic has hit African American, Hispanic, and poor communities across the United States particularly hard. The health disparities that existed before COVID-19 have been greatly exacerbated, with a disproportionate impact on these communities. The questions are why, and what to do about it.

In this Q&A, we spoke with Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai professor and public health research scientist Luz Claudio, PhD.

Why are we seeing such high rates of COVID-19 among African American and Hispanic people?

Health disparity by race, ethnicity, and income is a thing that we know about. There is even a National Institutes of Health institute dedicated to that issue. COVID has just blown the lid off this boiling problem that was already there. It’s been far too long that minority communities, minority people of color, low-income people have been suffering from higher disease levels and more severe disease in many cases.

How are communities of color particularly vulnerable to COVID-19?

There are several factors that contribute to higher rates of disease and death from COVID-19 among people of color. One is that many work in the newly “essential” jobs—where they are exposed to the virus—and are going back home to their families—further spreading the condition.

Another issue is crowding in the household, as people of color tend to have higher numbers of people living in one household—sometimes several generations in one home. Young people, who are risking themselves out there working, often have no way to self-isolate in their household and may inadvertently expose people who are more vulnerable than they are in terms of age or having other diseases.

Not only do they have these conditions more often, but also they’re out there. They’re working in these jobs and they’re being exposed to everything.

Importantly, as our research and that of many others has found, communities of color have higher rates of the very chronic diseases that increase the risk of death due to coronavirus.

How can health care organizations help to make up for disparities?

One of the things that we can do now, instead of waiting until the pandemic is over, is research, as Mount Sinai and other institutions are doing. We need to make institutional policies that correct the health disparities now, not just track them. We need to act now.

Prioritize the people at risk. If you’re only 46 years old but you have diabetes, that should be part of the priority station for testing you for COVID. We should prioritize people at risk because of their comorbidities, and that is going to be mostly minority people. Another thing that we can do is outreach where there is greater risk. Partner with trusted community-based organizations to get the testing and messaging out.

How can health care organizations alleviate any mistrust between themselves and vulnerable populations?

As an institution, we can partner with community-based organizations that already have that kind of trust as a bridge and really collaborate with them equally.

This is a good example of the way health care institutions can reach and be seen as part of the community. That’s another one of our responsibilities as a health care institution: to build that trust through a bridge of people who are already doing the work at the grassroots level.

The Mount Sinai Health System recently launched the Institute for Health Equity Research, which is dedicated to examining the causes and magnitude of health and health care disparities impacting nonwhite, low-income, immigrant, uninsured, LGBTQ+, and other populations across all ages, abilities, and genders. In partnership with local community groups, the Institute is now launching a survey of the health and social impacts of COVID-19. Speak Up on COVID-19: Help Us Help ALL New Yorkers seeks 10,000 respondents across the area.

Read about Public Health at Mount Sinai

New Institute for Health Equity Research Studies Issues Spotlighted by COVID-19

May 21, 2020 | COVID-19, Diversity and Inclusion, Featured, Public Health, Research

Co-Director Lynne Richardson, MD, left, and Director Carol Horowitz, MD, MPH, are guiding the new Institute for Health Equity Research. View an interview with Dr. Richardson on racial disparities and COVID-19.

The Mount Sinai Health System’s new Institute for Health Equity Research is quickly acting on its mandate to rigorously study disparities in health issues, including COVID-19, with the intention of translating those discoveries into initiatives and policies that benefit communities in New York and the nation.

“Our extensive expertise in population health and serving one of the most socioeconomically, demographically, and culturally varied populations in the world makes us uniquely positioned to take on this enormous challenge,” says Dennis S. Charney, MD, the Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and President for Academic Affairs of the Mount Sinai Health System.

The COVID-19 pandemic is shining a light on long-existing health inequities, according to the Institute’s Director, Carol Horowitz, MD, MPH, Professor of Population Health Science and Policy, and Medicine, and Dean for Gender Equity in Science, and its Co-Director, Lynne D. Richardson, MD, Professor and Vice Chair of Emergency Medicine, and Professor of Population Health Science and Policy.

“Who gets COVID-19, who lives and who dies, maps very well, unfortunately, with other kinds of maps we have in New York City,” Dr. Horowitz says. “This includes areas of poverty, areas of majority of low-income, Latinx, and African American people, areas of more pollution, areas of more linguistic isolation, areas that have had more redlining in the past and other structural inequities. If you look at any map of New York City, and where people are marginalized, don’t have equal opportunities, and have higher burdens of chronic diseases, these are the same areas where COVID-19 seems to be hitting the most.”

Initiatives in Progress

The Institute has a variety of initiatives in progress, including Speak Up on COVID-19, a survey that was just launched in partnership with more than 100 New York City community organizations. “Speak Up” will be available in 11 languages to anyone with access to a smartphone. It is seeking to enroll more than 10,000 participants and will explore medical, demographic, social determinants, and COVID-19-related attitudinal, behavioral, and psychological factors; and try to identify participants’ needs and risk-factors. The survey also offers a resource guide, Dr. Horowitz says, answering questions such as “What are the resources for food? What are the resources if you are a survivor of domestic violence, and you can’t get out of your house? What do you do if you are homeless? What do you do to help your kids learn? What do you do if you are pregnant and you have COVID-19?”

And studies are underway on subjects including:

The impact of gender-affirming hormone treatment on the clinical course of COVID-19 in transgender and gender-nonbinary patients;
Health outcomes for those living with HIV and COVID-19;
How patient care via telehealth can be delivered equitably and narrow the digital divide.

The New York City Department of Health reports that 81 percent of COVID-19 cases are in the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens, with higher numbers in neighborhoods that are lower income and have more underserved residents. Only 12 percent of cases are in Manhattan, and there are signs of health disparity there as well, “right in our area, since The Mount Sinai Hospital is at the border of East Harlem and the Upper East Side,” Dr. Horowitz says. The DOH reports that as of May 18, in the 10029 zip code—East Harlem—there were 1,698 COVID-19 cases and 182 deaths, in a population that is 84 percent African-American and Latino with a median yearly income of $34,000. The toll was markedly lower in the adjacent 10028 zip code—the Upper East Side—where there were 603 cases of COVID-19 and 34 deaths, in a population that is 71 percent non-Hispanic white with a median income of $114,000.

The Mount Sinai Health System is well positioned to collect and study its own data on health care disparity because of years of groundwork led by the Office for Diversity and Inclusion, says Gary C. Butts, MD, Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, Mount Sinai Health System, and Dean for Diversity Programs, Policy, and Community Affairs, Icahn School of Medicine. “Understanding disproportionality is important,” Dr. Butts says. “With the data we have assembled, we can study it better, and we can be positioned to close the gaps that we have been talking about for a long time. It’s the right thing to do, and it’s the smart thing to do.”

Collecting Data

Pamela Y. Abner, MPA, Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer, Office for Diversity and Inclusion, spearheaded the effort to make it a standard procedure across most of the Health System to collect data in Mount Sinai’s patient registration systems on race, ethnicity, language, and sexual orientation and gender identity. The data are available to clinicians and researchers to enhance patient care and further study on an innovative Disparities Dashboard, created with leaders including Dr. Richardson and Nina A. Bickell, MD, MPH, Professor of Population Health Science and Policy, and Medicine.

“In the case of COVID-19, it appears that African-American patients were coming into the hospital sicker,” says Ms. Abner, citing preliminary findings. “We will now be able to analyze our data to determine if there are socioeconomic factors that impact outcomes within our most vulnerable populations. For example, we might look at the relationship between race/ethnicity and those who were more acutely ill, based on ICU numbers or length of stay, and consider how that may have impacted clinical outcomes.”

Dr. Richardson has experienced the toll of the COVID-19 pandemic more directly than most. In addition to her administrative and research duties, she treats patients in the Emergency Department at The Mount Sinai Hospital and at Elmhurst Hospital, and recently recovered from COVID-19 herself. “Now that we have come through the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is important that we thoroughly investigate all of the causes of its disproportionate impact on racial/ethnic minorities and vulnerable communities, which are layered on top of many longstanding, pre-existing health and health care disparities,” Dr. Richardson says.

The overarching goal is addressing needs of populations at risk of COVID-19 and other health issues, which includes many members of the Mount Sinai community. “Mount Sinai is the biggest employer in East Harlem,” Dr. Horowitz says. “These are the people who are delivering food, delivering medicine, driving people around, working as home attendants. These are heroes; these are the people who have not stopped. They are not staying home in isolation, because they can’t.”

“At this point, our ability to understand, partner with, and serve those who are most vulnerable to COVID-19 is a reflection of our commitment as human beings, as researchers, as clinicians and as a Health System,” Dr. Horowitz says. “We are only as good as how we care for our most vulnerable populations.”

Saving Lives, One Mask at a Time

May 19, 2020 | COVID-19, Diversity and Inclusion, Featured, School

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai student Tyler McChane (MS3) delivered mask kits to the New York Common Pantry in East Harlem.

Aishwarya Raja, a rising fourth-year medical student at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, looked at the East Harlem community that surrounds Mount Sinai and knew she had to help her neighbors as the COVID-19 pandemic surged in New York City. She understood they often lacked the most basic health care necessities, and with a sizable number of them considered essential workers and unable to stay at home, she wanted them to remain safe. She was unsure they would even have access to one fundamental item needed to confront the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19—protective masks.

Then, she had an idea and founded Mask Transit, an initiative dedicated to delivering masks and educational materials to vulnerable neighbors, an effort to help slow the spread of COVID-19. She mobilized 50 medical students across 15 institutions in mid-April, and they began sourcing and delivering masks and creating educational materials.

The project was launched under the guidance of Yasmin S. Meah, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine, and Medical Education. Dr. Meah is the Program Director and Chief Medical Attending of the East Harlem Health Outreach Partnership (EHHOP), Mount Sinai’s student-run, physician-supervised clinic, which provides free primary, preventive, and mental health care to uninsured adults.

“These students have done an amazing job of serving the most vulnerable members in the community,” says Dr. Meah. “Many of them are essential workers, isolated from services, with low health literacy, so getting masks and information into their hands can be lifesaving.”

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai student Matthew Eveleth (SY) put together mask kits that were mailed and delivered to more than 250 EHHOP (East Harlem Health Outreach Partnership) households.

Reema Navalurkar (MS3), and Parth Trivedi (SY), education co-chairs, developed educational materials to explain why and how to wear a mask, and how to clean it, along with information about COVID-19. Materials are available in Spanish, French, Mandarin, and Arabic, in addition to English. Under the leadership of Tyler McChane (MS3), the team sourced face masks and fabric. They found local seamstresses willing to donate their time to sew masks, and they partnered with grass roots organizations to help distribute them. The team delivered mask kits, consisting of masks and information, to distribution points and to individuals. They created a website, raised funds for their initiative, and promoted the program throughout the community and through social media.

To date, Mask Transit has distributed more than 6,000 mask kits with a goal of distributing 100,000 by mid-June. In addition to partnering with EHHOP, they also work with New York Common Pantry and Little Sisters of the Assumption Family Health Services, an organization that helps families meet basic needs, and they recently broadened their reach to West Bronx. Mask Transit has also established branches in Boston, where they are partnering with Boston Healthcare for the Homeless Program, and in New Haven, where they are partnering with the HAVEN clinic, Yale School of Medicine’s student-run free clinic. Their new goal is to branch out to all five boroughs in New York City and to other cities across the United States.

Aishwarya Raja, a rising fourth-year medical student at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, oversees the Mask Transit initiative that she founded in April 2020.

“What has been most rewarding is that we have been able to harness the power of individuals to make a difference,” says Ms. Raja. “Everyone—students, businesses, seamstresses, and community organizations—has stepped up. They are great examples of how kind, generous, and resilient our community members can be in the city’s time of need.”

Anyone interested in donating masks or mask materials can click here. To find out more information about the organization, visit masktransit.org or contact them at contact@masktransit.org.

Learn more about Mask Transit

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