Health Foundation leadership-fellows program graduates include 9 from CNY

Nine Central New Yorkers are among 36 graduates in the 2016 class of health-leadership fellows.

The Health Foundation for Western & Central New York on May 2 held the graduation ceremony at the Strong Museum in Rochester, the organization said in a news release.

The event marked the end of an “intensive,” 18-month program for this fifth class of fellows, the Health Foundation said.

Central New York graduates from the fifth cohort include:

• Rebecca Bostwick, program director at Syracuse University’s Lerner Center for Public Health Promotions
• Cornelia Brown, founder and executive director of the Multi-Cultural Association of Medical Interpreters (MAMI)
• Kathleen Dermady, licensed midwife and faculty member, regional perinatal center at SUNY Upstate Medical University
• Susan Furtney, associate administrator for ambulatory services at SUNY Upstate University Hospital
• Liddy Hintz, Bowman Systems, LLC
• Jeffrey Lance Jackson, formerly with Syracuse Model Neighborhood Facility, Inc.
• Heather Kemmis, VP of home care at the Centers at St. Camillus
• Nancy Seller, senior VP of school-age services at Upstate Cerebral Palsy
• Kelly Walters, executive director of the Parkway Senior Center

The program included four residential sessions, spanning two to three days, on topics including personal leadership, leading change, communicating as a leader, and results-based leadership and collaboration.

Fellows worked together on an inter-organizational project in small teams between the residential sessions.

The Health Foundation also provided each fellow with executive coaching and access to the program’s learning materials.

Launched in 2005, the health-leadership fellows program seeks to produce a “network of diverse, highly-skilled leaders that will lead collaboratively from both within and outside of their organizations and become advocates for improved health-care delivery, particularly for vulnerable older adults and children impacted by poverty,” according to the Health Foundation.

Since 2005, the Health Foundation has graduated 137 health-leadership fellows from its program.

Program graduates continue their work as members of the fellows action network, where they work “collaboratively” to improve care for vulnerable older adults and children in poverty, and “collectively tackle other critical” health issues facing Western and Central New York.

A sixth class is currently in progress. The Health Foundation also recently selected members of the seventh cohort.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com