Award to Take Place in New York on December 13th, Featuring Mitchell Katz in Conversation with Kaiser Health News Editor-in-Chief Elisabeth Rosenthal
Contact: Jon Purves
Associate Director, Media Relations
The Aspen Institute
jon.purves@aspeninstitute.org
New York City, NY, December 8, 2021 — Dr. Mitchell Katz will be honored with the 11th annual Preston Robert Tisch Award in Civic Leadership on Monday, December 13. The Aspen Institute award will take place as an in-person, live streamed event from 6:00-7:00 p.m. EST in New York City. Dr. Katz will be in conversation with Elisabeth Rosenthal, MD, the Editor-in-Chief of Kaiser Health News, and will discuss his history of progressive administrative leadership in the healthcare field, and his experience leading NYC Health + Hospitals through the Covid-19 pandemic
Members of the press are invited to view the live stream of this event by registering here. Those interested in attending this event in-person are asked to contact Brittany.Stauch@aspeninstitute.org; please note that spaces are limited.
Dr. Katz is being awarded for his accomplishments as the President and Chief Executive Officer of NYC Health + Hospitals (H+H), the largest municipal health care system in the United States. Since his appointment in 2018, H+H has significantly expanded access to health care, and now provides care to more than 1 million patients through hospitals, community health centers, home-based services, and no-cost health insurance.
“Mitch Katz is an exemplary leader and we are thrilled to present him with the Preston Robert Tisch award in civic leadership,” said Laurie M. Tisch, founder and president of the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund. “I got to know Mitch in 2018 when our foundation began working with NYC Health + Hospitals as part of our Arts in Health initiative. He put H+H in the forefront of hospital systems using the arts to improve health for patients, staff and the broader hospital community. Then Covid hit our city and the world. His leadership of our country’s largest public hospital system during one of the darkest periods in our history was no less than heroic. His empathy, humanity, innovation and determination saved and is still saving countless lives. We are all in his debt.”
During the Covid-19 pandemic, H+H more than tripled its ICU capacity, created a COVID-19-dedicated hotline to help mitigate dangerous overcrowding in the system’s emergency departments, transitioned nearly all existing ambulatory care appointments to telemedicine, helped establish the city’s Test & Trace Corps, and launched one of the country’s most ambitious COVID-19 vaccine programs.
The Preston Robert Tisch Award in Civic Leadership is an annual Aspen Institute Award funded by Bob Tisch’s family — Steve Tisch, Laurie Tisch, Jonathan and Lizzie Tisch, as well as the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund — to honor his legacy of leadership, public service and philanthropy. The award is presented to an individual who has had a positive impact on his/her community, who embodies the broad Aspen Institute ideal of values-based leadership, and who has exemplified this ideal in innovative ways that can serve as models for other leaders.
“I am honored to be acknowledged by the Aspen Institute and the generous Tisch family on behalf of the entire NYC Health + Hospitals system. While I may be the named recipient of this prestigious award, this honor is truly a reflection of the courage, skill, and commitment to mission that lives within each of our Health + Hospitals team members and supporters,” said President and CEO of NYC Health + Hospitals Mitchell Katz, MD. “This award sets a powerful example of the importance of supporting NYC Health + Hospitals on behalf of all New Yorkers. I am so proud to be recognized as part of this extraordinary team.”
The award includes a $25,000 stipend to be donated to a nonprofit organization of the awardee’s choosing. Past recipients include: Jazz great and educator Wynton Marsalis, tennis legend and humanitarian Billie Jean King, renowned restaurateur, civic leader and CEO of Union Square Hospitality Group Danny Meyer, civil rights leader Congressman John Lewis, Former New York City Mayor, Michael R. Bloomberg, Ford Foundation president, Darren Walker, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, American Ballet Theater principal dancer Misty Copeland and activist Cecile Richards.
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