New York, NY – June 13, 2024: NYC Health + Hospital today announced NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst CEO Helen Arteaga-Landaverde, MPH, PHD, and Senior Vice President of Ambulatory Care and Population Health Ted Long, MD, MHS, were honored as recipients of the 11th Annual Joan H. Tisch Community Health Prize. The Joan H. Tisch Community Health Prize honors individuals and not-for-profit organizations for distinguished accomplishments in the field of urban public health. The public health system’s leaders were recognized for their work leading the city’s response to and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as Dr. Long’s leadership responding to the city’s asylum seeker crisis.
“Helen and Ted embody our mission to deliver equitable health care to all New Yorkers and to serve New Yorkers with compassion, integrity, and respect for all,” said NYC Health + Hospitals President and CEO Mitchell Katz, MD. “Their unwavering leadership during the most trying days of the COVID-19 pandemic undoubtedly saved many New Yorkers’ lives and has left a lasting impression that’s made the public health system more resilient, more responsive, and more equitable. I am glad to call them both my trusted colleagues and friends.”
“As we honor the 2024 Joan H. Tisch Community Health Prize winners, we celebrate the exceptional contributions of Dr. Helen Arteaga-Landaverde and Dr. Theodore ‘Ted’ Long, whose dedication, expertise and work with refugees has profoundly impacted NYC Health + Hospitals and our entire community,” said Laurie M. Tisch, President of the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund. “Their unwavering commitment to public health and innovative leadership exemplify the spirit of this award. Congratulations to all the honorees, and may their achievements inspire continued progress in community health.”
“I feel deeply honored and privileged to have received this award,” said Helen Arteaga-Landaverde, MPH, PhD, CEO of NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst. “I want to thank the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund for singling me out of an amazing field of leaders for this fantastic recognition. I spent my formative years and my entire career fighting for health equity and equality for marginalized communities. This award gives me even more motivation to keep fighting and improving healthcare in our city so that we can realize a more just, fair, and equitable society for everyone.”
“I’m honored to receive this award, and so grateful for the tireless efforts of my many colleagues who have worked alongside me through thick and thin to deliver life-saving care to millions of New Yorkers and those seeking a better life in our city,” said Ted Long, MD, MHS, Senior Vice President for Ambulatory Care and Population Health at NYC Health + Hospitals. “I go to work every day driven by the opportunity to help lead a forward-thinking, mission-driven organization that champions the human right to dignified, comprehensive health care. Thank you to the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund for supporting the mission of public health, the many New Yorkers who have trusted me and called me their doctor, and to my family for their constant love and support.”
The Joan H. Tisch Community Health Prize honors individuals and not-for-profit organizations for distinguished accomplishments in the field of urban public health. Made possible by support from the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund, the Prize is a tribute to the late Joan H. Tisch in recognition of her lifelong humanitarian activism in health care and social services in New York City. The recipients of the 11th Annual Johan H. Tisch Community Health Prize include individual honorees Helen Arteaga-Landaverde and Dr. Ted Long and organizational honoree Mixteca, a community-based organization that addresses critical health, education, social, and legal needs for Brooklyn’s Mexican and Latin American immigrant communities.
Helen Arteaga-Landaverde is the CEO of NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst. During her tenure at Elmhurst Hospital, she has worked closely with the clinical team to oversee an unprecedented COVID-19 testing and vaccination program throughout multiple waves of the pandemic. She has guided the institution’s recovery as it moves into a post-pandemic future by expanding access to care, launching new specialty services, and expanding the hospital’s role in addressing social determinants of health.
Under Helen’s leadership, NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst has been nationally ranked as one of U.S. News and World Report’s “Best Regional Hospitals” and as one of America’s “High Performing” hospitals in nine individual service areas, and has been recognized by The Joint Commission as one of the first hospitals in the nation to receive Health Equity certification for imbedding diversity and equity into all aspects of care, treatment, and service delivery. She has also spearheaded an ambitious fundraising drive, helping to steer over $72 million to the hospital for much needed capital projects to ensure that the facility is able to meet the needs of a thriving, rapidly growing community.
Prior to her role at Elmhurst, Helen served as Assistant Vice President, Queens Network and Executive Initiatives at Urban Health Plan, a network of NYC-based community health centers. In partnership with Paloma Hernandez, the President and CEO of Urban Health Plan, she founded Plaza del Sol Family Health Center in June of 2009.
Helen has a bachelor’s degree from New York University and a Master of Public Health from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. In June 2023, she received her Ph.D. from the City University of New York’s School of Public Health in Community Health and Health Policy.
Dr. Ted Long has been central to New York City’s response to the historic influx of asylum seekers, establishing the city’s Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Centers and the city’s Arrival Center, a central intake facility to register and provide medical and social services to new arrivals that has welcomed over 150,000 people to date. He currently oversees 13 humanitarian centers that ensure that the approximately 25,000 people they currently house — three quarters of whom are families with children — receive humane, dignified care and the services they need to take the next steps in their path for a better life.
As the former Executive Director of the NYC Test & Trace Corps (T2), Dr. Long led the City’s effort to provide accessible, no-cost COVID-19 testing and vaccinations, and resources for those infected or exposed, enabling them to quarantine or isolate. T2 also partnered with the Department of Education to make NYC the first big city in the country to offer safe in person education, which became a cornerstone of New York’s response to the pandemic.
Under Dr. Long’s leadership, NYC Health + Hospitals has reduced wait times for new primary care patient appointments by 50% and, for the first time in a decade, expanded the number of primary care patients in the public healthcare system. These improvements in access to care and growth in primary care contributed to the elimination of a $1.8 billion structural deficit, and most recently outpatient revenue increasing by $165 million from 2021 to 2022.
Dr. Long, who joined NYC Health + Hospitals in 2018, is a primary care physician who sees his patients at NYC Health + Hospitals/Gotham Health, Morrisania. He did his undergraduate work, residency training and post-graduate master’s work in health services research at Yale University. Dr. Long is a Clinical Professor at NYU Langone’s Department of Population Health, and serves as faculty at the Yale School of Medicine and the Harvard Medical School Center for Primary Care where he teaches about health policy and administration.
