I want to welcome everyone to this latest issue of Einstein magazine.
These recent months have been a highly productive time at the College of Medicine, and there have been many important developments. I’ll start with the fact that Einstein recently welcomed seven new trustees, each of whom brings unique expertise and perspectives to the Board. You can learn more about each of them and their impressive backgrounds here.
Additionally, the magazine contains several stories that focus on how Einstein and Montefiore are making important contributions to our community. For example, you’ll read about:
- Einstein alumnus Utibe Essien, M.D. ’13, M.P.H., who has delivered more than 40 keynotes and seminars across the United States since the start of the pandemic. His focus is on health inequality and COVID-19’s disproportionate effect on Black, Hispanic, and American Indian communities. Dr. Essien is an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and a core investigator in the Veterans Administration Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion, where he studies racial and ethnic disparities in the use of novel cardiovascular medications and technologies.
- Robert Beil, M.D., Einstein assistant professor of medicine and medical director of Montefiore’s CICERO program, which serves more than 1,000 HIV-positive patients. Over the past two decades Dr. Beil, a graduate and former chief resident of the social internal medicine program at Montefiore, has made it his mission to expand healthcare to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer individuals. Those efforts have culminated in the TransWellness Centers at Montefiore, which provide comprehensive healthcare to people whose gender does not match their sex assigned at birth.
- The Bronx Oncology Living Daily (BOLD Living) program, our free wellness and support service that helps people in underserved communities cope with cancer. It has evolved over the past decade to include a host of wellness workshops, mental-health counselors, cancer screening navigators, community outreach efforts, cancer survivor volunteers, end-of-life doulas, and peer mentors for teens who have parents with cancer. The BOLD Living team now reaches more than 1,000 patients and community members in the Bronx each year.
Finally, and on a sadder note, the magazine pays tribute to two of our longtime fellow trustees whom we’ve lost in recent months. They are Michael Price and Diane Belfer. They, and other members of our community mentioned in the “In Memoriam” section, will be sorely missed.
So please take a few moments to read this latest edition of Einstein magazine. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.
Ruth L. Gottesman, Ed.D.
Chair, Albert Einstein College of Medicine Board of Trustees
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Einstein Professor Emerita of Pediatrics
Ruth L. Gottesman, Ed.D.
