Employee Awards
Related Articles
Meet the Winner of Our 2026 Outstanding Team Performance Award
October 22, 2026–The Outstanding Team Performance Award is open to any team that has gone above and beyond in their duties and worked collaboratively with each other and/or other departments, demonstrating commitment to innovation and/or success of the organization. This may include situations where teams may have effectively managed and excelled during situations with unforeseen circumstances, emergencies or high-stress situations. This year, 22 teams were nominated for this award. To see a full list and who the finalists were for this award, click here. For the members of Behavioral Health’s Mobile Crisis Float Team, every day presents unique challenges. Launched in July 2025 under a contract with New York City’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the team’s job is to step in, often on short notice, when another mobile crisis team in the city is unavailable. Six days a week, this team reports to work without knowing which neighborhood, or even
Meet Our 2026 Phyllis Mills Living Legend Award Winner: Margaret McDonald
October 19, 2026–The Phyllis Mills Living Legend Award honors a VNS Health team member who has been with the organization at least 10 years and who, like Phyllis, has made notable contributions to VNS Health and to our mission. This year, 26 team members were nominated for this award. To see a full list and who the finalists were for this award, click here. Early in her career, while working in a cancer care center and conducting symptom-control research, Margaret McDonald, Associate Vice President, Center for Home Care Policy & Research, kept thinking about what happened to patients when they left the clinic and returned home. “The patients came into the clinic for a visit and then would come back again in a month,” she says. “What I wondered was: ‘What happens in between visits?’” So much of person’s health, she realized, is managed at home. For the past 28 years, Margaret
Announcing Our 2026 VNS Health ESPRIT Award Winners!
October 11, 2026–79 team members from across the organization were nominated for an ESPRIT Award this year, and 10 people from this group were chosen as winners by a committee of previous ESPRIT Award Winners! ESPRIT Awards are given to employees who exemplify our core values of Empathy, Agility and Integrity, going above and beyond in support of our patients, members and clients. To see a list of all the nominees, including those who were finalists, click here. Congratulations to this year’s ESPRIT Award Winners! To read more about each winner and their award, click on the links below. Stephania Casimir, Supervisor, Medicare Advantage Care Management, Health Plans To read more about Stephania and her award, click here. Jackie Davis, Operations Manager, Hospice Care To read more about Jackie and her award, click here. Felicia Dorsey, Care Manager, Health Home, Behavioral Health To read more about Felicia and her award, click here.
Meet Our 2026 ESPRIT Award Winner: Wai Kiu Man
October 11, 2026–An older couple who were having difficulty making ends meet were sharing an apartment with about 10 other people when they came to our Chinatown Neighborhood Naturally Occurring Retirement Community (NNORC) office and met with Wai Kiu Man. Wai Kiu, a Licensed Social Worker, helped them secure SSI and SNAP benefits to ease their financial difficulties, then spent about a year guiding them through the affordable housing process. Last year, thanks in part to Wai Kiu’s assistance, the couple was able to move into their own apartment. “Seeing how much their lives changed is exactly why I became a social worker,” he says. For more than a decade, Chinatown’s older adults have brought Wai Kiu their problems with housing, finances, benefits and health. He knows the exact resources that can help them, as well as all the application requirements and deadlines that could possibly block their access to services they’re
Meet Our 2026 ESPRIT Award Winner: Stephania Casimir
October 11, 2026–As a Service Operations Supervisor on the Health Plan’s Medicare Advantage Care Management team, Stephania Casimir believes in the power of providing personal attention, both to the health plan members her team serves and to the Care Navigators she supervises. “I make a difference by being supportive and available for my team and for the plan members who need me,” she says. “I try to create an environment where people feel comfortable asking questions.” Stephania also provides answers—getting members the medical supplies they need, for example, or securing them an appointment with the right provider. “I always make decisions with the member in mind,” she says. “Being able to give our members that individual support, answer their questions, and connect them to services—that removes a lot of stress from their lives.” For Stephania’s own team, that same support goes a long way as they navigate complicated workflows, adapt to a
Meet Our 2026 ESPRIT Award Winner: Samira Husseini
October 11, 2026–Samira Husseini enjoys what she calls “cracking the code.” As a Contact Center Agent III at VNS Health’s Contact Center Shared Services (CCSS), she takes calls from providers and billing offices with questions about health plan claims—a process full of acronyms and specialized terms. On each call, she does her research until it all fits together, “like solving a puzzle,” she says. Samira belongs to Gen Z, a generation that grew up essentially online, and she earned her bachelor’s degree in sociology and psychology through online classes. That fluency with technology makes her the person that teammates turn to when a system or tool has them stymied. The exchange runs both ways, and she values what longtime VNS Health members can teach her. “It’s really interesting to learn from different people’s experiences, and then add my own experience to the mix,” she says. Samira is always ready to share what
Meet Our 2026 ESPRIT Award Winner: Roxanne Gay
October 11, 2026–Roxanne Gay has a warm hello and cheerful smile for everyone who comes through the blue doors of the 6th-floor lobby at VNS Health’s 220 East 42nd Street office, from job candidates arriving for interviews to team members with questions about their benefits—or those who simply work on the 6th floor and are walking past the reception desk. As a Human Resources (HR) Shared Service Coordinator, Roxanne is often the first person you meet when you arrive at the 6th floor at 220. “Where I sit, I get to meet so many different kinds of people,” she says. “No two people have the same issue, and I like the challenge of helping each one so they can move on with their day.” Colleagues admire how she is responsive and patient with every visitor, answering each question with care, even if it’s the fifteenth time she’s heard the question that day
Meet Our 2026 ESPRIT Award Winner: Monica Mercado
October 11, 2026–Monica Mercado describes herself as detail-oriented and proactive, a person who likes to solve problems. As a Supervisor in Membership Operations for our Health Plans, she puts those qualities to work for plan members, helping make sure their records are accurate and that they are receiving the home care they need. Monica oversees two Health Plan teams: Membership and Eligibility and Placement. The Membership and Eligibility team keeps each member’s eligibility status current in VNS Health’s systems—work that involves a steady stream of data gathering, reports, and follow-ups. Meanwhile, the Placement team ensures that members receive services without interruption, which can be a challenge in hard-to-serve areas such as Upstate New York. “It’s very rewarding when we place a difficult case,” says Monica. “The member is happy because they have services, and we’re happy because we’ve connected them to care.” Monica’s proactive problem-solving begins with ensuring lines of communication with
Meet Our 2026 ESPRIT Award Winner: Miniely Valdez
October 11, 2026–As a Unit Manager in Personal Care, Miniely Valdez leads a team that works with clients served by the New York City Department of the Aging, connecting them with home health aide services. Miniely excels at listening, as a recent phone call from one of her clients demonstrates. The client called with concerns about his schedule and his permanent home health aide, so Miniely looked into his authorization and schedule to see how she could help. “At the end of our conversation, he thanked me simply for listening to him instead of rushing him off the phone,” she recalls. “Sometimes, people need to know that they’ve been heard and that someone genuinely cares about what they’re going through.” Another client, who was transitioning to hospice care, was thinking about ending her home health services. She worried that her growing needs and frequent appointments made her too difficult to care for,