Meet Lauren Weir, Diana Vargas and the Other Amazing Staff Who Procure, Assemble and Deliver PPE

What do you do when the VNSNY Annual Golf Classic—one of your two biggest fundraising events of the year—is postponed because of COVID-19? Answer: You transform yourself into a procurement wizard, using your expert event-planning skills and vendor relationships to secure the essential personal protective equipment (PPE) and other supplies needed to keep VNSNY’s staff, patients and members safe during the pandemic.

In fact, that’s exactly what Lauren Weir, VNSNY’s Special Events & Individual Giving Manager, did this spring. In mid-March, as COVID-19 hit the New York metropolitan area at the same time PPE shortages were being felt nationwide, VNSNY began working to develop its own pipeline of PPE. That’s when Lauren, who has been with the VNSNY Development team for 13 years, switched from helping to tee up a fundraising hole-in-one with the VNSNY Golf Classic, and joined forces with Sal Bastardi, VP of Corporate Administrative Services, Michael Bernstein, EVP and Chief Administrative Officer, and the procurement team to focus on obtaining face masks, face shields, gloves, gowns and other PPE supplies for VNSNY’s frontline heroes.

Since then, Lauren has headed up the private sourcing focus area of VNSNY’s PPE Procurement Team—one of three teams VNSNY established to source PPE critical to fighting the pandemic. There is also a government team, run by Dan Lowenstein, VP of Government Affairs, and Lauren Campbell, Emergency Response System Operations Manager, that works to secure supplies from city and state resources, and a PPE group, headed by Michael Ambrosini, Director of Corporate Community Relations & Volunteer Services.

From her home office, Lauren has spent these past few months reaching out to hundreds of vendors across the U.S, following up private sourcing leads sent to her from across the organization and healthcare industry. From recycling plants to distilleries to office supply companies like Henry Stein, the vendors link VNSNY with PPE supply houses as far away as China. Once Lauren “hooks” a contact, John Bonanno, Procurement Manager and Contract Manager, then coordinates the wire transfer and makes sure the shipment moves forward, working hand-in-hand with Marlene Louissaint, the team’s Procurement Specialist.

Though this has been a stressful time, Lauren says she can always count on her peers to offer their support every step of the way. “I’ve talked to so many different vendors, and it’s reassuring and comforting to find people who want to give our frontline staff what they need,” she says. “At the end of every conversation, they’re wishing you well and to stay safe.”

To date, VNSNY has purchased millions of surgical masks, 30,000 face shields, 100,000 gowns and 400,000 approved N95 masks. Ten weeks into the pandemic, as hospitals began discharging more patients to home care, certain supplies were particularly difficult to source. Sanitizing wipes, N95 masks, alcohol and thermometers—digital and disposable—were all challenging to source and procure, but Lauren and the team have been unstoppable.

Once the PPE is obtained, of course, the team still needs to get it to VNSNY’s frontline staff. Keeping the supply rooms stocked in all five NYC boroughs and VNSNY’s offices in Westchester and Nassau has been a full-time job in itself. To accomplish this, Lauren stays in daily contact with each medical supply room manager as well as Diana Vargas, who has stepped out of her day job as a Business Service Coordinator and Team Assistant with VNSNY Hospice to take on this incredible task. Over the past several months, Diana has worked tirelessly to manage all incoming inventory when it arrives at VNSNY’s Central Distribution Site at 220 East 42nd Street in Manhattan. When PPE shipments arrive, Diana and her team take photos of every packing slip to ensure that all items received match the orders, then sort and assemble hundreds of boxes of supplies and special COVID-19 Kits for delivery to VNSNY’s regional offices.

Lauren, who conducts a daily COVID-19 patient census for each region, is tasked with evaluating inventory supplies and making projections for the ever-changing needs of clinicians as the health crisis continues to evolve.

There have been some rough spots along the way, like the time a large order of 100,000 masks suddenly fell through. Rather than panicking, Lauren hunkered down with Sal Bastardi and the team to brainstorm a new solution. “We’ve had some hairy times,” says Sal, “and it was baptism by fire for a while. But the team worked together like clockwork—even when that meant getting on the phone at 4:30 in the morning to land our first big order of masks from China.”

“Witnessing firsthand the dedication of our clinicians and paraprofessionals in the field inspires me every day,” Lauren says. “I’m just doing my small part to make sure they have what they need to stay safe. That’s something that is really important to me.”

Thank You, VNSNY’s PPE Team!

VNSNY owes a debt of gratitude to everyone involved the procurement, assembly and delivery of PPE, as well as those who supported the effort in other ways. Here is a list of everyone involved in keeping the PPE pipeline flowing:

Alejando Acosta, Carol Alarcon, Michael Ambrosini, Adam Atkins, Sergey Bahdasaryan, Mo Balogun, Alison Bartolone, Sal Bastardi, James Benton, Michael Bernstein, Rikaye Binda, John Bonanno, Sue Brown, Yanne Carrera, Yesenia Castillo, Mariela Castro, Andre Cavaun, Tommy Chan, Maria Coutu, Yelena Dorodkin, Marian Fasano-Mele, Domingo Faulk, Juan Flores, Monica Fuentes, Jannette Gordon, Dana Gilmore, Eloise Goldberg, Gail Gongaware, Jamie Graham, Janice Green, D’Andre Harris, Marilyn Hernandez, Andrea Hill, Efrem Ibragimov, Dan Isgro, Raby Jairam, Issac Lama, Khanh Le, Liz Kislik, Joanne Lee, Gilbert Lopez, Jr., Rosa Lopez, Marlene Louissaint, Dan Lowenstein, Rose McNeil, Luis Mena, Katrina Misanina, Candido Molina, Justin Morris, Sarita Nader, Alexis Nelis, Donna Nelis, Matthew Newmark, Irene Ng, Ursula Odle, Peggy O’Neill-Taber, Tena Parker, Ricardo Ramos, Victor Ramos, Anastasia Reid, John Rockson, Evelyn Rodriguez, Jamie Rondon, Emilio Rosado, David Rosales, Gloria Santiago, Newton Smith, Shontec Stewart, Debbie Stricoff, Kris Subkaran, Ted Traver, Julie Tsirlin, Marvette Turner, Diana Vargas, Jerome Wallace, Lauren Weir, and Alicia Wilcox.

If we’ve inadvertently left anyone’s name off this list, our apologies! Please contact us and let us know so we can be sure to add your name. Thank you.

To read more VNSNY Heroes of 2020 stories, please click here.