Meet Our 2021 ESPRIT Winners!
Here They Are: The Complete List of 2021 ESPRIT Award Nominees!
November 15, 2021–
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Sasha Arana, Customer Service Representative, Contact Center Shared Services (CCSS)
November 14, 2021–“It’s all about empathy, education, and patience.” A few months after she moved to Astoria, Queens, from her native Puerto Rico, Sasha got a temporary administrative job at VNSNY’s Nassau office—a three-hour commute (each way!) via public transportation. When she was offered a temporary customer service job in much-closer Manhattan a couple of months later, she took it. (Her enthusiastic interviewer marveled that, despite Sasha’s daunting commute to the Nassau office, she hadn’t been late once.) The Manhattan position evolved into a permanent one, and it didn’t take long for Sasha to gain notice for her ability to handle difficult, complex, and escalated calls, which has since become her specialty. “When I receive an escalated call, I understand that it’s because there’s somebody who really needs something. No matter how simple or complicated the situation, I’m always available to assist them with the best attitude,” she says. “As an agent,
Eileen Cespuglio, Manager, CHOICE MLTC Assessment Unit
November 14, 2021–“I am absolutely dedicated to the mission of this organization, so I’m very goal-oriented and focused on keeping the wheels turning and moving us forward.” Eileen has had many roles over the course of her career, all of which allow her to do her job—and connect with her colleagues—from varied, valuable vantage points. “I’ve worked as a discharge planner, a medical-surgical nurse, a staff developer/educator, a team manager, and a clinical manager. I worked for the CHHA. I even worked as a visiting nurse for VNSNY,” she says. Her cumulative experience amounts to a solid foundation for her current role—ensuring that her nurses are equipped with everything they need to know in order to enroll consumers to become members in VNSNY’s CHOICE MLTC and CHOICE Total MAP plans. “I’ve been at VNSNY for 23 years and I am absolutely dedicated to the mission of this organization, so I’m very goal-oriented
Annmarie Franco, Program Manager, PEARLS and Manhattan Geriatric Outreach, Community Mental Health Services (CMHS)
November 14, 2021–“It’s not just about being alive. It’s about actually living life.” Interacting with social workers, licensed mental health counselors, community providers, and directly with the older population her division serves, Annmarie sees her role as offering assistance and education in equal parts. “In essence, I support our staff with what they need in order to serve the needs of older adults in the community, and to help them live their best life. I’m also involved in community events, presentations, and other ways to create awareness about the issues relevant to an older population, and about the free services we offer,” she says. “There are a lot of losses the older adult experiences, not only death of friends and loved ones, but other losses, such as loss of mobility, and that could mean loneliness, isolation, grief, depression, and maybe even intimidation. It can be daunting to navigate a system and reach
Lana Ganzman, Human Resources Information Services Specialist
November 14, 2021–“I take great personal pride in being part of an organization that makes a difference in the community.” Like most recipients of ESPRIT Awards, Lana was genuinely surprised to receive one. “I was kind of shocked to get this award; my first thought was that this should be given to nurses or other healthcare workers,” she says with characteristic modesty. “My job is just to support them and make their lives easier. They’re saving lives. I just strive to come up with creative solutions for improving processes, so they can focus on serving our patients instead of dealing with system issues and discrepancies.” In her extremely busy role, Lana has no such thing as a typical day. She’s instrumental in maintaining VNSNY’s Workday platform, optimizing and implementing its processes, functionality, and workstreams. “I recall when our nurses had to use paper cards to bubble in their time into the payroll
Isaac Lama, Community Outreach Representative, CHOICE SelectHealth
November 14, 2021–“It’s been a wonderful opportunity to grow, lead, and rally the troops to make a real difference for the population we serve.” When Isaac Lama first interviewed with SelectHealth and learned the details about the role and the populations it served, it was love at first sight—he knew immediately that this was the job for him. “I loved the idea of working with an underserved community; I recall telling the hiring manager ‘I’m not sure if you will hire me for this position but I’ll take it!’,” he says. “Since then, I’ve been humbled to learn about and connect with transgender and gender-nonconforming people, people experiencing homelessness, and individuals living with HIV. Through networking and outreach I’ve been deeply impacted by their many life experiences.” In a nutshell, Isaac’s role involves trying to engage prospective members and enroll them in the SelectHealth plan, but—as with everything else he does—he goes
Stacey Mislavsky, Occupational Therapist, VNSNY Home Care
November 14, 2021–“It’s incredibly meaningful to me that I get to go into people’s homes and help them restore their function so that they can start getting back to their normal, everyday lives.” “I love my job; it’s incredibly meaningful to me that I get to go into people’s homes, whether it’s postoperatively or after they leave the hospital due to a medical condition—and help them restore their function so that they can start getting back to their normal, everyday lives,” says Stacey, her enthusiasm and excitement contagious. After working in a hospital setting in her prior job, joining VNSNY eight years ago was a perfect move for her. “I used to make various recommendations for patients’ home when they were getting discharged, but you can never really be sure of the follow-up—and I always felt like I was pawning their care off on their clinicians. Now I literally go into their
Terence Richardson, Business Service Coordinator, Scheduling & Assignment, VNSNY Home Care
November 14, 2021–“I always go the extra mile to come up with a solution that will make everybody happy.” Acting as a liaison between clinical staff and patients, Terence juggles the often-daunting task of scheduling nurses, physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists, and social workers in an ever-changing scheduling landscape. With his calm yet take-charge personality, he makes it look easy. “I have worked in call centers and have been in the customer service field for much of my career, so I look at the nurses and the clinicians as my clients,” he says. “I have a profound respect for them. They are the wheels of VNSNY, and without them there would be no VNSNY, so I do everything in my power to accommodate them and make their lives easier. I often advocate on their behalf. If a nurse has a full day and we don’t have enough staff to see every
Evelyn Rodriguez, Senior Medical Supplies Clerk, VNSNY Home Care
November 14, 2021–“I’m a giver, and I have a passion for caring and for advocating.” A 28-year VNSNY veteran, Evelyn was a field interpreter for a little more than a decade, then did all-around administrative work wherever her services were needed. Among her responsibilities were taking orders for doctors and helping out in the medical supply room, so when a permanent job opened up in the latter 15 years ago, she was ready to hit the ground running. “When the pandemic first started, I remember seeing people packing up their stuff and asking me ‘Evelyn, aren’t you going home?’, and I was like ‘no, I can’t!’” says Evelyn—an anecdote that pretty much summarizes her all-in approach to her job. “It’s not like I could do this job remotely. We were fighting an invisible war and didn’t really know what was going on, but we prevailed, trying to do the best that we
Maya Seidel, Director, Compliance & Legal Operations
November 14, 2021–“I love that I’m a part of a really strong team of compliance, legal, and government affairs professionals.” When Maya first joined VNSNY in January of 2016, she was a Contracts Specialist for CHOICE. In 2017, she was promoted to Contracts Manager. “When a job opportunity in Compliance came up in 2018, it was very attractive to me because it allowed me to go from division-specific work to getting involved with what the organization was doing as a whole,” she says. Recently promoted to Director, Compliance & Legal Operations, Maya oversees core business activities for Compliance and Legal, which includes budgeting, project oversight, workflow optimization, systems development, and process improvement. “I love that I’m a part of a really strong team of compliance, legal, and government affairs professionals. We have a great, collaborative team culture, and we also partner directly with the business and operations teams to successfully launch new