Heroes … we need them more than ever right now, don’t we? When the editors of Westchester Magazine and our esteemed panel of Healthcare Heroes judges were busy vetting copious nominations and selecting the final list of our 2020 champions of local healthcare and well-being, none of us realized that looming in the shadows was a global event the likes of which we have never seen. COVID-19 would become the headline that bumped all other headlines, the conversation that interrupted all other conversations. But, as we are reminded by two of our most esteemed Healthcare Heroes judges, Westchester County Health Commissioner Dr. Sherlita Amler and her husband, Dr. Robert Amler, dean and professor of public health at New York Medical College:
“It’s at times like this that healthcare heroes can be found everywhere, often without recognition. Our communities are full of people who step up to the plate when called upon, even when that means working extra hours in reduced numbers with short supplies and increased personal risk. Until medications and a vaccine become available, our community will be sustained by the heroism of countless friends and neighbors.”
The Amlers are right, because it’s been the heroism of our friends and neighbors that has sustained us as a community for generations. The 13 beacons of hope, dedication, and skill you’ll meet in the pages that follow didn’t need a pandemic to prove their inestimable worth and were selected without regard to the coronavirus. Instead, they are winners because each, in his or her own way, represents not only the continuity of that proud Westchester tradition but also because collectively, they are the best evidence that our brightest days as a people are still to come.