Outstanding professionals who help ensure that health care in Westchester, and Fairfield Counties, and the Hudson Valley consistently meets the highest standards were honored Nov. 13 during Westfair Communications’ Doctors of Distinction 2025 event, which was hosted by New York Medical College (NYMC) in Valhalla.
During a networking and cocktail hour, NYMC honored Yonkers artist Gino Civale who in 2023 had donated a mural to the college and recently donated several other paintings that were unveiled and now are on display in the building where the event took place. He was presented with a proclamation from Westchester County Executive Ken Jenkins. The building also is one where patients are seen at NYMC and Touro College of Dental Medicine clinics.
Vilma Bordonaro, chief-of-staff at NYMC, read a message from Dr. Edward Halperin, chancellor and CEO of NYMC. Halperin was delivering a lecture at Harvard and was unable to attend.
“We thank Mr. Civale for his gifts of artwork,” Halperin said. “It is, indeed, a gift to the campus for scientists, clinicians, students, faculty, and staff to look up from their daily work and encounter the beauty of art. It is also a part of creating a welcoming environment for the dental and family medicine clinic patients who pass through these spaces.”
Administration & Enrollment for School of Health Sciences and Practice –
NYMC.
When the awards ceremony got underway Mistress of Ceremonies Michelle Novotny, senior associate dean for administration and enrollment at NYMC’s School of Health Sciences and Practice, introduced Angela Gonzalez-Perez of Montefiore and Dr. Michael Palumbo, executive vice president and chief medical officer of White Plains Hospital.
In her remarks, Gonzalez-Perez paid tribute to the Castro family, recipients of Westfair’s Doctors of Distinction 2025 All in the Family Award. Candice Castro, Cassandra Castro, Kelly Castro and Kayla Castro, are all long-time registered nurses at Montefiore Einstein and White Plains Hospital.
Palumbo noted that this year marks the 10th year for White Plains Hospital’s association with the Montefiore Health System.
Bordonaro was the event’s guest speaker and stated that leadership doesn’t happen overnight, and it doesn’t happen in isolation.
“It’s built moment by moment, decision by decision, through resilience, humility, and connection,” Bordonaro said. “Whether you’re a physician, an educator, a researcher, or an administrator, your influence is multiplied when you lift others as you climb. To all the honorees and attendees this evening: thank you for what you do every day to improve lives and strengthen our communities.”
Dr. Alan Kadish, president of NYMC and professor of medicine at its School of Medicine, told the gathering, “For health care workers in 2025 it’s the best of times and the worst of times. It’s the best of times because what we can do for our patients with technology, with pharmaceuticals and with improvements in health systems, using electronic medical records and beginning to use artificial intelligence, we have things to offer patients that we never did before. The worst of times is the fact that for whatever reason in society there’s been a skepticism about science, a skepticism about health care, and a skepticism about what we do working hard every day to make the lives of our patients in their most vulnerable moments better.”
Kadish said that events such as Doctors of Distinction are important to honor those physicians and other health care providers who make a difference in patients’ lives and he thanked Westfair and publisher Dee DelBello for having created the event.
“We can get though the chatter and the noise and understand that health care is a tremendous calling,” Kadish said. “It’s an opportunity to really make a difference in the lives of other people.”
Dr. Lee Marcus, CEO and medical director of Impact Health NY received the Compassionate Concierge Doctor Award.
There were two recipients of the Cutting Edge Award. Dr. Andrea V.Barrio with the Breast Service in the Department of Surgery at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center was honored for her surgical expertise and ongoing research. Dr. Dahniel Sastow of the Tisch Cancer Institute at Mount Sinai Hospital was the second Cutting Edge Award recipient. His clinical work and research is focused on the diagnosis and management of hematologic malignancies that include leukemia, lymphoma and multiple myeloma.
The Dentist Award went to Danielle Ruocco of ProHEALTH Dental, a affiliate of Northwell. Dr. Ruocco places emphasis on community service and expanding access to care.
The Doctor Without Boundaries Award was created to honor practitioners who travel overseas to care for patients who otherwise would not receive adequate medical attention.
Dr. Augustine Louis Moscatello, who is director and chair of the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at Westchester Medical Center and a professor and chair of that department at NYMC was honored for his medical missions to Peru, Colombia, India, Ethiopia, Thailand and Ukraine.
“Don’t forget the people of Ukraine,” Moscatello said. “They are continuing to suffer. The injuries that we encounter on these trips are catastrophic and it doesn’t look like there’s any improvement of the situation in the near term. So, keep the pressure on our elected officials to continue to provide help for the nation and the people of Ukraine.”
Another Doctors Without Boundaries Award was presented to Dr. Jk Rasamny, ENT, otolaryngologist and head and neck surgeon at White Plains Hospital. He thanked the hospital’s leadership for supporting his efforts over the years.
Dr. Minerva Santos of NewYork-Presbyterian Hudson Valley Hospital received the Female Innovator Award and said, “It’s amazing to get an award for doing something that I love doing every day.”
There were two awards for Lifetime Achievement. One went to Dr. James Farrelly, assistant professor of trauma, general surgery and surgical critical care at Yale Medicine, Greenwich Hospital. The other Lifetime Achievement Award went to Dr. Bonnie Litvack, director of women’s imaging at Northern Westchester Hospital-Northwell Health.
Jessica Brighton, vice president of nursing at Crystal Run Healthcare, was honored with the Outstanding Nurse Award.
Recipients of the Power Couple Award were of NYMC and Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital at Westchester Medical Center and Dr. Parantap Gupta, advanced endoscopic interventional gastroenterologist at Optum. Jain is a professor of pediatrics, radiology and public health at NYMC. She is director of Pediatric Advanced Cardiovascular Imaging/Cardiac MRI and Cardiovascular Inflammatory Diseases at Maria Fareri. Gupta practices with Optum in Mount Kisco and is affiliated with Northern Westchester Hospital at Northwell Health.
Rahim Hirani, an MD-PhD Candidate at NYMC received the Promise for the Future Award. Hirani reflected on coming to the U.S. from Pakistan alone at age 16 and expressed a debt of gratitude for his mentors.
The Team Award went to two doctors from the Hospital for Special Surgery, Dr. Frank A. Cordasco and Dr. Daniel W. Green.
The judges for the event were Janine Miller, executive director at the Westchester County Medical Society and the Westchester Academy of Medicine and Gary Sastow, a partner in the White Plains-based law firm Danziger & Markhoff LLP.
The presenting sponsor of Doctors of Distinction 2025 was Montefiore Einstein. Partners were New York Medical College, White Plains Hospital, and Yale New Haven Health. Supporters were Crystal Run Healthcare, Optum, ENT & Allergy Associates, New York Yankees, NewYork-Presbyterian, Northwell Health and WMCHealth.
One of those attending the event was Anthony Davidson, dean of the School of Professional and Continuing Studies at Fordham University, which offers courses in medical subjects for those wanting a career in health care as well as Applied Health Informatics, which involves the use of data.
“We had someone a few years ago who went through our program and was accepted at 19 medical schools,” Davidson told Westfair’s Business Journals. “This was an average student but we nurtured her.”
Davidson said that he thinks health care these days needs to be divided into two different areas: the business side and the actual taking care of people.
“Those two things have gotten muddled,” Davidson said. “What we really need to focus on is how to deliver better care to more people and to do so more efficiently.”
He said that digitizing health records helps people stay in touch with their own health situations in addition to allowing laboratories and doctors to make more informed decisions. He also saw promise in the use of artificial intelligence for diagnosing health problems that until now have been difficult to diagnose.
“AI can give better diagnosis and more accurate diagnosis than can people who have tremendous experience in the field, and I’ve spoken to lab directors who’ve told me that,” Davidson said. “By being able to make better informed decisions not only are you able to give better care but you’re able to increase efficiency throughout the entire system.”
