HIGHER ED TODAY
BRONX TIMES R 4 REPORTER, DEC. 25-31, 2020
Bronx Power Woman
refl ects on life
BY JASON COHEN
Her story is heart wrenching and one
you may not believe. Cristina Contreras,
chief strategy offi cer and executive director
at NYC Health + Hospitals/North Central
Bronx, is the defi nition of determination
and perseverance.
Contreras, 49, was born in the Dominican
Republic and raised in a rough neighborhood.
At 15, she emigrated to America
with her mom, but shortly after coming to
New York, her mother returned to the Dominican
Republic, leaving her alone to fend
for herself.
Life as a teenager is hard enough. Now
imagine being by yourself, not knowing
anyone, the culture or language? Well, that
was life for Contreras.
“I was terrifi ed,” she recalled. “I didn’t
know how to say excuse me.”
Instead of getting depressed or turning
to drugs, she stayed focused.
She went to high school in Washington
Heights, which provided a bit of comfort
because of its huge Dominican population,
but she was still lost. Contreras worked two
jobs selling cosmetics and at a supermarket
and rented a room in order to survive.
So, while kids were out partying and
cutting class, she was doing her best to not
get evicted.
“I had to work really hard,” she explained.
“I always had the commitment to
go to school.”
In high school she had a son, Jonathan,
and things got even more complicated. Fortunately,
a neighbor, Cecilia de Jesus, cared
for him, which was a huge help.
Contreras did after school activities and
felt comfortable in the classroom.
“I was very focused that I wanted to do
something with my life,” she explained.
“I think that’s what gave me the strength.
A lot of people thought I was going to give
up.”
She began to feel good about herself
when she attended Lehman College and
soon realized she wanted to be a mental
health professional.
In 1995 Contreras graduated with a
bachelor’s degree in social work and that
Cristina Contreras, chief strategy offi cer and
executive director at NYC Health Hospitals/
North Central Bronx
Courtesy of NYC Health Hospitals
same year, began her career within NYC
Health + Hospitals/Coney Island as a caseworker.
The Morris Park resident and Community
Board 7 member still cannot believe
how far she has come in life. In fact, she
earned her master’s degree in social work
from Fordham University in 2001 and a second
master’s in public administration from
Baruch College in 2008.
“I love what I do,” she said. “I always
wanted to infl uence younger people, especially
minority women.”
The mother of four could never have
imagined her life unfolding the way it did.
Now with 25 years at NYC Health + Hospitals
she has made quite an impact on the
community. Contreras has received numerous
awards including the Bronx Power
Women, the Dominican Day Parade Board,
the American College of Healthcare Executives
and the Association of Hispanic
Health Executives (AHHE).
Looking back, she sometimes gets
sad about what happened when she was
younger. For many years she was angry at
her mom and dad, Maria and Paulino.
“I learned that my parents went through
their own struggles as well,” she said.
“Even though I had a lot of diffi culties, it
was a good experience.”
Back in early April, as the coronavirus was
tightening its grip on New York, Gov. Cuomo
issued an executive order allowing the state’s
fourth-year medical students to graduate
early so they could help in the battle against
COVID-19. One week later, members of the inaugural
class of the CUNY School of Medicine
received their degrees and began joining the
front lines as volunteers in city hospitals.
To me, it was a moment that symbolized
so much about CUNY. Most of those first-ever
CUNY MD’s are from racial and ethnic groups
that have been both traditionally underrepresented
in medicine and disproportionately affected
by COVID-19. In the kind of virtual commencement
that would later become the norm,
I told them how proud I was of their willingness
to put themselves on the line.
What a year 2020 has been: It was a year
that constantly tested us, and frequently broke
our hearts. All of it demanded — and inspired
— great fortitude and resourcefulness from
the more than 300,000 students, faculty, staff
and leaders who make up the University, and
a great deal of sacrifice for the common good.
It’s important to recall the challenges and triumphs,
and to celebrate the fact that CUNY’s
year is ending on a high note. Let’s take a look
back.
The coronavirus was largely a remote concern
when the year began, but it soon gained a
foothold in New York that forced CUNY to all
but shut down its 25 campuses and quickly pivot
to distance education. When classes resumed
after a week-long academic recess, 95 percent
of the University’s 50,000 course sections had
transitioned to online instruction. We quickly
realized that thousands of students lacked the
tools to participate in distance learning. With
support from Gov. Cuomo, we purchased 33,000
laptops and tablets and made sure they were
safely loaned to students in need. It was just one
part of our broad efforts during the year to help
our students weather the academic, economic
and emotional challenges they faced.
Early in the crisis, we established the
Chancellor’s Emergency Relief Fund with $1
million each from the Carroll and Milton Petrie
Foundation and the James and Judith K. Dimon
Foundation. By the fall, support from additional
donors grew the fund to more than $8
million and allowed us to distribute emergency
grants to more than 10,000 students. CUNY colleges
and schools raised another $8.6 million
on their own.
Meanwhile, CUNY joined the city’s battle
against the coronavirus on many fronts. Campuses
used 3D printers to produce personal
protective equipment. Experts at the School
of Public Health and Health Policy produced
a weekly tracking survey of New Yorkers’ attitudes
and behaviors around the pandemic.
CUNY scientists repurposed their work to take
on coronavirus-related research. And so many
students rallied to help their fellow New Yorkers
even as they faced unthinkable pressures
and loss.
The perseverance and accomplishment
came amid a backdrop of widespread grief. Every
CUNY campus has mourned faculty, staff,
students, alumni and retirees lost to COVID-19.
Among them were Allen Lew, CUNY’s senior
vice chancellor of the Office for Facilities,
Planning and Construction Management. The
University’s website now includes an In Memoriam
page to pay tribute to those we’ve lost.
Through it all, we hunkered down and
pressed on. This year CUNY conferred 56,527
degrees — the second highest total in our history
and just shy of the record high awarded
last year.
Looking ahead to life after COVID, we redoubled
our efforts to help students find sustainable
career paths and play an active part in
the city’s economic recovery. Among the most
important developments were a plan to expand
mental health services and a new partnership,
the New York Jobs CEO Council, which will
create a pipeline to job opportunities for 25,000
CUNY students. We also focused our professional
development training to help 3,400 faculty
become better online teachers, part of a
larger, longer-range initiative to improve pedagogy
at CUNY.
CUNY has many reasons to be optimistic
about the future. The long-awaited coronavirus
vaccine became available for public distribution
earlier this month, and it was a CUNY
nursing alumna, Sandra Lindsay, who was the
first person in the U.S. to receive it. The same
week, we received word of $60 million in gifts
to two CUNY colleges, Lehman and Borough of
Manhattan Community College, by author and
philanthropist MacKenzie Scott. A gift of this
size as we turn the page on such a challenging
year brings us renewed hope for the opportunities
it will create in the coming year and beyond
.O
n that hopeful note, we look forward to a
productive and fulfilling 2021 that helps us heal
the wounds of 2020, and allows us to fully reopen
the campuses of CUNY and of all universities
across the country.
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