Pamela Y. Abner
40 Caribbean Life, June 21-27, 2019 BQ
HEALTHCARE AWARDS
As Vice President and Chief
Administrative Officer - Diversity
and Inclusion at Mount Sinai
Health System, Pamela Y. Abner is
responsible for system-wide administrative,
fiscal, policy and practice
related management activities to sustain
diversity, inclusion and equity.
She collaborates with hospital and
school leadership to establish best
practices, conduct integrative work
and set the strategic, innovative and
programmatic agenda for diversity,
inclusion and equity across all business
lines.
As a certified patient experience
professional and unconscious bias
educator, Abner — who was born
in Springfield, Massachusettes and
whose parents hail from Jamaica, St.
Martin / Anguilla — says she “strives
to develop and guide initiatives to create
an inclusive environment.”
“The work I do extends beyond
my physical work location,” Abner
says. “My focus on matters related
to healthcare diversity and inclusion
keeps me engaged always — whether
at work, at conferences or in conversations
with colleagues and friends.”
She says she has dedicated most of
her career to healthcare, which now
represents about 30 years.
Abner says the best piece of career
advice she has ever received was from
a professor in her health administration
class at Columbia, suggesting
that “in order to be successful one
should find a mentor to help guide
one’s career.”
She says if she had one superpower
it would be to “refine our health delivery
systems such that we eliminate
health disparities and allow all persons
to receive appropriate, affordable
and compassionate care.”
We congratulate all of the
2019 Caribbean American Health Care Honorees
especially our own
Pamela Abner, MPA
Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer
Corporate Health System Affairs
Office for Diversity and Inclusion
Office for Diversity and Inclusion
150 East 42nd Street, 10th Floor
New York, NY 10017
(T) 646-605-8275 (F) 646-605-3009
Rose Elizabeth “Lyzz” Arbouet
Rose Elizabeth “Lyzz” Arbouet
spent her childhood traveling
the world while her internist
mother helped set up clinics for
the United Nations Children Fund
(UNICEF) and the United Nations.
Lyzz, as she prefers to be called, was
born in Miami, of Martinique, Guadeloupe,
Haiti and Cuba heritage.
She says living in Haiti for six years
allowed her to master Haitian Creole.
She is also fluent in English and
French, has an “intermediate understanding
of Spanish” and is a “beginner
Italian.”
Lyzz says her passion for healthcare
and the Caribbean community
drove her to seek out career and educational
opportunities that focused
in these two areas. She holds two
Masters degrees — one in Criminal
Justice and the other in Health Communication.
In 2018, Lyzz became the director of
communications for HouseCalls and
Doral Health and Wellness, an upcoming
multiservice medical facility set to
open in July 2019. She says this company,
which will focus on the Caribbean
community in Brooklyn, will be
“the first of its kind in the borough.”
“I have always been involved with
the health industry; my mother is a
doctor and, growing up, she helped
set up clinics on behalf of UNICEF and
the United Nations,” she says. “I was
blessed enough to travel with her on
location to some of those places.”
Lyzz, however, says she officially
found her “footing” in the health care
industry eight years ago when she
opened her own consultation firm.
She says she started off by helping
small organizations provide and
acquire medical supplies for Haiti.
Soon after, she joined HouseCalls
Home Care “to help cater to their Haitian
members.”
Jacqueline Cassagnol
An accomplished nursing administrator,
educator and professor,
Haitian American Jacqueline
Cassagnol received a Master of Science
Degree in Nursing Administration and
a Post Master Certificate in Nursing
Education from Mercy College. She
is a Ph. D nursing candidate at Pace
University.
Cassagnol, who was born in Brooklyn
to Haitian immigrants, is the
founder and president of Worldwide
Community First Responder (WCFR),
Inc.
As a result of Cassagnol’s experience
in preparing for and assisting with victims
of the massive 2010 earthquake
in Haiti, she founded WCFR “to provide
health education, first aid and
disaster-preparedness training.”
Ms. Cassagnol has presented locally,
nationally and internationally at
nursing conferences about WCFR and
its collaboration with other non-profit
organizations to improve global health
outcomes.
She was inducted into the New York
Academy of Medicine in November
2018, and won the “Haitian American
Young Citizen of the Year Award”
from the US Haitian Chamber of Commerce,
Inc. in March 2019.
Cassagnol, who has been in the
health industry for 20 years, says she
puts in about 60 hours of work per
week.
She says the best piece of career
advice she has ever received is to “follow
your dreams and success will follow.”
She says her one superpower would
be the “power to cure.”
“So many people die every day of
incurable diseases,” Cassagnol says.
“With the power to cure, I would be
able to cure everyone.”