Pictured, left to right: Janine Logan, Vice President, Communications and Population Health for the Nassau-Suffolk Hospital Council and Director of the Long Island Health Collaborative; Dr. Keasha Guerrier, Chair of Family Medicine at Long Island Jewish Valley Stream Hospital and Inaugural Community Champion Award Recipient; Dr. Guerrier's husband
At our last quarterly meeting of 2023, the Long Island Health Collaborative (LIHC) honored Keasha S. Guerrier, MD with our first-ever Community Champion Award for her dedication to the Collaborative’s mission to improve the health of Long Islanders. Dr. Guerrier, Chair of Family Medicine at Long Island Jewish Valley Stream Hospital, has led many of the LIHC’s Walk with a Doc events, as well as the Collaborative’s annual virtualTalk with a Doc series in partnership with AARP Long Island.
Dr. Guerrier is a pro at synthesizing complex health topics into bite-sized tidbits that anyone can digest—a skill that is very appreciated by all of the communities and patients she serves.
“We are very lucky to have her partnership and this award is representative of our gratitude for her time and continued efforts to help us educate Long Islanders about improving their own health through physical activity and diet,” said Janine Logan, VP of Communications and Population Health for the Nassau-Suffolk Hospital Council (NSHC) and director of the LIHC, a population health initiative overseen by the NSHC.
Dr. Guerrier practices general family medicine and she’s affiliated with all of Northwell’s Long Island hospitals. In addition to her chair role, she serves as an Assistant Professor at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, and Senior Project Manager for Northwell Health’s Institute for Clinical Excellence and Quality. Outside of Northwell, Dr. Guerrier served on the New York State Academy of Family Physicians Board of Directors for the 2023 term.
“Someone made a very important connection,” said Dr. Guerrier about how she initially became involved with the LIHC’s Walk with a Doc program. “They say, ‘young people, you’re going to become a doctor but you’re going to lose all those ideals that you have about really reaching people.’ I’ve been fortunate to have people kind of foster that in me as I’ve grown in my practice and the medical director said ‘this is something you should be involved in.’ I did not know how transformative it would be.”
Walk with a Doc events offer community members a chance to hear a community physician speak about a health topic before joining them on a walk where attendees can have a dialogue with the “doc” along the way. Talk with a Doc is a virtual 30-minute program in which a “doc” speaks about a health topic for about 15 minutes before opening the floor for questions and dialogue with virtual attendees. Both are free and open to the public. Learn more about the 2023 Talk with a Doc series here, and stay tuned for 2024 details, coming soon.
“Meeting people where they are and breaking things down in a way that is tangible, that’s actionable, that’s reachable, has really made the difference,” said Dr. Guerrier. “It’s actually changed the way I speak to people in my practice. So, I don’t take this lightly, this is an honor to receive.”
The award is the first of its kind and will be awarded to a different community champion at the end of each calendar year.