December 28, 2020

 Frederick O’Reilly Hayes Prize Awarded to 20 Employees for Going Above and Beyond the Call of Duty

NEW YORK – NYC Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS) Commissioner Lisette Camilo and Jonathan Weiner, President of the Frederick O’Reilly Hayes Foundation, today announced that 20 City of New York employees will receive awards for their outstanding work in helping their agencies respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. The honorees, representing 16 city government agencies, were among over 60 city employees nominated for the Frederick O’Reilly Hayes Prize.

“Dedicated public servants from across city government made enormous contributions to COVID-19 response efforts and we are so proud to recognize them for their work,” said Lisette Camilo, Commissioner of the NYC Department of Citywide Administrative Services. “There are so many unsung heroes who gave of themselves to protect their fellow New Yorkers and these awards are a small token of our gratitude. I want to thank the Frederick O’Reilly Hayes Foundation for its dedication to recognizing outstanding public service, including through this special COVID-19 award.”

“We are pleased to recognize the contributions of these 20 City employees who have demonstrated remarkable creativity, analytic and organizational skills and a great spirit of public service in helping their agencies cope with the extraordinary challenges of working in the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Jonathan Weiner, President of the Frederick O’Reilly Hayes Prize Foundation which made the awards.

Among other achievements, honorees were responsible for:

• Helping launch and manage Regional Enrichment Centers across the five boroughs to provide high-quality, safe, and engaging child care for the children of essential workers while schools were closed;
• Leading in the development and management of the 11 emergency food distribution centers for grab-and-go service as well as the home food distribution network for the City's emergency food program.
• Developing the City’s Covid-19 hotel program serving essential workers, patients discharged from hospitals, at-risk individuals in congregate settings, and adults with disabilities removed from group homes.
• Instituting at the Department of Sanitation's department-wide Covid-19 related protocols, sick leave approvals, and other medical office operations for the Covid-19 environment and instituting and helping sustain a 24/7 hotline for Department personnel fielding up to 200 calls daily with updated Covid-19 guidance.
• Leading a large team that rapidly identified, designed, and constructed more than 20 Covid-19 testing sites with queuing, registration, intake evaluation and specimen collection facilities tailored for each site.

The Frederick O’Reilly Hayes Foundation gives annual awards to recognize and encourage young talent in city government. The organization has awarded the Hayes Prize since 2005. Nominations for the prize are managed by DCAS. There are over 30 past winners of the prize and this year the Foundation decided to launch a special prize for COVID-19 response efforts. Each winner of the special COVID-19 response Prize will receive $500.

Prize Winners

Katherine Benjamin
Mayor’s Office of the Chief Technology Officer

Led the creation of volunteer digital technology ‘innovation fellows’ to build tracking programs for personal protective equipment needs, hotel availabilities, test and trace staffing needs, and to implement rapid language translations of City agencies’ websites, among other Covid-19 response projects.

Johanna Conroy
NYC Emergency Management

Developed the City’s Covid-19 isolation hotel program, ultimately serving 30,000 people, including separate support programs for essential workers, patients discharged from hospitals, at-risk individuals in congregate settings, and adults with disabilities who needed to be removed from group homes. (Johanna worked in partnership with award winner Heather Roiter in this effort.)

Jamilla Dick-Quashie
Office of the Chief Medical Examiner

Led in adapting Covid-19 protective protocols for the 750 employees of the Chief Medical Examiner’s Office and 500 other City employees in crisis morgues. Helped institute extensive testing procedures and insured application of safety guidelines in the 4 emergency morgues set up during the pandemic.

Robert Domanski
Department of Small Business Services

To sustain a pipeline of opportunities for CUNY students in the City’s growing tech sector, Robert developed and promoted best practices in remote teaching for CUNY faculty and tech adjuncts. He also helped to attract new volunteer tech professionals for remote classes and agency projects, while supporting the connection of CUNY students to paid open-source projects as substitutes for curtailed internships at tech firms.

Ruoh-Pyng (Flora) Ferng
Commission on Human Rights

To help combat the spike in anti-Asian bias incidents as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ruoh-yng (Flora) Ferng, the Commission’s East Asian Communities liaison, helped launch ‘business walkthroughs’ with elected officials and community advocates to support Asian-owned businesses. She also organized multi-lingual town hall forums with the NYPD and other City agencies to inform New Yorkers on their rights and how to report anti-Asian bias and discrimination, reaching over 6500 people. Finally, Flora created and maintains a comprehensive tracker of anti-Asian bias incidents in the city, and is a lead member of the Commission’s COVID-19 Response team.

Yelena Gladkova
Administration for Children’s Services

To address the healthcare challenges among children and staff in pre-placement childcare facilities, Yelana Gladkova helped develop digital monitoring, new nurse recruiting and scheduling routines, and a 24/7 hotline for Covid-19 advice for all agency personnel and for contracting child care agency staff.

Lara Glass
Department of Sanitation

Instituted department-wide Covid-19 related protocols, sick leave approvals, and other medical office operations for the Covid-19 environment and instituted and helped sustain a 24/7 hotline for Department personnel fielding up to 200 calls daily with updated Covid-19 guidance.

Desiree Guzman
NYC Health + Hospitals Corporation

At Jacobi Hospital, one of the early epicenters of Covid-19 care, Desiree Guzman helped develop new approaches and sustained patient flow in the emergency department; managed bed availability; helped ensure availability of PPE; helped arrange communication between patients and families via iPads; and documented effective processes for dealing with possible future waves of the pandemic.

Reesa Henderson
Department of Homeless Services

Reesa Henderson, who has served the City with distinction at the Department of Homeless Services for 15 years and oversees a wide range of essential operations on a daily basis, played a vital role in the Agency’s unprecedented response to the COVID-19 pandemic, protecting New Yorkers experiencing homelessness from the virus. Henderson coordinated the Agency’s multi-pronged efforts: providing DHS clients with COVID isolation hotels where they could be treated and recover if they contracted the virus, which became the model for the citywide program, and strategically utilizing commercial hotel locations to implement social distancing and prevent the spread of the virus within congregate shelter locations. This involved the relocation of approximately 10,000 New Yorkers experiencing homelessness from shelters into commercial hotel settings, within just a few weeks, which data shows helped to flatten the curve of the virus and save lives.

Rebecca Isacowitz
Department of Citywide Administrative Services

Leveraging deep contacts in energy-efficiency contracting and project management, Rebecca Isacowitz coordinated external resources to meet demands for extra power, ventilation, and other building operations needs for select city hospitals with extensive Covid-19 patient care burdens.

Hazel Jennings
Department of Correction

As Chief of Department, Hazel Jennings has overseen the implementation of DOC’s extensive and successful pandemic response, which includes the creation of a housing strategy that safely isolates COVID-positive, symptomatic, and asymptomatic exposed individuals from the general population, the ongoing provision of appropriate PPE to all staff and people in custody, the radical expansion of medical areas during the height of the pandemic through the use of a previously closed facility, and the safe and rapid discharge of individuals in custody in order to increase space for social distancing and minimize the risk of exposure inside the city’s jails.

Ovsanna Khachikian
Department of Education

At the height of the pandemic, Ovsanna Khachikian helped launch and manage Regional Enrichment Centers across the five boroughs to provide high-quality, safe, and engaging child care for the children of essential workers while schools were closed. This first-of-its-kind model cared thousands of children while their parents were serving the city in this time of need, and the centers helped inform health and safety protocols for school reopening in the fall.

Alison Landry
Department of Design and Construction

Using expedited processes allowed under the emergency health declaration, Alison Landry oversaw a team that designed and built a 630-bed emergency alternative care site at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal and a 470-bed emergency alternative care site at the Billie Jean King Tennis Center, while also applying similar techniques for establishing three post-acute Covid-19 recovery facilities for NYC Health + Hospitals.

Daniel Montiel
Department of Information Technology & Telecommunications

Daniel Montiel was one of the designers and testers of the technology underpinnings for the City's Covid-19 tracing program and for the 100 million meal GetFood program to enable those who could not leave home to sign up for delivery of meals by linked taxis. At the height of the pandemic, he also prepared data driven analyses to improve decision making for the hospital bed task force to ensure bed availability for COVID-19 patients, for Commissioner James O’Neill’s task force to ensure PPE availability for front-line workers and for the City's 311 Call Centers to meet the peak-crisis use of nearly 180,000 calls per day.

Megan Pribram
NYC Emergency Management

Megan Pribram led in the development and management of the 11 emergency food distribution centers for grab-and-go service as well as the home food distribution network for the City's emergency food program.

Justin Rivera
Department of Transportation

Justin Rivera organized training of inspectors for the city’s Open Restaurant program, expedited the efficient deployment of inspectors to over 10,000 sidewalk and roadway restaurant offerings, among other work.

Iris Rodriguez
Department of Homeless Services

Iris Rodriguez designed and oversaw implementation of the program to relocate over 10,000 homeless persons to commercial hotels while managing the emergency social distancing and protection programs within the shelters. These efforts contributed to keeping the Covid-19 positivity rate lower among homeless people than the general population.

Heather Roiter
NYC Emergency Management

Along with award winner Johanna Conroy, Heather Roiter developed the City’s Covid-19 hotel program serving essential workers, patients discharged from hospitals, at-risk individuals in congregate settings, and adults with disabilities removed from group homes.

Lucy Wong
Department of Design and Construction

Lucy Wong led a large team that rapidly identified, designed, and constructed more than 20 Covid-19 testing sites with queuing, registration, intake evaluation and specimen collection facilities tailored for each site. She also supervised an effort to provide mobile Covid-19 testing trucks to NYC Health + Hospitals.

Marie Wong
Department of Health and Mental Hygiene

Marie Wong oversaw the development of nine new clinical lab sites in four boroughs with 24-hour turn-around times for results; managed for these and the central public lab site, validation of testing platforms, seven-day per week staffing plans with cross-training, additions of 60 temporary staff, secured equipment and supplies, and oversaw needed renovations of space.

Honorable Mentions

Lorraine Anderson
Administration for Children’s Services

Sean Baptist
Department of Parks and Recreation

Craig Bonney
NYC Emergency Management

Johnny Burkette
Department of Probation

Amy Cassidy
Law Department

Joseph Ciuffo
New York City Police Department

Joseph Gough
NYC Emergency Management

Jason Hansman
Mayor’s Office of ThriveNYC

Marta Hernandez
Department of Health and Mental Hygiene

Yvonne Harper-Grice
Department of Social Services

Carolyn Howard
Department of Social Services

Shawn James
Department of Parks and Recreation

Benjamin Krakauer
NYC Emergency Management

Fabienne Laraque
Department of Homeless Services

Karin Louie
Department of Finance

Lauren Mahon
NYC Emergency Management

Meka Nurse
Department of Aging

Gary Simmons
Fire Department of the City of New York

Eric Smalls
NYC Emergency Management

Radhika Sood
Department of Homeless Services

Claudia Tejada
Department of Design and Construction

Robert Van Pelt
Office of the Chief Medical Examiner

Douglas Wilson
Fire Department of the City of New York

The Frederick O’Reilly Hayes Foundation is supported by private donations from former city employees and officials, many of whom worked for or with Fred Hayes, the City’s Budget Director in the late 1960’s. Fred Hayes was a visionary who encouraged innovation, analysis, and commitment to the excellent management and delivery of public services. He was also dedicated to recruiting and mentoring young talent in city government.

The annual Fred Hayes Prize has become known within the City administration as a mark of distinguished, creative work by those still at a relatively early stage in their careers with the City. Nominations for the Prize are handled by the Department of Citywide Administrative Services. To learn more about the prize, visit the DCAS website and www.fredhayes.info.