BusinessWest, the Healthcare News to Honor the 2021 Healthcare Heroes Tonight

SPRINGFIELD — BusinessWest magazine and the Healthcare News will honor eight individuals and groups as Healthcare Heroes for 2021 at a celebration dinner tonight, Oct. 21, at the Log Cabin Banquet and Meeting House in Holyoke.

The award was created in 2017 to recognize those whose contributions to the health and well-being of this region, while known to some, needed to become known to all. Over the past five years, the initiative has more than succeeded in its quest to identify true leaders — not to mention inspiring stories — within this region’s large and very important healthcare sector.

The Healthcare Heroes for 2021, and the categories they represent, include:

• James Goodwin, president and CEO of the Center for Human Development (Lifetime Achievement);

• Dr. Sarah Haessler, hospital epidemiologist at Baystate Medical Center and vice chair for Clinical Affairs in the Department of Medicine at Baystate Health (Emerging Leader);

• Beth Cardillo, executive director of Armbrook Village (Community Health);

• Richard Johnson, Counseling and Testing Prevention and Education Program director at New North Citizens Council Inc. (Community Health);

• Dr. Louis J. DeCaro, podiatrist and owner of DeCaro Total Foot Care Center (Provider);

• Dr. Alicia Ross, medical director of Holyoke VNA Hospice Life Care (Administrator);

• J. Aleah Nesteby, former director of LGBTQ Services at Cooley Dickinson Hospital (Innovation); and

• Doorway to an Accessible, Safe and Healthy Home (Collaboration).

The Healthcare Heroes program is being sponsored by presenting sponsors Elms College and Baystate Health/Health New England, and partner sponsor Trinity Health Of New England/Mercy Medical Center.