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Hackensack Meridian Health, New Jersey’s largest and most comprehensive health network, is pleased to announce that three of its team members were honored as “Champions of Humanistic Care” by The Arnold P. Gold Foundation. The honorees are: Regina Foley, Ph.D., MBA, RN, the senior vice president of Integration and Transformation for the health network; Joshua Josephs, M.D., Ph.D., director of Health Systems Science, at the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine, and a Faculty Hospitalist, Hackensack University Medical Center; and Christopher P. Duffy, MLIS, AHIP, the associate dean of the Health Sciences Library at the Interprofessional Health Sciences Campus of which the medical school is part. “The skill and commitment of these professionals is a testament to what we can do if we all work together,” said Robert C. Garrett, FACHE, the chief executive officer of Hackensack Meridian Health. “All three went above and beyond to make positive change in the face of a global health crisis. We applaud them.” “A pandemic really can show what the human spirit is capable of,” said Bonita Stanton, M.D., the School’s founding dean. “This group shows how someone can answer the call – and change lives, no matter what their role may be.” Foley has successfully managed the COVID-19 vaccine rollout across the health network. The effort began in December 2020, and over the last four months has administered more than 500,000 shots. Josephs is a key member of the faculty at the medical school. But as a clinician, he also spent significant amounts of time working on the “front lines” of the COVID-19 response in the Hackensack Meridian Health network. Duffy is the librarian who helped a task force of Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine students perform real-time research early in the pandemic, which informed the clinical side of the health network with the latest information appearing on the Internet – which impacted care for the better across Hackensack Meridian Health. According to The Arnold P. Gold Foundation, a non-profit organization that fosters the human connection in healthcare, the 2021 Champions of Humanistic Care includes more than 200 physicians, nurses, and healthcare team members who have been selected by their healthcare institutions for compassion and courage during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Champions of Humanistic Care were recognized at the Gold Foundation’s virtual gala on June 10, 2021, alongside three esteemed National Humanism in Medicine Medal recipients: • Anthony Fauci, M.D., director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and chief medical advisor to President Biden, who accepted his medal on behalf of all health care medical teams in America. • Wayne Riley, M.D., MPH, MBA, 17th president of SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University and chair of the Board of Trustees of the New York Academy of Medicine. • Eric Topol, M.D., founder and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, and professor of Molecular Medicine at The Scripps Research Institute.