Building Healthier Communities: Satcher Awards Honor Those Making a Difference

Community partners, including representatives of community advisory boards across the University of Rochester, as well as former and this year’s Satcher honorees, attended the awards reception and networking event held at the Highline Rochester.

“It was incredible to feel the synergy in the room and to celebrate collaboration and partnership,” shared Edith Williams, PhD, MS, director of the CCHP and founding director of the Office of Health Equity Research. “It is a true honor to continue to highlight those actively working to identify and dismantle barriers to care, improve access to resources, and address the social drivers of health right here in our neighborhoods.”

This year’s Satcher awards garnered 14 nominations, with honorees in the staff, team, early-stage faculty and senior faculty categories. For the first time, all nominees were recognized for their contributions, showcasing the wide range of efforts being made to improve health outcomes in our region. One awardee per category was announced during the event. The awardees’ primary community partners were also honored, each receiving a monetary award in support of their mission.

2026 Award Recipients

Senior Faculty Awardee

AnaPaula Cupertino, PhD, a professor of Surgery, Environmental Medicine and Public Health Sciences, and Oncology, works to ensure that community voices meaningfully inform research priorities, program development, and institutional strategy.

An example of Cupertino’s leadership and passion for community-engaged work is University of Rochester Medicine Wilmot Cancer Institute’s Cancer Community Action Council (CCAC), which represents local organizations. The CCAC has worked closely with Wilmot’s leadership and scientists and has supported ongoing research projects on cancer disparities.

Another example of her impact was her leadership in bringing the “All of Us” Research Program mobile enrollment van to Rochester. By placing enrollment directly in neighborhoods that have historically been underrepresented in biomedical research, she removed barriers to participation, increased local engagement in a national research program, and demonstrated in a visible, tangible way that our institution is dedicated to meeting the community where they are.

Cupertino elevates community voices in decision-making and ensures that results are returned to the community in meaningful and accessible ways.

Cupertino chose Common Ground Health-Rochester RHIO as her primary community partner.

Early-Stage Faculty Awardee

Melissa Heatly, PhD, a clinical child and adolescent psychologist and assistant professor of Psychiatry, is dedicated to designing, implementing, and scaling accessible school mental health systems. Through her work with the Rochester City School District (RCSD), she has dramatically improved access to mental healthcare for children and youth who are among our most vulnerable because of poverty and social drivers of health.

Under Heatly’s leadership, RCSD school sites providing mental health clinical services have tripled from eight to 24 schools in the last three years. As founder and director of the Expanded School Mental Health Initiatives at URochester Medicine, Heatly has built one of the most comprehensive school mental health infrastructures in the state. Work that she leads with her teams now spans nearly 70 school districts, 300 schools, and multiple hospital systems.

Heatly chose the RCSD as her primary community partner.

Team Awardees

The URochester Medicine Food Pantry, the first hospital-based emergency food pantry of its kind in the Finger Lakes region, has successfully scaled a small pilot project into a sustainable program serving patients across URochester Medicine.

In early 2021, guided by the Health Equity Program Support Office (HEPSO), URochester Medicine partnered with its regional food bank, Foodlink, to address high rates of food insecurity in the Rochester area. Through strong collaboration with community partners and a shared commitment to addressing food insecurity, the food pantry team goes above and beyond to meet the needs of patients and families in the Rochester community.

The pantry has provided critical food supply to patients and their households more than 7,600 times since its launch.

Team members include:

• Taylor Harrison, manager of programs and projects, HEPSO
• Aldwin O. Perez, guest services specialist
  
• Sarah Goodenough, department program specialist, HEPSO
  
• Colin Lemke, stockkeeper, Food & Nutrition Services
  
• Meichelene “Shelley” Barker, manager, Food & Nutrition Services
  
  

Foodlink was recognized as the team’s primary community partner. The Rochester-based nonprofit is dedicated to ending hunger and building healthier communities by addressing both the symptoms and root causes of food insecurity.

Staff Awardee

Tanisha Gamble-Snead, LMSW, senior project manager at HEPSO, coordinates the Navigating Health Care Equitably program. Under her guidance, the program focuses on three essential pillars: Digital Health Education and Navigation Training, Primary Care Accessibility, and Language Accessibility. These areas were identified through extensive discussions with community organizations, highlighting the challenges faced by community members and opportunities for URochester Medicine to enhance its relationships and services.

Gamble-Snead leads the development of online learning modules designed to empower community members to navigate patient portal applications across multiple healthcare providers in Monroe County. These modules have been used widely, helping individuals understand how to receive care and make informed decisions about their health. Her collaboration with the Community Health Workers Association of Rochester (CHWAR) on this initiative has been a cornerstone of its success.

Gamble-Snead chose the CHWAR as her primary community partner. CHWAR is a professional association that is dedicated to advancing the workforce through Community Health Worker (CHW) development, establishing CHWs as integral members of health reform innovations.