Mount Sinai South Nassau Awards Four Staff Members U.S. Armed Forces Veteran’s Employee Scholarships at Veterans Day Ceremony

In honor of Veterans Day, Mount Sinai South Nassau has presented the hospital’s Employee Veteran’s Scholarships to four staff members who served in the military and are continuing their education in the health care field.

Suheil Genovese, a project manager; Tandilaya Rice, RN; and Kuwary Torrens Negron and Rashawn Michael James, students at the Mount Sinai South Nassau Robert J. Hochstim School of Radiography, each were presented $1,000 scholarships in recognition of their service to our country. The four will use the funds to continue their education and advance their careers in health care. Mark Baron, President of Parking Systems, made a $2,000 donation to match the hospital’s $2,000 scholarship fund.

Mount Sinai South Nassau has long been an employer of those who have served honorably in the military. The hospital currently employs 47 veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces. As part of Veterans Day activities, hundreds of employees and supporters gathered at the hospital’s annual ceremony on Friday, November 4, to honor our veterans. State and local public officials also attended to honor and express gratitude for the nation’s veterans. The in-person ceremony was the first since 2019.

“We have found that veterans make a great addition to our staff. They are motivated to serve and work as a team to provide care to our patients and to our communities,” said Adhi Sharma, MD, President of Mount Sinai South Nassau. “This ceremony is one way for us to show them how grateful we are for their service and the sacrifice that they made to protect our nation and its citizens.”

The hospital’s Veterans Day Committee is chaired by Steve Biscotti, Director of Security, a retired New York City police officer who served in the U.S. Navy as Hospital Corpsman Petty Officer Third Class. Under Mr. Biscotti’s leadership, the hospital’s Veterans Day Committee works all year round to provide help to veterans, including food and clothing drives.

“Each of the scholarship recipients embodies the spirit of America,” said Mr. Biscotti. “This is our small way of thanking them for their service and recognizing all of our veterans who work at the hospital.”

Born in Lares, Puerto Rico, Ms. Genovese is a veteran of the U.S. Army. She enlisted in May 2007; attended basic training at Fort Jackson, North Carolina; trained as a unit supply specialist at Fort Lee, Virginia, and ultimately became a supply sergeant. During her military career, she participated in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, serving as a unit supply specialist in a military police company and working in conjunction with the 10th Mountain Division and the 4th Infantry Division to secure and maintain major tactical and supply waypoints during her first deployment in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

At the end of her first deployment, she earned the Afghanistan Campaign Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Overseas Service Ribbon, Army Achievement Medal, and Army Commendation Medal. She was promoted to sergeant in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in 2012, and then transferred to Shoreham, New York, to serve as unit supply sergeant until June 2015, when she finished her contract with the Army.

A resident of Oceanside, Ms. Genovese joined Mount Sinai South Nassau in 2014 and currently serves as an assistant to the Nurse Manager/Project Manager for Nursing. She is enrolled in the University of Phoenix Project Management Certificate program, with expected graduation in February 2023.

(L to R) Adhi Sharma, MD, President, Mount Sinai South Nassau; Robert Kennedy, Mayor of Freeport; Francis Murray, Mayor of Rockville Centre; Rashawn Michael James; Kevin Thomas, New York State Senate; Judy Griffin, New York State Assembly; Michael McGinty, Mayor of Island Park; Suheil Genovese; Tandilaya Rice, RN; Kuwary Torréns Negrón; Andrea Norquist, Blue Star Mothers of Nassau County; Steve Biscotti, Director of Security, Mount Sinai South Nassau.

Both Mr. James and Ms. Negrón are attending the Hochstim School, hosted by the hospital’s Department of Radiology staff. The school’s 24-month program combines challenging classroom instruction with hands-on clinical applications of radiologic procedures as well as clinical rotations on the Mount Sinai South Nassau campus.

A resident of Hempstead, Mr. James completed basic training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, and served in the U.S. Army from 2011 to 2019. He earned the rank of field maintenance military occupational specialist 91F, responsible for direct and general maintenance and repairing of small arms, infantry weapons, and towed artillery. Stationed in Germany for the duration of his service, Mr. James was deployed on multiple missions in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, including to South Korea and Kuwait. From 2019 to 2022, Mr. James served in the U.S. Army Reserves as an IT specialist.

In April 2014 Ms. Negrón, a resident of Oceanside, joined the U.S. Marine Corps. She served honorably for eight years, four on active duty and four in the Reserves. During her active-duty service, she spent three years in the First Marine Division-Headquarters Battalion where she worked in logistics as a management specialist. She was then moved to Okinawa, Japan, to serve as the Management Chief for the Third Medical Battalion – Third Marine Logistics Group, where she also trained to become an emergency medical technician.

During her time in the Reserves, Ms. Negrón successfully applied to join Team Rubicon and served as its Puerto Rico Logistics Coordinator until December of 2021. Founded in 2010, Team Rubicon is a nonprofit organization that uses the skills and experiences of military veterans working alongside first responders and government agencies to rapidly deploy emergency response teams across the United States and around the world to provide immediate relief to those impacted by disasters and humanitarian crises.

A member of the U.S. Air National Guard from April 2011 to April 2017, Ms. Rice served as a staff sergeant (E5) in health services management. In this position, Ms. Rice provided guidance to members and senior officials on the procedures and responsibilities regarding physical exams, immunization requirements, the physical profile system, waiver request and renewals, and recording charge-out and return policies to ensure compliance and ability for the deployment of all members of the 106th Rescue Wing.

Under her leadership the 106th Rescue Wing, which totaled more than 1,000 officers, achieved an average of 97.6 percent medical readiness for six consecutive years. As a result, the Medical Group for the 106th Rescue Wing earned the Outstanding Unit Award in 2014 and Ms. Rice, a resident of Freeport, was recognized by General Frank Grass, Chief of the National Guard Bureau, in 2015 for service excellence and was awarded the Air and Space Achievement Medal in 2016 for deployment readiness.

Certified in breastfeeding and medical surgical care by the American Nurse Credentialing Center, Ms. Rice joined Mount Sinai South Nassau in 2015. She is a nurse on the Medical-Surgical/Telemetry and Mother Baby units. She earned a Master of Science in Nursing from Utica University this Fall with a major in Family Nurse Practitioner.

About Mount Sinai South Nassau
The Long Island flagship hospital of the Mount Sinai Health System, Mount Sinai South Nassau is designated a Magnet® hospital by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) for outstanding nursing care. Mount Sinai South Nassau is one of the region’s largest hospitals, with 455 beds, more than 900 physicians and 3,500 employees. Located in Oceanside, NY, the hospital is an acute-care, not-for-profit teaching hospital that provides state-of-the-art care in cardiac, oncologic, orthopedic, bariatric, pain management, mental health and emergency services and operates Long Island’s only free-standing Emergency Department in Long Beach.

In addition to its extensive outpatient specialty centers, Mount Sinai South Nassau provides emergency and elective angioplasty, and offers Novalis Tx™ and Gamma Knife® radiosurgery technologies. Mount Sinai South Nassau operates the only Trauma Center on the South Shore of Nassau County verified by the American College of Surgeons as well as Long Island’s only free-standing, 9-1-1 receiving Emergency Department in Long Beach. Mount Sinai South Nassau also is a designated Stroke Center by the New York State Department of Health and Comprehensive Community Cancer Center by the American College of Surgeons; is an accredited center of the Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Association and Quality Improvement Program; and an Infectious Diseases Society of America Antimicrobial Stewardship Center of Excellence.
For more information, go to www.mountsinai.org/southnassau.