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Health advocates honor top DC 37 staffers

DC 37 Field Operations Director Barbara Ingram-Edmonds and Political Action Director Wanda Williams received awards April 22 for their tireless support for public health-care services.

The Commission on the Public’s Health System, headed by longtime public health activist Judy Wessler, honored the two at its annual awards dinner.

DC 37 is working closely with CPHS to protect funding for the Health and Hospitals Corp., which could be forced to eliminate 2,300 jobs if Gov. David Paterson’s plan to slash more than $1 billion in health-care funds, including $250 million for hospitals statewide, goes through.

Presenting Williams with her award, Municipal Hospital Employees Union Local 420 President Carmen Charles called her “one of the brightest stars of the labor movement.”

Ralph Palladino, 2nd vice president and hospitals chapter chair of Local 1549, introduced Ingram-Edmonds and cited her leadership role in the Coalition to Save Our Hospitals, a key grassroots organization supporting public health-care services. Williams described the partnership between unions and community groups as a key factor in preventing deep funding cuts in recent years that would have devastated the city’s public health-care system. The soft-spoken Ingram-Edmonds said she enjoyed working behind the scenes with union members and community advocates to map out fight-back campaigns.