This special virtual ceremony celebrates Hoonani (Nani) Cuadrado, Director of Valley Health Partners (VHP) Street Medicine in Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania, and leader in street medicine & human trafficking prevention and survivor ally. Ms. Cuadrado is the 2020 recipient of the Gold Foundation’s Pearl Birnbaum Hurwitz Humanism in Healthcare Award. The video presentation also includes Gold Foundation President/CEO Dr. Richard I. Levin, benefactor Dr. Ron Arky, and Pearl’s daughter, Julie Seelig. A wonderful “Advocacy & Grassroots Change” session at the 2021 Humanism & Healing Conference follows their remarks, which features five Pearl Birnbaum Hurwitz Award honorees in conversation – Veda Johnson, MD, Nancy Oriol, MD, Dinali Fernando, MD, Mardge Cohen, MD, and our 2020 honoree, Nani Cuadrado, PA. These remarkable women share how they identified a problem within healthcare for at risk populations and successfully advocated for change.
During her 18 years as a certified physician assistant and healthcare leader, Ms. Cuadrado has devoted her career to caring for the most vulnerable wherever they are, across the globe on medical missions and in her own community, on the streets, under bridges, and in encampments. She is an expert in human-trafficking and has trained hundreds of health professionals in how to help identify and care for victims of sex trafficking.
Ms. Cuadrado has also developed numerous programs, including creating international rotations for the DeSales University Physician Assistant Program, providing free health care to women in a local shelter for sex-trafficked women and a developing a physician assistant team to provide healthcare for unaccompanied minors who are victims of human trafficking and at risk for homelessness.
Read the full announcement of Ms. Cuadrado’s 2020 award.
Read more about Pearl Birnbaum Hurwitz and her inspiring essay from 1957.
Read about 2019 honoree Dr. Nancy Oriol; 2018 honoree Dr. Dinali Fernando; 2017 honoree Dr. Veda Johnson; and inaugural honoree Dr. Mardge Cohen.
