Photos by Olivia Charis
Panelists at Wednesday's event.
The new and the old came together Wednesday night to reflect on how healthcare is changing in New Haven.
Over 100 healthcare practitioners, bioscience executives, and friends gathered for the event. The event was the 20th Annual Health Care & Life Sciences Award Ceremony, hosted at Anthony’s Ocean View by Yale New Haven Health and the Health Care & Life Sciences Council of the GNH Chamber & Affiliates.
The event honored healthcare and bioscience innovators.
Shawniel Chamanlal, Terry Khieu and Erskine Alexander at Wednesday's event.
Six honorees included budding health care business owner Shawniel Chamanlal and Mary Wade Home’s David Hunter.
Chamanlal received the award for leadership in the Well-Being/Wellness category. She founded Cheshire-based Healing Springs Wellness Center, which offers in-person and online mental health therapy, workshops, and nutritional counseling, with a focus on BIPOC and minority communities. It also conducts workshops in local schools.
“It’s not just mental health, but integrated culturally competent trauma informed care,” Chamanlal said.
After finishing her Master’s degree at Fordham, Chamanlal said, she had “an undeniable knowing” that she needed to create a safe space for people to heal. While on maternity leave, Chamanlal founded Healing Springs at the onset of the pandemic.
The center’s services include trauma therapy, semantic therapy, and EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. Chamanlal noted the value of combining more traditional and more modern therapy practices in treating diverse groups of patients. The “deep inner work” that “people were craving” as a result of months of isolation in the pandemic made starting her program vital to people’s needs, she said.
Chamanlal also noted the significance of all of her clinicians she works alongside at the center, including Terry Khieu and Erskine Alexander who were present with her at the ceremony.
“It’s the clinicians first” that must be nourished, Chamanlal noted so “that pours into our clients.”
David Hunter with Janice Hunter.
Mary Wade Home President and CEO David Hunter, received the Industry Visionary Award for his work providing seniors with more than just a roof over their heads at the Fair Haven facility. Hunter spoke of Mary Wade’s 160 year history of providing a home for the “friendless.” “I [am] a part of that curing together,” Hunter noted. It has over the years expanded to a variety of assisted-living and nursing-home facilities.
The other honorees included Erika R. Smith, CEO of ReNetX Bio, for the Industry Superstar Award; Arvinas Senior Vice President of Neuroscience & Platform Biology Angela Cacace, for the Bioscience Innovator Award; The Connecticut Orthopedic Institute Midstate Medical Center, for the Clinical Program Award; and Biohaven Pharmaceuticals for the Biosciences Company Award.
The evening began with a panel discussion in which healthcare and bioscience professionals shared thoughts on how they have innovated and adapted throughout the pandemic. The panel included Keith Churchwell, president of Yale New Haven Hospital; John Houston, president of Arvinas, Karen Moran, president of ConnectiCare; and Liz Power, senior director at Groton, Pfizer.
Churchwell noted the “tremendous disparity in the delivery of care in this country” as a challenge for the industry.