NEHES Presents Chapter Leadership Award, Presidents Award, Engineer of the Year Award and Chapter Excellence Awards at 2020 Virtual Fall Conference

NEHES was pleased to present several awards during the 2020 Virtual Fall Conference including the Chapter Leadership Award, Engineer of the Year Award, Chapter Excellence Awards and the President’s Award. 

 This year’s recipient of the President’s Award was Dawn LeBaron

Dawn has been both a Past President of NEHES and VHES, as well as the first woman to do so. 

A native Vermonter, Dawn has spent all of her career in health care. After earning her Bachelor of Arts from Johnson State College in Johnson, Vermont, Dawn studied and worked in Massachusetts. Early in her career, Dawn led a variety of support services at Newton Wellesley Hospital in Newton, Massachusetts. After 18 years in Massachusetts, she returned home to Vermont and began working for the UVM Medical Center (Fletcher Allen Healthcare at the time), where she has been ever since.

After serving three terms on the Lund Board of Directors as chair of their Buildings and Grounds Committee, Dawn now serves on the Board of the Special Services Transportation Association. Dawn is also a fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives and Certified Healthcare Facilities Manager in the American Society for Healthcare Engineering.

We at NEHES wish Dawn our sincere the best in her upcoming retirement and welcome everyone to congratulate her for her distinguished career and recipient of the NEHES President’s Award.

The Chapter Leadership Award was presented to David Rosinski

Dave has had a long and distinguished career within Facilities, Real Estate, Planning & Support Services, serving as Director of Engineering for Baystate Noble Hospital, Director of Facilities at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center and, currently, Director of Facilities for Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center. While at Baystate Noble Hospital for 10+ years, Dave successfully led a staff of four Managers and 60 team members, managed eight critical support departments for the organization including staffing, operations and budgets totaling $10M annually and was Chair of the Environment of Care Committee and the management and implementation of the organization’s Statement of Conditions.

While with Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, Dave successfully led the hospital through TJC in 2018, led a staff of three Managers and 29 team members, created a Planning Design and Construction Department and planned $20M in construction projects. Dave served as NEHES President in 2018 and is a current member of NEHES, ASHE and ACHE. He currently serves as President of the CT Chapter of NEHES (CHES) which he has worked tirelessly to grow since 2018.

CHES has seen tremendous growth and recognition. In 2018, CHES was a struggling state chapter when Dave took over as the President. During that year, the chapter found it had no current board members and Dave not only stepped up as President but also filled the then vacant VP, Treasurer and Secretary roles. The Chapter’s membership and interest has grown significantly and has held three successful events since December 2019 including two educational kickoff meetings in Bridgeport and Hartford in December 2019 and a March 2020 event. The chapter is planning at least two additional events in 2020. Dave’s experience and knowledge has been a great asset to the CT state chapter and he has been a key and involved player in all aspects of planning and coordinating chapter events.

The Engineer of the Year is the individual who distinguishes himself/herself in service to the Society and the healthcare engineering profession during the most recent calendar year. The Engineer of the Year demonstrations service to their institution, their chapter, fellow engineers, and the Society as a whole.  Paul Cantrell is the recipient of the 2020 Engineer of the Year Award and President Pete Girard presented the award to Paul during the 2020 Virtual Fall Conference.

Paul is currently the Vice President of Facility Operations at Lahey Health. He earned his Bachelor’s Degree focused in Marine Engineering from Massachusetts Maritime Academy.

Paul is a Past President of NEHES serving in the role in 2015 and currently still serving on the Board.

Congratulations to Paul Cantrell.

Two State Chapters were also recognized this year with the NEHES Chapter Excellence Award.  The Massachusetts Healthcare Facility Professionals Society (MHFPS) and the New Hampshire Society of Healthcare Facility Managers (NHSHFM) both met the criteria for achieving this award.  Those criteria include:

1. Fifty percent of state chapter members are also NEHES members.
2. Chapter President must maintain active NEHES membership.
3. Attendance at a minimum of five (5) NEHES Board of Directors meetings by a state chapter representative.
4. Attendance at the annual planning retreat by at least one chapter representative.
5. Attendance at the annual meeting by at least one chapter representative.
6. Offer a minimum of 6 hours of annual educational programming.
7. Hold at least six (6) state chapter meetings annually.

NEHES would like to congratulate each of this year’s award recipients!

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NEHES Receives Energy to Care Chapter Challenge (Small Chapter Category) from ASHE – Second year in a row!

NEHES was the 2019 recipient of the ASHE Energy to Care Chapter Challenge in the Small Chapter Category and was presented the award again for the year 2020! The facilities recognized in helping NEHES to win the Chapter Challenge are:

• CHA Windsor Street Care Center
• CHA East Cambridge Care Center
• CHA Everett Hospital
• CHA Somerville
• Sturdy Memorial Hospital
• The Cambridge Hospital
• Vermont Medical Center - Fanny Allen Campus
• University of Massachusetts Memorial Hahnemann
• University of Massachusetts Memorial Hospital
• University of Vermont Health Network - UVM Medical Center