Leonard Newman, M.D. ’70 and Michael Gewitz, M.D., Honored for Decades of Service to NYMC
Portraits of the Distinguished Pediatricians were Unveiled at the Special Event
The New York Medical College (NYMC) community celebrated Leonard Newman, M.D. ’70, professor and chair of the Department of Pediatrics, and Michael Gewitz, M.D., professor and vice chair of the Department of Pediatrics, for their decades of service to the College and their impact in the field of pediatrics with a special reception on April 20 at the Alumni House. During the reception, portraits of Dr. Newman and Dr. Gewitz were unveiled and will be hung in the pediatrics wing at 19 Skyline Drive.
Dr. Newman has chaired the Department of Pediatrics at NYMC for more than 30 years and also founded and served as the longtime president of Boston Children’s Health Physicians. Dr. Gewitz is currently the William Russell McCurdy Physician-in-Chief at Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital in Valhalla and also founded and served as vice president of Boston Children’s Health Physicians for decades. Both Dr. Newman and Dr. Gewitz played integral roles in the effort to build Maria Fareri Children's Hospital in 2004, which provides lifesaving care to more than 30,000 patients each year.
During the reception, several speakers expressed their appreciation to Dr. Newman and Dr. Gewitz and lauded their accomplishments.
“Caring about and devoting your professional life to the causes, prevention and treatment of disease in children is a ‘calling’ because it is God’s work in our secular lives. Pediatricians are special,” said Edward Halperin, M.D., M.A., chancellor and chief executive officer of NYMC. “Leonard Newman and Michael Gewitz deeply care about the welfare of children, the careers of their faculty and the best interests of the hospital and the College. These are two men possessed of an enthusiastic calling. And I am proud to call them colleagues.”
“As important as it is to remember the accomplishments of both Drs. Newman and Gewitz here on campus, it's even more important that we recognize their impact on the health and well-being of countless children and their families. I feel so fortunate that I've been able to sit at the table with these giants in our region,” said Allen Dozor, M.D., professor of pediatrics and clinical public health and chief of the Division of Pulmonology, Allergy and Sleep Medicine at NYMC, president of Boston Children’s Health Physicians and director of the Children’s Environmental Health Center of the Hudson Valley.
“Leonard Newman’s loyalty and dedication to his students, peers and friends at NYMC are remarkable. He is a chair who not only makes sure the patients are given the best of care but he makes sure the physicians are treated justly and fairly,” said Martin Katzenstein, M.D., associate professor of pediatrics and assistant dean for clinical affiliates.
“We trusted Michael Gewitz to always put the needs of the children, the hospital and the medical school first and to grow us into a place with integrity, academic vision as well as great research, education, house staff and fellowships. He was able to show us the way, to say ‘come along, these are just speed bumps; there's a path here to make this organization something for us all to be proud of for the future’ and we signed on because we knew that he was being honest and forthright and that we'd be proud to follow that lead,” said Renee Garrick, M.D., vice dean of the School of Medicine and professor of clinical medicine at NYMC and chief medical officer at Westchester Medical Center.