Mount Sinai Educator and Diversity Champion Named to Modern Healthcare’s Top Diversity Leaders List
Ann-Gel S. Palermo, DrPH, MPH—recognized throughout the Mount Sinai Health System and nationally as an innovative champion for diversity, equity, and inclusion—has been named by Modern Healthcare as one of 2021’s Top Diversity Leaders. Dr. Palermo is the Senior Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer in Education and Research for the Mount Sinai Health System.
The Top Diversity Leaders award, an annual recognition program, honors health care executives from diverse backgrounds and organizations who influence policy and care delivery models across the country and nurture diversity.
“I am honored to have my work recognized in this way by Modern Healthcare as one of 2021’s Top Diversity Leaders,” Dr. Palermo said. “I want to share this recognition with the many colleagues I work with on a daily basis who are committed to transformational change that integrates diversity, equity, and inclusion in all that we do at the Mount Sinai Health System.”
Dr. Palermo spearheads the strategic integration of diversity, equity, and inclusion principles into the structures, policies, and practices of education and research at Mount Sinai. She also collaborates with senior leaders to develop and implement initiatives with accountability and assessment mechanisms to support equitable and thriving environments for Mount Sinai faculty, staff, students, and trainees.
Dr. Palermo is a member of the executive leadership team in the Office of Diversity and Inclusion (ODI), where she works to enhance ODI’s stature as a model for diversity and inclusion in a large academic health system. She also provides oversight for program goals, priorities, and operations of ODI’s Patricia S. Levinson Center for Multicultural and Community Affairs and the Center of Excellence in Youth Education, and contributes strategic guidance for ODI’s Diversity Innovation Hub, which develops solutions to address health disparities.
Her efforts in diversity and inclusion outside Mount Sinai include serving as National Chair of the Committee on Student Diversity Affairs within the Group on Student Affairs of the Association of American Medical Colleges. She is a member of the inaugural class of the Aspen Institute’s Health Innovators Fellowship and of the Aspen Global Leadership Network, and co-Editor-in-Chief of the peer-reviewed journal Progress in Community Health Partnerships.
An Associate Professor of Pediatrics, and Medical Education, Dr. Palermo joined Mount Sinai in 1999 as a policy research associate in what was then known as the Department of Health Evidence and Policy. She was promoted to Associate Director of Operations of the Center for Multicultural and Community Affairs in 2004, Chief Program Officer of ODI in 2014, and Associate Dean for Diversity and Inclusion in Biomedical Education in 2016. Dr. Palermo earned her DrPH at the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy while serving as a Mount Sinai faculty member and administrative leader.
“This year, we increased the cadence of our diversity recognition program and expanded eligibility to include companies as a whole, as well as individuals,” said Modern Healthcare Editor Aurora Aguilar. “The 2021 class of Top Diversity Leaders lead the pack in health care. These are people and companies that exemplify ‘walking the walk.’ Congratulations to all of our honorees and thank you for the hard work you do on the important issue of inclusivity.”
The profiles of all the honorees and honored organizations are featured in the September 20 print issue of Modern Healthcare magazine and at ModernHealthcare.com/top-diversity-leaders.
About the Mount Sinai Health System
Mount Sinai Health System is one of the largest academic medical systems in the New York metro area, with more than 43,000 employees working across eight hospitals, over 400 outpatient practices, nearly 300 labs, a school of nursing, and a leading school of medicine and graduate education. Mount Sinai advances health for all people, everywhere, by taking on the most complex health care challenges of our time — discovering and applying new scientific learning and knowledge; developing safer, more effective treatments; educating the next generation of medical leaders and innovators; and supporting local communities by delivering high-quality care to all who need it.
Through the integration of its hospitals, labs, and schools, Mount Sinai offers comprehensive health care solutions from birth through geriatrics, leveraging innovative approaches such as artificial intelligence and informatics while keeping patients’ medical and emotional needs at the center of all treatment. The Health System includes approximately 7,300 primary and specialty care physicians; 13 joint-venture outpatient surgery centers throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, Long Island, and Florida; and more than 30 affiliated community health centers. We are consistently ranked by U.S. News & World Report's Best Hospitals, receiving high "Honor Roll" status, and are highly ranked: No. 1 in Geriatrics and top 20 in Cardiology/Heart Surgery, Diabetes/Endocrinology, Gastroenterology/GI Surgery, Neurology/Neurosurgery, Orthopedics, Pulmonology/Lung Surgery, Rehabilitation, and Urology. New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai is ranked No. 12 in Ophthalmology. U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Children’s Hospitals” ranks Mount Sinai Kravis Children's Hospital among the country’s best in several pediatric specialties.
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