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Prissana Alston Named Interim Executive Director of Interfaith Medical Center

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Prissana Alston Named Interim Executive Director of Interfaith Medical Center

By Mary Alice Miller
Prissana Alston spent decades of her career in nursing leadership: Nurse Manager and Director of Patient Care Services at The New York Hospital (now known as New York Presbyterian), Vice President for Nursing at Silvercrest Center Nursing Rehabilitation, Deputy Director of Nursing at SUNY Downstate Medical Center, Assistant Vice President Patient Care Services at Bronx Lebanon Hospital Center, Administrator on Duty for Harlem Hospital, and Senior Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer at Interfaith Medical Center.


That leadership experience has served her well. On January 1, Alston was appointed Interim Executive Director of Interfaith Medical Center.


Born and raised in Queens, Alston was interested in the healthcare professions at an early age. When her sister passed away from leukemia at age 17, Alston said the experience “propelled me to pursue a nursing career. It wasn’t easy.”


Alston has seen the intersection between nursing and all the other services a hospital system would provide. “As a nurse, we would touch all of those ancillary services, but as a nurse, I may not have had that intimacy to know whether the equipment was working or not,” said Alston.

“I would just have seen the end result of maybe a patient being delayed because of [an issue].”
She added, “My current role would allow me to have that intimacy and connection with the ancillary departments and knowing what would be actually preventing patients from receiving their tests or procedures and things of that nature.”


Alston explained that nursing leadership is separate from her current position as interim executive director. “As the chief nurse executive, my responsibility was nursing practice, procedures, and policies. In this Interim Executive Director role, I am responsible for everything, including nursing.”


Recognizing that Interfaith Medical Center has a long-standing reputation in the community for providing comprehensive mental health services, Alston said, “We do have strong mental health service here. We also have operative services here.

We have medical surgery, telemetry, emergency services… I think that we need to identify other services that we are looking to provide because even our mental health patients do need to have surgical procedures; they do need to have medical interventions.


Alston said, “We want to also be financially viable. All hospitals need financial support. The success comes from whether we want to have specific surgeries or operative procedures that we do here. It all goes hand in hand with each other.”


When asked if the gentrification of Bedford Stuyvesant and the surrounding areas is reflected in the patient population at Interfaith, Alston said, “We have been servicing the patients from the community. I have seen a change in the population. We are here to service anyone who wants to come to our organization. We welcome any and everyone. It doesn’t matter what their financial standing is.”


She added, “We are a community hospital that is here to service the community.”
As the newly named Executive Director, Alston said. “There are quite a few things we are looking to embark upon and enhance at Interfaith Medical Center.”


The hospital is looking to improve public reporting metrics. Two psych units are cited for planned construction and refurbishing. Interfaith’s second-floor telemetry unit is under construction. The emergency department is being renovated in phases.


(Telemetry is a portable device that continuously monitors patient vital signs while automatically transmitting information to a central monitor, used on patients for continuous cardiac monitoring, usually after surgery, recovery from a stroke, or blood clots. Major trauma, acute respiratory failure, sepsis, or shock.)


Alston is also looking forward to the integration of new artificial intelligence technology. “We are looking, as best as we can, to bring our hospital up to where organizations are in the digital world so that [there is] a little bit more efficient communication between [our One Brooklyn Health] organizations,” said Alston, “so that patients can come to our hospital, there is that communication that happens.”


Alston said she is looking to continue, enhance, and grow community outreach to improve social determinants of health, from the food security program already implemented by Dr. Easterling to overall patient education, including pregnancy and HIV services at Bishop Walker Health Care Center and diabetes prevention and treatment at Pierre Toussaint Family Health Center.


“We do a lot of outpatient and community services during the summer months,” said Alston. “The listing for these community outreach services is going to be coming out shortly.”
Alston has a message for the community.


“I want to tell the community that I am here. I am here for the community. That is the purpose of Interfaith Medical Center. That is why we are here. We provide respectful care,” Alston said. “If we cannot provide it here at Interfaith Medical Center, that is why we have One Brooklyn Health System. We have connections within that system to provide services that they need.”
She added, “We want to work with the community.

We want the community to feel that they can trust Interfaith Medical Center. We look forward to relationships with the community, working with the elected officials, working with our patients and families, and working with our staff and physicians so that we can make the community have the best experience possible.”


“I am going to work my hardest to make sure that we achieve the best experience for our patients that come here,” said Alston.

Speeches from BAM’s 39th Tribute to Martin Luther King Jr. with Study Guide on Little Rock Nine to be Featured in February

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Speeches from BAM’s 39th Tribute to Martin Luther King Jr. with Study Guide on Little Rock Nine to be Featured in February

In 1957, 14-year-old Carlotta Walls was the youngest Little Rock Nine member to integrate Central High School. She and eight other Black students faced angry mobs, racist elected officials, and federal intervention by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who was forced to send in the 101st Airborne to escort the Nine safely into the building. Little did she realize that day that this was the beginning of a journey that would challenge prevailing attitudes, break down barriers, and forever change the social landscape of America.

Dr. Carlotta Walls LaNier delivered a moving keynote in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr at BAM’s tribute to the Civil Rights leader, Jan. 20


After graduating from Little Rock Central High School in 1960, Carlotta Walls attended Michigan State University and graduated from Colorado State College—now the University of Northern Colorado, which has awarded her an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters and on whose board of trustees she sits. In addition to receiving the Congressional Gold Medal and the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal, Carlotta Walls LaNier is an inductee in the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame, Girl Scouts Women of Distinction, and the National Women’s Hall of Fame. She serves as president of the Little Rock Nine Foundation, created to promote equality of opportunity for all, particularly in the field of education.

BAM Guest Speakers

Laurie Cumbo
Crystal Hudson
Kathy Hochul
Adrienne Adams
Dr. Carlotta Walls LaNier
Antonio Reynoso

Nydia Velazquez

The Brooklyn Academy of Music hosted its 39th annual celebration of the life and legacy of The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Monday, January 20 before a full house. Despite frigid temperatures, hundreds filled the BAM’s Howard Gilman Opera House to hear inspiring words from New York leaders on this page; join in the revelry of Troy Anthony’s revolutionary Fire Ensemble Community Choir and absorb the special message of keynote speaker Carlotta Walls LaNier, a daughter of King’s Civil Rights Movement and the youngest member of The Little Rock 9.


Among the event guest speakers were New York State Governor Kathy Hochul, Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso; Councilwoman Cheryl Hudson, NYC Cultural Arts Commissioner Laurie Cumbo; NYC City Council speaker Adrienne Adams; U.S. Rep Nydia Velazquez and (by video) Sen. Chuck Schumer, who was in Washington, DC for the presidential inauguration, along with Mayor Eric Adams, and others


Speeches by Dr. LaNier on the impact of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr on her life, and others will be placed in Our Time Press’ Black History Month special editions.

When the Bones were Returned

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When the Bones were Returned

By Yvette Moore
In October 2003, when the bones of 18th century formerly enslaved Africans were returned to the African Burial Ground site in Lower Manhattan, I was blessed to be on sabbatical from my job and volunteering at my children’s school in Deborah Barber’s fourth-grade class at PS 308 on Quincy Street in Crown Heights.

Ms. Barber and teachers Jeannette MacMillian (now Franklin), and Aquilla Raiford (now Smith) saw an opportunity to make colonial New York history come to life for their students. They decided to take their students to Manhattan to witness the grand procession of the bones’ return to the burial ground after being studied for more than a year of study at Howard University in D.C.


Reflecting on that African Burial Ground experience more than 30 years later, three main impressions emerge for me:
Children may not remember all we try to teach them, but they will remember how they felt about it.


Most public school teachers’ are fiercely determined to educate their students.
The African American struggle for justice and against our erasure from the nation’s story is constant. (We may not get everything we fight for, but we fight for everything we get.)
First, the children. I spoke with P.S. 308 students who went on the trip. They’re in their 30s now, and don’t remember much about it—except for how they felt.

The purpose of the trip was for the students to participate in an historic event for African Americans and the nation. My son was in second grade and my daughter in fifth, but I took them out of their classes that day to go on the fourth-grade classes’ trip to witness the return of the bones to the African Burial Ground. My daughter, Naima Moore-Turner, had been in Ms. Barber’s class for fourth grade and also knew some of the kids in the classes on the trip, so she was happy.

Crown Heights Native Yvette Moore Offers OTP Online Study Guide to Accompany Her “Freedom Songs” Classic on Civil Rights Movement
At the request of Our Time Press co-founders, Yvette Moore designed a study guide for middle school and high school students to accompany her classic, Freedom Songs, published in 1991.
The Rev. Herbert Daughtry, National Presiding Minister, The House of the Lord Churches, said of Moore’s work: “ ‘Freedom Songs’ …is a Civil Rights Era classic that weaves history and important movement lessons into a compelling story about young people from Brooklyn who claim their power to change the world. Reissuing this empowering story will inspire yet another generation to step up to the challenges of their times.”
This effort also launches Our Time Press’ Parents’ Workshop, as a recurring feature with contributions from professionals in the field of education and voluntarism. Ms. Moore’s Freedom Songs, and its sequel Just Sketching, are available on Amazon.com.


For my son, Zaire Moore-Turner, it was an important day for somebody, not necessarily for him at the time, but important because I took him out of his class to go on the trip. “I knew the day was significant, but I was a kid,” he said. “I knew they’d found bones under some buildings, and that that was messed up, so I was glad those people were getting some recognition. But that’s about it.”


Daeneesha Bowens-Pope was in Ms. MacMillian’s class. She remembers feeling excited. “It was a long train ride,” she said. Ms. Bowens-Pope remembers being told to pay attention because the trip was about our ancestors and feeling drawn to some of the artwork—pictures, murals, wood sculptures—that was part of the procession. “I remember the parade, and it being kind of sacred. I also remember there was a casket that went past. At the time, I didn’t understand what it all meant, but I felt connected. I felt we had purpose. We weren’t just slaves.”


And she really felt the importance of the day’s events when the teachers posted an article in the newspaper about it on the bulletin board in the corridor the next day, she revealed.
Second, the teachers. My sabbatical came at a time when public schools were under assault. The movement to privatize public schools was gaining traction. President George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind policies were requiring states to offer school choice to all students in schools that had failed to meet standards two years in a row.

Like today, there was lots of media about failing public schools and teachers, and advocates pushed for private alternatives. Once The Daily News posted standardized test scores of local parochial schools along with the public-school scores. They did that once and not again because the parochial school test scores were as bad, if not worse. P.S./Middle School 308 was an excelling magnet public school in a District 16.


Students graduated from the school having already passed several of the required high school Regents exams, were national chess champions, had a steel band and more. 308’s success put to lie the narrative that the way to save public education was to privatize it. Its magnet designation meant it could accept students from outside the district for its special program. Students like my children, who lived in District 17.


So, when I got the chance to take a sabbatical from my job, I wanted to volunteer in my children’s school, something I couldn’t do when working in Manhattan.


I don’t remember what I expected to find while volunteering at the school, but what I found were teachers who were energized, serious about their professional obligations, and personally committed to giving their students a stellar educational experience that prepared them to compete in the world. Volunteering in the school, I saw just how much public-school teachers had been maligned.


What Ms. Barber, Ms. MacMillian, and Ms. Smith did was just one example of how public-school teachers regularly go above and beyond what they’re required to do to educate their students.


Learning New York State’s role in the nation’s history was a part of the state’s social studies curriculum. The teachers incorporated news of the African Burial Ground into that course of study. I remember the timeline in Ms. Barber’s classroom. I’m going to tell the truth and shame the devil: I learned some things from that classroom timeline. Slavery ended in New York July 4, 1827. I never learned that in school.

Matter of fact, I thought of slavery as “a Southern state thing” that caused and ended with The Civil War. On some level, I knew it existed, but I never thought much about slavery in New York. The timeline also included something happening in a Revolutionary war-era pub (perhaps Fraunces Tavern) in Lower Manhattan that was still in business. Ms. Barber wanted to walk by that pub while she had her class in the city, but time didn’t allow.


I loved how the teachers were so intentional about making the social studies lessons have real-life meaning for their students.


Lastly, the struggle. I’m not exactly sure when I first learned the bones of African Americans from the days of slavery had been found during excavation of the site for the new federal office, but I do remember the protests.

To be honest, there were many protests in the 1980s and 1990s: Michael Stewart, 1983; Eleanor Bumpurs, 1984; the Howard Beach incident, 1986; Yusef Hawkins murder, 1989; Amadou Diallo, 1999; Anti-South African Apartheid protests. Seems like we were always in the street protesting at that time.

But the African Burial Ground protests were different in that there was a very prominent spiritual side to them: drumming, libations, all-night vigils, prayers, and a calling on the ancestors — even as the community sought to protect their remains, demand honor for their lives, and place them in the annals of New York City and the nation’s history.


Today, the six-acre Colonial-era burial ground that hold the remains of 10,000-20,000 free and formerly enslaved Africans is memorialized in the African Burial Ground Museum on 290 Broadway side of the of the Ted Weiss Federal Building and a .35-acre monument on the Duane Street side of the building where 419 bodies of children, women and men were reinterned. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1993 and named a National Monument in 2006.


The museum is intimate and interactive. It includes life-size sculptures, art, and information about the lives of African Americans in colonial New York. It displays photos of the protest and presents the voices of some of the many African American community leaders who fought to halt construction of the federal building in 1991 until the people buried there were treated with the dignity that they deserved but had not received in life nor death.

It also displays notes from students and photos of the grand procession of the bones’ attended by the PS 308 children.


It is an honorable commemoration. It is also a testament that begs the question of why African Americans always have to fight so hard to get the bare minimum of what’s due us, for what’s simply just and right? It is a testament that we may not get everything we fight for, but we must fight for anything we expect to get.


And so, the struggle continues.
Dr. Kevin Bond was dean of 308’s middle school in October 2003. Today, he is Assistant Principal at Middle School 35/ Magnet School of Leadership, Exploration and the Arts in Crown Heights. In 2020, students there commemorated the life of George Floyd with a march to the Black Lives Matter murals at Restoration Plaza.

Students have gone on a college tour to Georgia in cooperation with the I Will Graduate program. Students leave the school with five Regents exams under their belt: English, a Foreign Language, Algebra, Social Studies, and Biology.


“We are on this never-ending campaign to uplift and help our students feel good about who they are, and how they look, and to be able to compete with anybody, anywhere, anytime,” he said. “Some people say we have to make America great again. But when America was great in their eyes, our people were slaves. So, we have to prepare our students for the world. Just like we did at 308.”


The African Burial Ground National Monument, located at the corners of Duane and Elk Streets in lower Manhattan, is operated by the National Park Service. For information on hours and directions, visit nps.gov/afbg.

About the Author
Yvette Moore is the author of Freedom Songs, a coming of age of story set in Civil Rights era 1963 Brooklyn, its sequel Just Sketching, and The Birth of Christ, a colorful African American telling of the Christmas story. All are available on Amazon.com.
She is also now a grandmother of a 4-year-old set to enter a New York City public school, where she will volunteer.

47th President Signs Executive Orders that Will Impact New York, the Nation, and the World

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47th President Signs Executive Orders that Will Impact New York, the Nation, and the World

By Mary Alice Miller
Hours after he was inaugurated for the second time, Donald Trump signed dozens of executive orders that will impact New York, the nation, and the world. Executive orders are generally public relations statements that promote the administration’s agenda.

Some of Trump’s executive orders conflict with the United States Constitution and are headed to the courts.


At the Capital One Arena, where he held a rally for supporters, Trump first targeted and rescinded 78 Biden-era executive orders and presidential memoranda. The revoked policies include: an executive order that required federal agencies to extend prohibitions on sex discrimination to include sexual orientation and gender identity, an order that required executive branch appointees to sign an ethics pledge, an order that allowed transgender people to serve in the US military and an order that banned the renewal of private prison contracts.


Trump also revoked Biden-era actions that withdrew Cuba’s designation as a state sponsor of terror, applied sanctions on Jewish settlers in the West Bank, and sought to reduce the risks of artificial intelligence.


Then he signed a regulatory freeze to prevent bureaucrats from issuing any more regulations until the new administration fully controls the government and administration. The next was a freeze on all federal hiring except military and certain other excluded categories until full control of the government is achieved and they understand the objectives of the government going forward.


In his speech, Trump announced that federal workers must return to full-time in-person work immediately. He signed an executive order that would reform the federal workforce, including the senior executive service, by reinstating Schedule F, making it easier to fire tens of thousands of professional civil servants deemed disloyal to the administration’s agenda. He instated a “loyalty pledge.” Trump signed an order to hold former government officials accountable for unlawfully disclosing sensitive information.


In addition, Trump ordered a reform to the federal hiring system to ensure merit in hiring decisions. He also issued a directive to every department and agency to address the cost-of-living crisis.


Trump signed an executive order withdrawing the United States from the Paris climate treaty. Trump said, “We are going to save over $1 trillion by withdrawing from that treaty.” The next step was to submit a letter explaining the withdrawal to the United Nations.


Next, he signed a directive to the federal government ordering the restoration of freedom of speech and preventing government censorship of free speech. The final executive order signed in the Capitol One Arena was a directive to the federal government to end the weaponization of government against the political adversaries of the previous administration.


In the Oval Office later that day, Trump pardoned approximately 1500 rioters who had been charged in the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. The leaders of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers were among fourteen of those convicted who had their sentences commuted to time served. It required the Bureau of Prisons to act immediately upon receipt of the order.


Trump issued a series of executive actions related to immigration, including a proclamation guaranteeing the state protection against invasion based on the crisis at the southern border, an executive order realigning the United States refugee program resettlements, protecting America from foreign terrorists and other national security and public safety threats and designating cartels and other organizations to be foreign terrorist organizations.

And he instated the “Remain in Mexico” policy, ending a program that released asylum seekers into the U.S. while their cases were considered.


One of Trump’s executive orders seeks to redefine birthright citizenship under the 14th Amendment to not recognize babies as citizens if their parents were in the United States “unlawfully,” were not citizens, were temporary residents, and/or were not lawful permanent residents.


He declared a “national energy emergency,” thereby easing permitting processes and other regulatory systems that he says will produce energy efficiently and unleash Alaska’s potential as an energy reservoir for the nation. He also rescinded Biden-era protections around the state’s coastal areas.


Trump also paused issuing new or renewal offshore wind leasing in federal waters.
Regarding TikTok, Trump ordered his attorney general not to enforce the TikTok ban under the Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act for 75 days “to permit my Administration an opportunity to determine the appropriate course of action concerning TikTok.” Trump has proposed a deal in which the United States would obtain half ownership of the social media platform used by more than 100 million Americans.


One of Trump’s executive orders created and implemented the Department of Governmental Efficiency, in which he said he would staff 20 employees to assist Elon Musk in carrying out his agenda to reduce the federal workforce and federal spending.


Trump withdrew from the World Health Organization and ordered the immediate cessation of U.S. funding. Trump has claimed that the WHO was ineffective during the Covid-19 crisis and that the U.S. funds the organization disproportionately. U.S. employees in the WHO would be redeployed elsewhere.


One of the last executive orders that Trump signed that day related to protecting women from gender ideologies. This executive order requires federal agencies to treat biological men and women as separate sexes, halt promoting “gender ideology,” and require certain agencies to revert to recognizing only “male” and “female” on forms.

Brooklyn’s Crown Jewel?

Eddie Castro
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Brooklyn’s Crown Jewel?

By Eddie Castro
With the trade deadline less than 3 weeks away, the Brooklyn Nets may very well be active in trading key assets in hopes of reshaping the future of their franchise. The team has already shown their willingness to unload key players having traded Dennis Schroder to the Golden State Warriors and Dorian Finney-Smith and Shake Milton to the Los Angeles Lakers, securing second-round picks in return. With their most recent trades, the Nets will most likely shift their focus on getting first-round compensation.

The big name that could land them just that is their talented sharpshooter Cameron Johnson. The 27-year old is currently having his best season as a pro averaging 19.5 points a game while shooting a red hot 43.6% from the three-point line. With his offensive abilities being well-documented, Johnson’s rebounding and defensive skills are also solid traits that attract opposing teams.

Although players like Jimmy Butler and Brandon Ingram can be seen as more popular and polished options at the deadline, their current contracts are quite pricey for teams to be willing to take on where as Johnson’s current contract is considered more team-friendly through the 2026-27 season, making him more attractive for teams looking for a high-quality player at a reasonable price.


With the Nets knowing teams will be knocking on the door for Johnson’s services, Brooklyn is not just going to give him away. Many sources have reported the Nets will be seeking at least two first-rounders in exchange for Johnson with Brooklyn looking to receive as much draft capital to expedite their rebuilding process.

Brooklyn has 31 draft picks within the next 7 drafts including 3 first-round picks in this summer’s draft. Recent history has shown if you trade right, draft right, and stock up on picks, the result fares pretty well for teams.

Just take a look a current team like the Thunder, who are currently the best team in the Western Conference, the Houston Rockets have overachieved thus far sitting at the No.2 seed in the West and the Orlando Magic who are one of the most exciting young up-and-coming teams out in the East.

All three teams have stockpiled picks and has seen great success after some rough years. The Nets hope to emulate what those teams have done the past few years in hopes to not only seek a playoff appearance, but to lure a Super Star player to take them there.


It is not a foregone conclusion the Nets will or are even willing to trade Cameron Johnson. General Manager Sean Marks is known for making deals that he feels make the Brooklyn Nets a “better’ team for the foreseeable future.

Johnson could very well be a part of the team’s future plans along with their other talented player Cam Thomas. Regardless of what happens, February 6th (trade deadline) is definitely a day to highlight for Nets’ fans and could very well be the turning point for the franchise and where they will be for years to come.


Sports Notes: (Football) As we go to press, there are reports that Detroit Lions Defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn is the front-runner to land the head coaching job with the New York Jets. Glenn has a long history with the organization.

He was selected in the first-round of the NFL draft in 1994 by the Jets and played 8 seasons for the team from 1994-2001. Glenn is known to be one of the best defensive coordinators in football.

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