Downtown
Standing O is sending out cheers to Margaret “Peggy” Smyth, chief financial officer of National Grid US. The giving New Yorker is this year’s United Way of New York City Power of Women honoree.
The 12th annual luncheon recognized our pal Margaret for her support of the organization’s Read New York City program.
The ceremonies were hosted by Cheryl Wills, anchor at NY1 Live, and celebrated the achievements of extraordinary female business leaders, whose professional accomplishments are matched by their commitment to philanthropy.
ReadNYC is United Way’s signature program that helps students in the city’s most challenged neighborhoods read on grade-level.
“It’s imperative that we give the next generation theopportunities they deserve. I’m proud that National Grid is committed to empowering other to live their full potential,” said Margaret.
“We launched ReadNYC five years ago,” said Sheena Wright, president and chief executive officer at United Way of New York City.
National Grid (1 MetroTech Center in Downtown).
Fort Greene
She’s their Muse
Sending welcomes to Deborah Bradley Kramer, the new Head of School at Muse Academy.
“For the past two decades, she taught at the core curriculum program at Columbia University,” said Crocker Coulson, board member at Muse. He adds, “Under her leadership, Muse will offer an exceptional program in which rigorous academics are combined with music and arts to develop children’s full creative potential and passion for learning.”
At Muse Academy she will create a model program that demonstrates how music and performing arts can accelerate academic development and unleash creative thinking throughout all disciplines.
“I am excited to apply the principles of integrative, inquiry-based education that I used at Columbia, to small children whose hearts and minds are so open and receptive to learning,” said Deborah. “It is my belief that our youngest children must be engaged in active, creative learning in all the arts, and that music is a language that everyone should learn to speak.”
She is also the founder and artistic director of SPEAKmusic, a consortium of performers and composers from Juilliard, Curtis, and Columbia who are dedicated to outreach, education, and transformation through the arts.
Muse Academy [126 St. Felix St. in Fort Greene, (929) 400–1751].
Park Slope
More welcomes
Standing O is sending out “Hello and Welcome Aboard” to surgeon Dr. Justin Steele, who will head the department of surgery at the New York-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital.
Dr. Steele specializes in robotic surgery, and his arrival coincides with the new robotic surgery system used to perform minimally invasive procedures at the hospital.
Dr. Steele is the only surgeon in Brooklyn utilizing this cutting-edge technology. He has more than 10 years of experience performing general, laparoscopic, and robotic surgical procedures and has been named a Castle Connolly Top Doctor for the last two years for his work in those areas.
He earned his medical degree from Stony Brook University and completed his residency in surgery at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Manhattan.
“We are very happy to have Dr. Steele join our medical staff,” said Dr. Steven Silber, chief medical officer at Methodist. “He has an excellent skill set and his expertise in robotics and hernia repair is a great demonstration of NewYork-Presbyterian’s commitment to providing the most advanced medicine to our Brooklyn communities.”
Standing O wishes Dr. Steele success.
New York-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital [506 Sixth St. in Park Slope, (718) 499–CARE].
