CAF Welcomes Steve Hemraj as Patient Outreach Director
October 19, 2021 – Steve Hemraj, MPA is very excited and honored to join the team at Cooley’s Anemia Foundation as its Patient Outreach Director.
He believes patient experience is paramount to linkage, retention, and optimal health outcome. Steve’s eighteen years knowledge and experience in patient outreach and engagement, clinical experience and quality improvement well prepares him to meet his new goal –of helping people living with thalassemia to improve their health outcomes and quality of life.
His experience in public health began in 2003, when he was appointed by NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg to serve on the NYC Health and Human Services HIV Planning Council, where he served four terms and was the finance officer for most of his tenure. In 2005, he was appointed again by Mayor Bloomberg to serve as the first chair of the HIV AIDS Service Administration (HASA) advisory board and received a service award in 2019. His passion for ending the HIV epidemic (ETE) in NYC earned him the Master Class Award by the NYC Department of Health.
Steve also believes that social issues such as domestic/teen violence, mental health, and gun violence are public health issues affecting marginalized communities. His community involvement includes providing support for a peer support group of mothers who are directly impacted by gun violence. Additionally, he provided support to the Heather Hurley Foundation and NYS State Senator Kevin Parker to raise domestic violence awareness in Brooklyn. He also collaborated with NYS Assemblywoman Diana Richardson on HIV awareness and testing in Brooklyn. For his dedication in these causes, he was awarded with a proclamation by NYS Senator Kevin Parker.
“I look forward to meeting members of the thalassemia community and to locating members of the community that are not yet part of the Cooley’s Anemia Foundation,” Says Steve. “We have so much information to share that can positively impact people’s lives, and I hope to help as many people as possible access that information.”
CAF is happy to welcome Steve as a new member of our team. He can be reached at (212) 279-8090 x 207 or shemraj@thalassemia.org.