Former Maimonides Medical Center (MMC) President and CEO Pamela Brier, who retired this past January, has been honored by the hospital she served for over a decade.
On Monday, March 15, Ken Gibbs, current president and CEO at Maimonides, was joined by board Chair Eugene Keilin for the dedication and ribbon-cutting ceremony of the Pam Brier Main Lobby.
“For us at Maimonides, the lobby is the place where we congregate,” said Gibbs. “It’s the place where our employees enter with energy as they step in to work here. And it stands for so much of what Pam built with us here in terms of being open to the community, welcoming all, and in terms of being committed to being a place where employees walk in with a sense of vitality.”
Following his speech, Gibbs unveiled signage around the newly named lobby. One of the signs featured a photo of Brier and included a description of her contribution to MMC.
“Her commitment to making heath care effective and accessible for all people has been apparent in all of her work, globally and locally,” part of the sign reads.
“Pam has put her stamp on this institution and it’s fitting that we put her name in the lobby. Many of us are here because of Pam,” added Keilin. “She spent her days and nights in the communities that we serve and in the halls of the buildings, meeting the generations of residents and interns who she knew by name. She was not just the face of the institution but the heart and soul of the institution.”
Brier expressed her gratitude once the signs were unveiled.
“I’m truly overwhelmed by this,” she said, crediting the entire staff for improving the facilities over the years. “I’m so impressed. The outside of hospitals ought to be a picture of what the care on the inside is like. I’m a believer in lobbies. I don’t like lobbies that you’re embarrassed to send people through. As the care around here started getting better, so did my desire to have a better front door. It took us a long time but the point is, we did it and it wasn’t just me. It was the result of dedicated, hard working people who pushed really hard.”
“Pam has been a major transformative figure in this institution and I can’t think of anything more fitting than having this wonderful lobby named after her,” said former board Chair Martin Payson, who Brier said had recruited her when she joined MMC in 1995.
Brier also expressed how much her time at the hospital meant to her.
“It’s been a privilege to take the helm of this hospital because I don’t think that even CEOs run hospitals. The people that work here and run this place all day make it work,” she said. “I can’t think of a hospital where more creative work is done and there’s more ingenuity and imagination than Maimonides.”
