MDNews - Long Island

Share your story in the next issue of MD News. For consideration, please email your press releases to Press@LexMediaGroup.com. Hsiang-chi (Angel) Meng, DO, appointed Medical Director of Long Island Jewish (LIJ) Valley Stream Hospital Long Island Jewish (LIJ) Valley Stream Hospital has appointed Hsiang-chi (Angel) Meng, DO, as its Medical Director after a competitive search process. Dr. Meng comes to LIJ Valley Stream from Lenox Hill Hospital, where she served as Associate Medical Director, physician advisor and hospitalist. While at Lenox Hill, Dr. Meng's responsibilities included overseeing improvement initiatives that focused on transitions of care, readmission reduction, patient experience and patient safety. She also played a pivotal role in the hospital's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Meng grew up in Taipei, Taiwan, where her father was a government diplomat. Dr. Meng and her family also lived in Malawi for four years when her father was stationed there. While in Malawi, she witnessed how a lack of proper medical care impacted communities, which would play a role in her decision to study medicine. Dr. Meng moved to the United States in her early teens. After receiving her undergraduate degree from Rutgers University, she began her career as a research assistant at Northwell Health's Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research. While at Feinstein Institutes, she decided to go on to medical school. She graduated from the New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine before starting her residency at Lenox Hill Hospital, where she would become an attending physician practicing internal medicine. As Medical Director of LIJ Valley Stream Hospital, Dr. Meng will preside over the hospital's clinical staff as well as the advanced care practitioner, case management and social work teams. Dr. Meng's husband also works for Northwell Health. He is a research associate at the Feinstein Institutes in the division of genetics. The couple have a 10-year-old daughter and a 7-year-old son. They reside on Long Island. START Treatment & Recovery Centers' CEO Lawrence S. Brown, Jr., MD, MPH, FACP, DFASAM, announced plans to retire after 40 years of service. The board of the behavioral health organization, which has treated more than 50,000 New Yorkers since it was founded in 1969, has retained Bridge Partners to manage the search for Dr. Brown's successor. As one of the nation's largest minority, non-profit community- based agencies, START provides substance use treatment, primary medical care and HIV/AIDS services to adults in seven opioid treatment programs in socially and economically challenged communities in Brooklyn and Manhattan, and mental health services to adolescents. START also conducts cutting-edge clinical and behavioral health research in the areas of hepatitis C, substance use and HIV/AIDS. The new CEO will be responsible for the direction, vision, leadership, management and motivation of the organization, and its staff and patients, leading an organization with a $30 million operating budget, over $60 million in total assets and approximately 240 employees serving more than 3,000 patients on an annual basis. In addition to implementing START's mission and leading its programs, services and financial oversight, the CEO will manage and direct all aspects of day-to-day operations, including supervision of staff, development of management systems and procedures, and fiscal responsibility. As the chief spokesperson, representative and fundraiser of START, the CEO will also be responsible for marketing the organization and communicating with its various constituencies and funding sources (both private and public), other public health organizations, patients, and the general public. Dr. Brown's fight is personal. He's seen addiction and incarceration destroy many of his contemporaries in Brownsville, Brooklyn, where he was the first in his family to graduate from college. After serving in Vietnam and receiving his medical degree, he joined what was then the Addiction Research and Treatment Corporation. During his tenure, Dr. Brown has played a pivotal role in the development and success of START Treatment & Recovery Centers, always dedicated to ensuring that its patients — so many of whom are disenfranchised and marginalized — have access to behavioral health and opioid addiction services. Most recently, he masterfully led START through the COVID-19 pandemic, finding creative ways to continue providing care though teletherapy and medication delivery. ■ M D N E W S . C O M /// M D N E W S L O N G I S L A N D ■ 2 0 2 2 1 5

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