Shout-Outs to Staff

If you’d like to submit kudos about a NYCHA staff person, please send an email to nychanow@nycha.nyc.gov.

Shawn Collymore, Supervisor of Housing Grounds, Jackie Robinson Houses:

“In the two years I’ve spent at Jackie Robinson Houses, I’ve gained a very strong appreciation for the hard work and dedication of my colleagues. I came here from Jacob Riis Houses, which also had an excellent team. When I arrived at Jackie Robinson, we worked on changing the culture to make a big difference for residents – by making playground work and snow removal top priorities, for example. Thanks to the efforts of caretakers like Mr. Reggie Kelly, our ‘Neighborhood’ is like the Top Gun of groundskeeping, always getting the mission accomplished. I love NYCHA; it’s been my life since I started through the Summer Youth Employment Program, continuing my journey as Assistant Superintendent, and now serving as Supervisor of Housing Grounds. Thank you to everyone in the NYCHA community who continues to inspire me.”

From a resident of Monroe Houses:

I am a tenant who resides in the James Monroe New York City Housing Authority complex in the Bronx. I feel that all of the NYCHA Caretakers do not get enough praise and compliments for their hard work and the conditions which they have to work around. I would like to commend the outstanding work Ms. Judith Waite does for the building I reside in. I do recognize her cleaning techniques and wonderful aroma she always leaves around the building (that is how I know when she is on duty). I always try to be the person that gives you praise for what you are doing right…I try not to take simple things for granted or overlook the small things (my mother taught me a quote from Maya Angelou: “People will never forget how you made them feel”). Again, thank you to all the James Monroe NYCHA Caretakers, especially Ms. Judith Waite.

-T.R.

From Sue Ellen Doria, Management Trainer in the Human Resources Department:

I would like to give a shout-out to the entire Learning & Development team! I think most of us are familiar with the famous “pivot” episode of Friends — that’s exactly what the entire Learning & Development team did once we were on lockdown. All the training units got together along with our fabulous leaders, Cherry McCutchen and Gil Mazon, and quickly “pivoted” in terms of how our training classes would look in the COVID-era, utilizing MS Teams and Zoom. We were able to still provide the Authority with our exceptional training albeit in a whole new dimension.

Kudos to the Learning & Development Team:

Cherry McCutchen – Director of Learning & Development
Gil Mazon – Assistant Director of Learning & Devleopment

MPD/Computer Unit:
Grace Barreto
Zatarsha Barrett
Sandra Braithwaite
Nanette Campbell
Anne Cheng
Lisa Clavery
Sue Ellen Doria
Yvonne Jones
Daisy Parrilla
Linda Puran
Helen Reinstein
Jerrani Stephens
Teresa Valentina

Janitorial/Grounds Unit:
Alex Pabon
Jason Stram
Brian Harris
Pablo Tapia
Norma Williams
Zulma Solivan
Jerry Burke

Maintenance Unit:
Ernesto Rodriguez
Tammy Kirkland
Rafael Martinez
Jose Valle
Margarita Mojica
Rodney McNeil

Heating Unit:
Anya James
Lewis Prono
Dawn Blake
Francis Albert

From Shelisa Reid, Property Manager of Wyckoff Gardens:

Through this pandemic, the staff at Wyckoff/Atlantic Terminal Houses have been giving it their all. Through the adversities of dealing with a shortage of staff and protecting themselves, their families as well as the residents from getting exposure during the pandemic, they have exceeded beyond expectations.

They are there stripping floors, cleaning walls, making the grounds and buildings look great. They have never given up.

The maintenance staff have gone beyond the call of duty to find and repair the numerous leaks. The management office staff has been onboard to help the residents with the interims and annuals to assist during the hardship that some were experiencing.

As the Manager, it is great to receive praise for my work but it is even better when I can praise my supervisory staff, management staff, caretakers and maintenance staff for their work. A good leader is only as good as the staff she supervises.

Thank you to my staff for doing a great job.

A special kudos to my Property Maintenance Supervisor Bea’na Alston. She has been there through the pandemic – never teleworking – and doing a 6:00am – 4:30pm shift daily to assist with the daily operation of the development.

She’s there helping with maintenance and management. She’s a true team player and gives it her all.

I thank her for having my back and walking side by side with me to get things done.

March is National Social Work Month! Kudos to NYCHA Social Worker Ruth Freeman from Horace Miller, Supervisor in the Family Partnerships Department:

Ruth, Freeman has been a Social Worker in the Manhattan Family Partnerships Department for the past five years. She considers it a privilege to respond and work with our NYCHA residents each day. It also has a more deeper meaning to her as a social worker as well as her colleagues. Ms. Freeman collaborates with other NYCHA departments (i.e., Compliance , Law Department, and Applications and Tenancy Administration). This reminds her that her role has a purpose and meaning which impacts the daily lives of our residents.

The opportunity to make a difference was certainly presented to Ruth on February 5, 2021. She was asked to be on-site for a family move to a temporary apartment. Ruth believes we “educate staff and outside community organizations; a referral for services is important, despite the challenges.” However, it’s a team effort and Ruth has proven she is up for the challenges.

This was no different the day of February 5, where Ruth coordinated with Chief Compliance Officer Daniel Greene, MAYA Moving Company, and the LaGuardia Houses Property Management team. Ruth had engaged the head of household earlier to gain their trust, which allowed a smooth transition with the move. Ruth was able to assess the family dynamics instantly. Her assessment skills allowed the Chief Compliance Officer to help reach their goals.

The family move required patience, guidance, and skillful coordination, which was demonstrated by Ruth. The head of household later praised NYCHA staff and the movers for their excellent team approach. Mission accomplished.

On behalf of the Manhattan Family Partnerships team, and the other Family Partnerships boroughs, we cannot thank Ruth enough for a job well done!!!

Kudos for Social Worker Jesús Lebrón from Modestine Rogers, Queens/Staten Island Administrator of the Family Partnerships Department:

Family Partnerships Department (FPD) Social Worker Jesús Lebrón has been assisting Ana Cruz, an 87-year-old Spanish-speaking resident of Todt Hill Houses, with several matters. Ms. Cruz was referred to the FPD for assistance with obtaining a COVID-19 test. Ms. Cruz, who lives alone, was recently informed by her homecare agency that her home health aide had tested positive for the virus and that they would have to suspend services temporarily, due to the possibility that too many clients have been exposed. Ms. Cruz’s daughter, who lives in Florida, expressed concerns about her mother and the COVID-19-related symptoms she had been experiencing. Mr. Lebrón subsequently contacted staff at the NYC Department for the Aging (the community agency for senior citizens) and senior staff at Ms. Cruz’s homecare agency to secure assistance for Ms. Cruz. Ms. Cruz has ambulation issues and, according to her daughter, would need hands-on assistance as she undergoes the process of getting tested and, possibly, vaccinated. To ensure Ms. Cruz had ample food in the home while quarantining, Mr. Lebrón enrolled her in the GetFoodNYC emergency food program.

Mr. Lebrón also provided Ms. Cruz’s daughter with contact information to the Jewish Community Center’s caregiver program and Staten Island legal services. Ultimately, Mr. Lebrón learned from Ms. Cruz’s daughter that her homecare agency has resumed services for Ms. Cruz, now that she is no longer quarantining and is feeling well. Mr. Lebrón provided Ms. Cruz’s daughter with the addresses and contact information to local COVID-19 testing sites, and the web address www.vaccinefinder.nyc.gov, should vaccination be warranted. Ms. Cruz and her daughter are grateful for Mr. Lebron’s continuous intervention. As Ms. Cruz’s daughter stated, “ I am writing to express my sincere gratitude in Jesus Lebron’s help in my mother’s (Ana Cruz) crisis. Mr. Lebron handled my mother’s immediate issues with compassion, professionalism and expediency.  I endeavor to make Mr. Lebron’s superiors aware of his exemplary work ethics, which rise above and beyond expectations. Thank you.”

Kudos for Community Associate Larissa Shpitko from a Brooklyn NYCHA resident:

My name is Lyudmila Dubravina. I live on 3058 W 24th St, Brooklyn, NY 11224. I would like to take this opportunity to express my thanks and appreciation for Larissa Shpitko. She was generous and consistent with attending to all my needs and supporting me throughout the housing process.

I recently received a studio in the Carey Gardens/Haber House development after waiting a long time on the waiting list and I am very happy there. Larissa has helped me immensely throughout the process. She paid me a lot of attention and I have a very good relationship with her. She thoroughly explained how I needed to prepare my documents. And she always carefully answered any questions I had. I am glad such an employee exists in this company and I wish her success moving forward.

Again, thank you, and I would be pleased to recommend her to anyone who asks about it.

Vivian Gill, in the Public Housing Operations Housing Court Unit, sent along kudos to Nymiah Branch, Property Maintenance Supervisor at Red Hook Houses West:

“When I saw you featured on Connect, I thought WOW, so true. I remember that you helped me to understand a piece of Maximo that I’m using to do special assignments – you went the extra mile to help me. KUDOS to you! We need more like you in NYCHA.”

Manuel Martinez, South Jamaica Houses Resident Council President, commended Community Coordinator Adriane Curry in a letter to NYCHA:

With our sincere appreciation, the South Jamaica Houses Resident Association is commending the professionalism, dependability, resourcefulness, and genuine concern for the success of our organization demonstrated by Community Coordinator Adriane Curry.

It was Mrs. Curry’s outstanding performance during the COVID-19 health pandemic that assisted the South Jamaica Houses Resident Association to provide access to personal protective equipment for the 1,046 families we serve. Mrs. Curry’s resourcefulness connected us with a quick turnaround on 1,100 empty eight ounce bottles and other PPE supplies, the facilitation of a healthcare professional to discuss best practices for the event, as well as dedicating her personal time to assist in placing a PPE Supply Kit on every doorknob at South Jamaica Houses.

Mrs. Curry’s professionalism and dependability has been a consistent beacon of assurance prior to the COVID- 19 pandemic as she facilitated her knowledge of best practices and procedures when dealing with the New York City Housing Authority ‘s (NYCHA) protocol for funding distribution, as well as making available her experience in the provision of sound advice.

Mrs. Curry has been an asset to the South Jamaica Houses Resident Association as a collective and to the resident council officers that serve on its board.  It has been these efforts that demonstrate what the value of cooperation with NYCHA can be.  With this commendation we extend our appreciation and the recognition of the value she has been to our community.

From Craig Bonney, Deputy Chief Operating Officer, NYC Emergency Management (NYCEM):

“I want to express our gratitude for the efforts of the two members of your team, Temporary Stock Workers Juanita Rojas and Matthew Bullen, who have been helping us for the last few weeks. They were critical to the City’s efforts to supply thousands of air conditioners to elderly and needy families who needed to beat the heat this summer. They assisted our team with unloading AC units from trucks sent by vendors and loading other trucks that were being sent out to do deliveries. And they joined other City employees from HPD and DCAS in delivering the AC units to the apartment buildings where they would be installed. Our team that worked directly with them said they were enthusiastic and hard working.” 

Rudolph Chase, President of the Breukelen Resident Community Council (BRCC), reached out to a NYCHA property manager to praise staff at his development:

Dear Patricia Williams-Brewster,

I want to take some time to praise and recognize the great work of the following Breukelen Houses caretakers for their commitment, hard work and diligence in their duties to the residents of Breukelen Houses.

Caretakers Whitney Moore, Dale Payne, Zanier Gorham and Yanna Diaz continue to remain positive under the circumstances and do a great job cleaning their buildings and surrounding areas. They greet the residents with pleasantries and respect. With the limited resources here at Breukelen Houses, they continue to get the work done. They are examples of what many of our residents are expecting from the caretakers. Again, I want to praise and thank these individuals for their commitment, hard work and diligence to the residents of Breukelen Houses. 

Sincerely,

Rudolph Chase

BRCC President

From Patrick O’Hagan, Vice President of Environmental Health and Safety:

“I would like to take a moment to recognize the men and women of the Environmental Health and Safety Department. 

“Throughout this crisis, they have provided immeasurable support to our colleagues and residents. Whether it was providing clear guidance to front-line personnel on very complex issues, monitoring the work of vendors to create safer environments for residents, or developing new reporting tools, their calm and professionalism has been amazing. 

“I am quite honored to be part of this team.”

Kudos to various NYCHA staff in Administration:

Customer Contact Center

• Gina Mitchell: Does an excellent job training our new hires. Recently we needed to train the staff from the Walk-in Centers located in Brooklyn and the Bronx. When called upon, Ms. Mitchell answered the call without hesitation. She is now commuting from New Jersey to Brooklyn to train the staff on how to create a Maintenance Service Request and will also be going to the Bronx to do the same. This is beyond the call of duty.  

• Michael Ashby: Does an excellent job training our new hires. He has been reporting to work diligently and has been instrumental in training our Leased Housing Department staff and getting them on the phone to handle Maintenance Service Request at a much-needed time.  

• Dominic Wyche: Has been instrumental in helping supervisory staff in an all-around effort. He helped man the NYCHA information line and helped with various reports needed on a day-to-day basis.

• Nafeesa Abdur-Rahman: Has been helping to keep the office running smoothly amid this crisis. She has been enforcing safe practices in addition to her other supervisory functions.

• Shiv Choythani/Raphael Vasquez: Our supervisory night warriors. Diligent, efficient, reliable, and flexible, they have been continuing our customer service efforts in the evening, dealing with residents’ emergency issues while ensuring safe practices among staff and addressing their concerns. They have kept the wheels turning with or without full staffing. A commendable effort on their part.

• Carlos Cordova/Enrique Parajon: Have been overseeing the NYCHA Call Center, handling a multiplicity of tasks (putting in extra hours to do so). They created an environment of calm and order, as part of the effort to provide much-needed customer service to both our internal and external customers.

General Services Department (GSD)

• Veronica Richardson: Has been doing a bit of everything for GSD during this emergency situation. She has truly become GSD’s “Swiss army knife,” one person who does it all:
  • Moving NYCHA correspondence back and forth among the three main Central Office locations (250 Broadway, 90 Church Street, and Long Island City);
  • Handling special pick-ups, such as going to FedEx locations in both Brooklyn and Manhattan;
  • Staffing the 90 Church Street and the LIC mailrooms to sort and distribute mail to various NYCHA departments; and
  • Handling numerous mail and print tasks across multiple locations.

• Francis James: Has shown up each day at Fleet Services to operate the NYCHA flatbed tow trucks. He has made himself available every day and has answered the call again and again.
  • He picks up horticultural equipment from the developments, connects them to the flatbeds, and tows them to various vendors for servicing; he then returns the repaired equipment to the developments.
  • He attends to out-of-service vehicles across the five boroughs, towing them to service shops for repairs.

Human Resources

• Steven Crawford, Secretary: Has provided steady administrative support to Human Resources throughout the COVID-19 crisis as the department’s on-site staff member, helping the rest of the members of the HR team perform work remotely. Steven has been the go-to ready resource to provide needed information, distribute computers, restart workstations, and many other tasks that make telework possible. During these trying times, Steven has remained his good natured, mild-mannered self, always providing service with a smile. His work is very much appreciated. 

• Harvey Chaitoff, Assistant Director of HR for Placement: Has tirelessly put in round-the-clock hours while working remotely to plan and enable HR to continue to fill NYCHA’s most critical positions as quickly as possible, including the current initiative to onboard several hundred emergency per diem workers. His efforts to build teams, communicate, and motivate, even during the most challenging of times, have been his strengths, and his experience, good judgment, sensitivity, attention to detail, dedication, and effectiveness in getting the job done, have proven him to be a most valuable asset throughout the COVID-19 crisis, and undoubtedly for the transition and eventual return to normal operations. 

Department of Real Estate Services

• Kerry Frazier, Electrician: Responded to two separate incidents related to the LIC data center after normal business hours:
  • One was related to an electrical issue, with him spending several hours on site, coordinating with various entities (both internal and external), including the landlord and the landlord’s construction team.
    • Mr. Frazier’s knowledge and familiarity of the data center infrastructure allowed him to identify the point of failure (faulty electrical transformer) and work with the necessary parties to correct services, all while communicating and updating multiple NYCHA departments on the situation, including IT (which was impacted).
  • The second was HVAC related. Equipment failed, sending out a High Temperature alarm to our IT department, which in turn notified the Department of Real Estate Services. Mr. Frazier and Eddie Serrano were both contacted and responded to the site, working together to assess and identify the cause of the problem. Once again, their familiarity of systems allowed them to work with our mechanical vendor as well as the landlord’s mechanical contractor to quickly identify the cause and restore cooling, preventing IT systems from failing.

Kudos to Adiba Chowdhury, Legislative Coordinator in the Office of Intergovernmental Relations, from Brian Honan, Vice President of Intergovernmental Relations, and Erin Burns-Maine, Deputy Director of Intergovernmental Relations:

“Since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, Adiba has worked tirelessly to communicate important information out to community leaders, partners, and elected offices. She is responsible for sending COVID-19 response newsletters every 48 hours. After witnessing the hard work and goodwill of so many during this crisis, Adiba created the “NYCHA Heroes” program to acknowledge community groups, tenant leaders, and staff going above-and-beyond. Adiba has also organized and led webinars to disseminate important information to a broad group of external stakeholders and also coordinated an effort to expand meal opportunities for NYCHA residents in the Bronx.“

From the IT Department:

IT would like to recognize the Desktop Support and IT Asset Management teams as NYCHA Heroes, assisting in keeping staff safe and adhering to social distancing. Under the leadership of the persons named below, the teams were able to procure, receive, and inventory close to 900 laptops for NYCHA’s telecommuting staff during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic while supplies are extremely limited. The group continues to work tirelessly – on-site at 90 Church Street – to distribute units to NYCHA staff in need of this pivotal equipment. The group also provides essential support to IT Service Center staff who help NYCHA’s nearly 2,000 VPN users navigate access to their PC’s and/or critical business applications.

Kudos to:

• Francesco Cavaleri
• Frank Iannone
• William Rapelye
• William Carter

Octavia Hayward, Manhattan Property Management Director, praised Lehman Village Superintendent Althea Frontin:

“Whether it’s 6:00 a.m or 7:00 p.m, any day of the week including weekends, she is there. All leadership qualities, her work ethic and camaraderie with both staff and residents, is a benefit to the success of anywhere she goes. Her diligence and professionalism has impressed me and our entire Manhattan team immensely, and we deem ourselves honored to have her on our team.”

Rudolph Chase, President of the Breukelen Resident Community Council (BRCC), reached out to a NYCHA property manager to praise staff at his development:

Dear Patricia Williams,

During these trying times, as we try to adjust our lives to this new way of life with this pandemic, I understand the strain that NYCHA workers are under. I know the strain because I speak with other Resident Association leaders from other NYCHA developments across the City of New York and on various conference calls. Nevertheless, I want to commend the Supervisors of Caretakers (SOC) for their commitment to our residents. 

SOC Leslie and SOC Cliff motivate their staff to stay positive under the circumstances. Additionally, with the limited staff and resources here at Breukelen Houses, they are walking around the development ensuring that all of the buildings are clean and the service is continued to be provided to the residents of Breukelen Houses.

Again, I want to commend and thank these two gentlemen for their hard work, commitment and leadership.  

Thank you,

Rudolph Chase, BRCC President

Leonard Jones, President of the Fenimore/Lefferts Resident Association, sent a letter to NYCHA thanking Resident Coordinator Jacqueline Howard for her service. 

“Ms. Howard has been our go-to person ever since she became our resident engagement coordinator. Most recently, she has been checking up on us frequently, making sure we are taking the necessary precautions during these times, and providing contact/resources for whatever needs we may be facing, and we truly appreciate this. It is not a surprise that she does this, this is normal for Ms. Howard. This is who she is. I have to say, job well done, always. Ms. Howard is truly an asset to our organizations and NYCHA.”

Complimenting Karen Moye, Baruch Houses Housing Manager: