Two NYC Health + Hospitals Executives Named to Schneps Media ‘Power Women’ List
Machelle Allen, MD and Talya Schwartz, MD are among the prominent women recognized for their remarkable careers and care for New Yorkers
Aug 31, 2022
NYC Health + Hospitals today announced that its Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer, Machelle Allen, MD, and Talya Schwartz, MD, President and CEO of its health plan, MetroPlusHealth, have been named to the Schneps Media ‘Power Women’ list published in amNY Metro and PoliticsNY. Both executives are recognized for their efforts to improve the lives of New Yorkers, to create opportunities for women in the workforce, and for being mentors to future generations of young women.
“It is such a great honor to be recognized alongside these truly remarkable women of New York,” said NYC Health + Hospitals Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer Machelle Allen, MD. “I am humbled.”
“It’s an honor to be recognized by PoliticsNY and amNY Metro as one of their Power Women,” said MetroPlusHealth President and CEO Talya Schwartz, MD. “Congratulations to my fellow honorees and their efforts in improving the lives of all New Yorkers.”
Dr. Allen is Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of NYC Health + Hospitals. She previously served as the health care system’s interim CMO, and prior to that as Deputy CMO.
A longstanding veteran of the health care system, Dr. Allen completed her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at NYC Health + Hospitals/Jacobi, worked as an attending physician at Harlem and Bellevue hospitals, and served as the Associate Medical Director at Bellevue until 2013.
Dr. Allen has devoted her career to helping marginalized and underserved patients. Her early career was devoted to women who suffered from addiction or were at risk for HIV infection during their pregnancies. While women’s health and birth outcomes remain a passion, Dr. Allen’s role as CMO for NYC Health + Hospitals has broadened her impact to include deepening and strengthening all of the clinical service lines. In response to the unprecedented demand for laboratory services during the most recent health emergencies of Ebola, Zika, COVID-19, and Monkeypox, Dr. Allen established an Office of Clinical Operations. It is this office which instituted surveillance of the health care system’s wastewater for emerging infections. Dr. Allen also created a systemwide Office of Women’s Health Services. Under this aegis, the NYC Health + Hospitals Maternal Medical Home was “birthed” – one of the firsts in New York State. In response to the mental health crisis seen in New York City during the pandemic, NYC Health + Hospitals launched the B-HEARD (Behavioral Health Emergency Assistance Response Division) program under Dr. Allen’s leadership, which deploys social workers along with EMS personnel as first responders, in lieu of police officers.
Dr. Allen is a graduate of Cornell University and the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine.
An experienced leader in health plan management and operations, Dr. Talya Schwartz was appointed President & CEO of MetroPlusHealth in 2019. During her tenure, MetroPlusHealth has achieved a 35% growth in membership, a five-star rating from New York State’s Consumer Guide, and an increase in overall net worth. Dr. Schwartz’s ongoing commitment to addressing the social determinants of health among New York’s most vulnerable communities is the pinnacle of her leadership — actively ensuring that MetroPlusHealth remains at the forefront of supporting its members through holistic, field-based care. Internally, she has prioritized and implemented a tech-first approach to streamlining company operations — working closely with the executive team to transform the remote workforce ability and accelerate market growth through the launch of telehealth and other virtual platforms.
Prior to her appointment, Dr. Schwartz served as the CMO at MetroPlusHealth and in the private sector where she was the founding member of a behavioral health technology startup company. She was a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Pennsylvania and served as a Fellow at the National Institutes of Health. A trained physician, Dr. Schwartz earned her medical degree from the Sackler School of Medicine, completed her residency in Pediatrics at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York, and practiced at the Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, DC. She holds a graduate certificate in Health Services Management and Leadership from George Washington University.
Contact: 212-788-3339; PressOffice@nychhc.org
About NYC Health + Hospitals
NYC Health + Hospitals is the largest municipal health care system in the nation serving more than a million New Yorkers annually in more than 70 patient care locations across the city’s five boroughs. A robust network of outpatient, neighborhood-based primary and specialty care centers anchors care coordination with the system’s trauma centers, nursing homes, post-acute care centers, home care agency, and MetroPlus health plan—all supported by 11 essential hospitals. Its diverse workforce of more than 43,000 employees is uniquely focused on empowering New Yorkers, without exception, to live the healthiest life possible. For more information, visit www.nychealthandhospitals.org and stay connected on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/NYCHealthandHospitals or Twitter at @NYCHealthSystem.