CATHERINE ENGLEBERT NANCY HAGANS

President, New York State Nurses Association

REACH: More than 42,000 NYSNA members

WHAT’S NEXT: Advocate higher salaries and bene ts for New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation nurses state

ASK NANCY HAGANS which accomplishments she’s most proud of, and she talks not about herself, but about the more than 42,000 nurses in New York state whose needs and interests she ghts for.

“I am most proud of our members,” Hagans said. “At the height of the pandemic, they went to work every day, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, without personal protective equipment, without a vaccine. We decided to put everyone ahead of us, and we saved the city of New York.”

“I am most proud of our members,” Hagans said. “At the height of the pandemic, they went to work every day, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, without personal protective equipment, without a vaccine. We decided to put everyone ahead of us,

Hagans, president of the New York State Nurses Association, started her nursing career in 1990 in the surgical intensive care unit at Maimonides Medical Center. In 1993 she became president of the collective-bargaining unit for NYSNA nurses at the Brooklyn hospital. In 2021 she was elected president of NYSNA. In the past year she has achieved some important victories, including the passage of a statewide safe-sta ng law that mandates sta ng levels at all hospitals—and makes those numbers public. More than that, after strikes this year at Mount Sinai Health Network and Monte ore Medical Center and a potential strike at Northwell Health, NYSNA was able to forge agreements with the hospitals regarding sta ng and better wages and bene ts.

She is working on pay equity for nurses at the city’s public hospitals.

“For 2023, our priority is to make sure that when every nurse walks into a facility they have proper nurse-patient ratios, pay equity and great medical coverage,” Hagans said. “It is the most risky and dangerous job in the world. is is my journey, and I will continue to see it through.”

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