Mount Sinai’s Yvette Calderon, MD, MS, Receives Prestigious Award From Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
Top honor recognizes her commitment to justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion through scholarship, mentorship, and leadership
Yvette Calderon, MD, MS, Chair of Emergency Medicine at Mount Sinai Beth Israel and Professor of Emergency Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, has received the prestigious Sheryl Heron, MD, MPH Legacy Award from the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine’s Academy for Diversity and Inclusion in Emergency Medicine. She was presented with this honor during a special ceremony on Wednesday, May 15, at the SAEM Annual Meeting in Phoenix.
This annual award recognizes Dr. Calderon for her sustained commitment to the principles of justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion through scholarship, mentorship, and leadership. She is first Mount Sinai physician to receive this honor.
“It is an incredible honor to receive an award representing my lifelong dedication to ensuring justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion are reflected in my work and in all aspects of my life. Dr. Heron has devoted her career to raising attention to the need for equity and inclusion for people of color, notably women of color, to advance in academic medicine,” says Dr. Calderon who is also the Dean and Vice President for Equity in Clinical Care at Icahn Mount Sinai. “Dr. Heron said it best: This award is more about what you are building for the future than what you are leaving behind.”
Dr. Calderon, a first-generation Latina who grew up in public housing in New York City, has made a lifelong commitment to find solutions to address health care disparities and broaden access to equitable care for patients in the city.
She has made strong efforts to promote diversity in the field of medicine to better reflect the diverse patient population in New York City, with the goal of improving care starting in the emergency departments. She has further helped to improve quality of care and safety of patients by advancing health equity initiatives throughout Mount Sinai Emergency Departments. Dr. Calderon has analyzed quality metrics based on several demographics including race, ethnicity, and language; helped identify differences among certain populations based on those metrics; and helped implement interventions to address those differences.
A leading clinician and researcher in HIV and hepatitis prevention and harm reduction, Dr. Calderon has further addressed health disparities and providing equitable care for patients by working on screening interventions, best practices, and linkage to care models that target patients with hepatitis C, patients at high risk for HIV infection who would benefit from pre-exposure prophylaxis (also known as PrEP), and patients with an opioid or other substance use disorder. Dr. Calderon developed the first multimedia-based HIV testing and counseling program that has provided testing in the Emergency Department, in inpatient and dental settings, and at community pharmacies.
During her career, Dr. Calderon experienced first-hand the challenges of rising in the ranks of medicine as a woman of color and became determined to change this dynamic. She has led efforts to recruit and mentor medical students from groups underrepresented in the field, and developed pipeline programs that led members of underrepresented groups into medical fields. She also created faculty development programs that increased retention and promotion of under-represented groups within the academic programs. During her previous role of Vice-Chair of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for Emergency Medicine at Mount Sinai, she helped develop a dashboard highlighting opportunities to improve the representation of women and racially minoritized groups in academic and leadership roles. She also created the Women’s Leadership Program, which provides critical resources and connects women with leaders throughout the Mount Sinai Health System.
Dr. Calderon is the co-founder and a board member of Mentoring in Medicine, a nonprofit organization dedicated to mentoring high school, college, and medical students. She is a board member of the Latino Commission on AIDS, as well as the American Board of Emergency Medicine. Dr. Calderon is also a member of the prestigious National Academy of Medicine.
About the Mount Sinai Health System
Mount Sinai Health System is one of the largest academic medical systems in the New York metro area, with 48,000 employees working across eight hospitals, more than 400 outpatient practices, more than 600 research and clinical labs, a school of nursing, and a leading school of medicine and graduate education. Mount Sinai advances health for all people, everywhere, by taking on the most complex health care challenges of our time—discovering and applying new scientific learning and knowledge; developing safer, more effective treatments; educating the next generation of medical leaders and innovators; and supporting local communities by delivering high-quality care to all who need it.
Through the integration of its hospitals, labs, and schools, Mount Sinai offers comprehensive health care solutions from birth through geriatrics, leveraging innovative approaches such as artificial intelligence and informatics while keeping patients’ medical and emotional needs at the center of all treatment. The Health System includes approximately 9,000 primary and specialty care physicians and 11 free-standing joint-venture centers throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, Long Island, and Florida. Hospitals within the System are consistently ranked by Newsweek’s® “The World’s Best Smart Hospitals, Best in State Hospitals, World Best Hospitals and Best Specialty Hospitals” and by U.S. News & World Report's® “Best Hospitals” and “Best Children’s Hospitals.” The Mount Sinai Hospital is on the U.S. News & World Report® “Best Hospitals” Honor Roll for 2024-2025.
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