Patricia McColley is chamber’s Business Person of the Year

The Franklin Square Chamber of Commerce has named chamber member Patricia McColley Business Person of the Year for her work with Long Island Jewish Valley Stream hospital.

A five-person committee made up of chamber president Lisa DelliPizzi, previous honorees and chamber members selected McColley for the honor. The nominee must be an active member of the Chamber and have made a significant contribution to the local economy or the welfare of the local community.

“We felt that Patricia McColley was the most qualified member of the Franklin Square Chamber of Commerce to receive this honor,” DelliPizzi said. “The integrity of this award is very important to me.”

McColley started her career at Northwell Health in 2012 as the patient experience manager for South Shore University Hospital in Bay Shore. In 2016, she accepted a position as program manager on the Northwell corporate community relations team in Islip.

In 2019, as a program manager for the central region, McColley was asked to help build relationships for LIJ Valley Stream and the communities it serves while also assisting the corporate team in leading larger corporate events. “What we do at Northwell is work in the communities that we serve by looking out for their wellness, improving their ability to find food, and doing screenings that help with improving their overall health,” McColley said. “We focus on communities near and dear to LIJ Valley Stream that really can use some support through health screenings and education.”

One of her first projects in her new role at LIJ Valley Stream was to build a relationship with Baldwin High School. McColley is now a program manager for the community and population health team and has spent the last three years at LIJ Valley Stream assisting in and helping create community contacts and connections.

“My role during that time was to help them get the word out through a lot of community interaction, community involvement and community health screenings but with Covid that was impossible,” McColley said. “We had to take LIJ Valley Stream hospital into the community and sort of describe what was happening there during the transition.”

McColley has been on the front line of the pandemic, testing and vaccinating for both Covid and monkeypox across Long Island for the past two and a half years while maintaining essential community-focused programs for the hospital.

With an eventful year providing vaccinations for the flu, Covid and monkeypox, McColley described what she is most proud of from the past year.

“For me to go out into communities like Franklin Square, Elmont and Inwood, which are all within our catchment area for LIJ Valley Stream, and to provide health screenings, including diabetic glucose screenings, out in the community this year was a big deal,” McColley said.

“We’ve never tested glucose testing before and as a result of the data that we collected back during vaccinations and testing, it was found that some of these communities had a higher rate of diabetes,” she added. “Now we’re creating programs in the central region, which includes Franklin Square, that helps focus on that, including working with supermarkets and other programs to create a healthier environment for these communities.”

McColley lives in Bay Shore and not only had to learn about Franklin Square, Valley Stream and Elmont but much of Nassau County and is grateful to the chamber for recognizing the work that she has done at LIJ Valley Stream.

“I think it’s amazing to me because it’s a job that I love to do, and then to be honored for it, it’s just, it’s mind-blowing to me,” McColley said. “Being a board member in a chamber is a responsible position,” she added. “To support the town in a way that makes you go out and meet people, and they know who you are and they know how to reach you, you can effect change.”