PRESS RELEASE—Berkshire Regional Planning Commission awards 2023 Charles Kusik Award to Ilana Steinhauer

Pittsfield, MA — Berkshire Regional Planning Commission is pleased to announce Ilana Steinhauer, FNP, Executive Director of Volunteers in Medicine, as the 2023 Charles Kusik Award Winner. The Kusik Award recognizes outstanding contributions to Berkshire County. Ilana has led Volunteers in Medicine (VIM) since 2014 as the Executive Director and Director of Medical Services. Under Ilana’s leadership, VIM has increasingly considered the social determinants of health (housing, education, food security, employment, childcare, etc.) as key components of an individual or family’s health.  

The Charles Kusik Award was instituted to recognize projects, groups, or individuals who have made outstanding contributions to planning in Berkshire County. BRPC inaugurated the Kusik Award in 1996 to honor Charles Kusik, a resident of the Town of Richmond, who, for over three decades, placed his expert imprint on the zoning bylaws of nearly every town in the Berkshires as a volunteer “citizen planner.” 

Ilana Steinhauer will be recognized at the joint BRPC and Berkshire County Selectman’s Association Annual Meeting Reception on October 5, 2023, 4:00 – 6:00 p.m. at Berkshire Hills Country Club in Pittsfield. Tickets are $25 per person and are available online through www.berkshireplanning.org or by calling 413-442-1521 x10.  

Volunteers in Medicine currently serves 1,700 uninsured patients, 90% of whom are immigrants. Their patient population has grown rapidly in recent years, with 400 new patients in 2022 and an expected 500 new patients in 2023. VIM’s patients range from newly arrived asylum seekers who need lifesaving care, to veterans who need dental work, to essential workers who have lived here for decades. VIM manages this patient load with 17 staff members and more than 170 clinical and non-clinical volunteers who donate more than 10,000 hours annually.  

VIM’s model is unlike traditional medical practices: through personal connection and health care that integrates patients’ clinical, social, and economic needs, VIM disrupts systemic barriers to health equity. It works toward a society where everyone has an equal opportunity for a healthy life. Patients get personalized care, first with a medical professional who addresses their clinical needs, followed by a medical assistant who explains how to follow the care plan. Finally, patients meet with one of VIM’s Community Health Workers, who address any additional factors affecting their health, such as housing, food security, and employment, allowing families and individuals to integrate into the community successfully. Through this model of comprehensive, holistic care, VIM avoids up to 92% of the hospitalizations expected for the populations they serve.  

Ilana first moved to the Berkshires in 2006 after graduating from Wesleyan University. She began interning at Volunteers in Medicine and quickly realized she wanted to do patient care with this population. After taking pre-requisites at Berkshire Community College, Ilana moved to the Boston area to complete her Nurse Practitioner degree and began her career as a nurse with The Medical Group/Harvard Vanguard Associates-Beverly, MA. In 2014, Ilana moved with her family (including 1-year-old twin boys) back to the Berkshires to become Executive Director at VIM. Bilingual in Spanish, Ilana continues to provide direct patient care in addition to being the Executive Director. 

Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, under Ilana’s leadership, VIM ensured that not a single one of their patients died or was hospitalized from Covid. VIM added hundreds of new patients, provided $500,000 to patients to help with rent, food, and utilities, and developed a hybrid in-person and telehealth patient treatment model, teaching patients how to set up Zoom on their smartphones. VIM provided stipends to patients when they contracted Covid-19 and needed to stay home, and they arranged childcare during the summer so parents could continue working. 98% of VIM’s patients are fully vaccinated. These efforts helped the entire community by limiting the burden on the local hospital system and keeping the workforce healthy so businesses could keep operating. 

Recently, with the recognition that more than half of their patient population comes from Pittsfield and other central and north county municipalities, and with patient growth of 40% annually, VIM launched a strategic planning process to create additional capacity in both Great Barrington and Pittsfield. To accommodate this growth, VIM officially launched Care Works: The VIM Impact Campaign on June 2—a $10 million campaign to open a new VIM Care Center in Pittsfield, renovate and expand the Great Barrington Care Center, and create a fund to ensure VIM’s impact for years to come. Allegrone Construction has begun renovations at 199 South Street in Pittsfield, with plans to open the center in November. 

Despite the demands of running such a large organization and spearheading the new campaign, Ilana continues to make a mark in the larger community. She works with numerous organizations to help ensure collaboration, reduce duplication and fill gaps. Ilana was one of the founders of The Berkshire Alliance to Support the Immigrant Community (BASIC), a group of 15-20 agencies in the Berkshires that work with the growing immigrant community. BASIC meets monthly to identify specific immigrant needs and the appropriate agency to address each need to avoid duplication and increase collaboration and coordination. Ilana is also a board member of the Southern Berkshire Rural Health Collaborative, Lee Bank, and the Public Health Institute of Western Mass, and a member of the County Health Initiative (CHI), among other organizations. 

About BRPC: 

Berkshire Regional Planning Commission is the regional planning agency for Berkshire County, Massachusetts. BRPC assists the thirty-two Berkshire cities and towns in diverse topics, including community and economic development, community planning, data and information services, regional services, and planning related to emergency preparedness, environmental and energy, public health, and transportation.