Get your tickets today to join us Thursday, May 28th to celebrate our Community Activists to be announced at the reception, and Dr. Alec Pruchnicki, Dr. Julie Wegener, Our Bronx, our single payer champions!
MEET DR. ALEC PRUCHNICKI
Dr. Alec Pruchnicki began his scientific career as a graduate student at CUNY, studying aging in fruit flies. He realized that he would be better equipped to study human aging if he went to medical school, so he attended the Albert Einstein College of Medicine where his interest in progressive issues turned toward the inequities in healthcare.
A friend had attended medical school in Italy and both he and Alec realized how Italy’s universal system was far more just than our’s. In addition, Alec saw how Medicare and the VA worked more efficiently, so it became clear to him that our for-profit health insurance industry needed to be replaced by a public nonprofit single payer system. He understands how privatization is the antithesis of equity, inclusion, and quality.
Alec was involved in the “Physicians for Social Responsibility” and when he returned to NYC from a geriatric fellowship at UCLA in 1990, he coincidentally received a letter to attend a PNHP meeting at Columbia University. 
Alec connected so profoundly with the discussion at that meeting that he has committed the past 35 years to working with PNHP NY Metro to achieve healthcare reform.
We are so proud to give Alec the PNHP NY Metro Health Justice Award this year for his life-long commitment to an equitable single payer healthcare system in our country.
Secure your ticket to join us in Celebrating Single Payer Champions on Thursday, May 28th, and raise a toast to this year's dedicated health justice champions, including Dr. Alec Pruchnicki, Dr. Julie Wegener, and Our Bronx!
Can't join us? You can donate in Dr. Pruchnicki's honor here.
MEET DR. JULIE WEGENER
In medical school, she was a strong advocate for socialized medicine and vividly recalls a professor teaching about “flawed research” for profit by the pharmaceutical industry. Upon graduation, students were given a black “doctor’s bag” containing medical equipment, but Julie refused it because of its inscription, “Eli Lilly”.
Although she was already a member of PNHP National, Julie's involvement locally began in 2016. She contacted PNHP NY Metro and when she learned about the New York Health Act (NYHA), and was hooked. She started a single payer committee within “Uptown4Bernie” (later renamed Uptown Progressive Action, a NYPAN chapter), became a staunch community organizer collaborating with activists, politicians and businesses, hosted town halls, and even established a bilingual NYHA team. She moved to Ithaca in 2024 and continues to organize for the NYHA upstate as a valued Board Member of PNHP NY Metro.
Julie truly practiced the “ART OF MEDICINE” in every sense of the word. She trained at LA County USC Medical Center as a psychiatrist, was also boarded in Family Medicine and is an extraordinary musician. She practiced both specialties and taught psychiatric aspects of medical illness in three Family Medicine residency programs, while also teaching piano!Julie was the founder and president of “Arts for Peace” whose mission was to raise consciousness about peace and social justice though the arts to inspire activism. Another project of Julie’s, “Piano a la Cart”, involved a piano mounted on a flatbed trailer for outdoor performances in public parks to fund organizations for peace. She was the NYC coordinator for the MusicLink Foundation which provides music lessons to students from low-income families.
Julie’s humanitarian contributions to medicine, music and the arts along with her commitment to fight for universal healthcare; Medicare for All and the NY Health Act have been so extraordinary that we could not be prouder to honor Julie with our Lifetime Achievement Award.
Secure your ticket to join us in Celebrating Single Payer Champions on Thursday, May 28th, and raise a toast to this year's dedicated health justice champions, including Dr. Julie Wegener, Dr. Alec Pruchnicki, and Our Bronx!
Can't join us? You can donate in Dr. Julie Wegener's honor here.
MEET OUR BRONX
When it comes to building power by and for the people OUR BRONX simply cannot be beat!
OUR BRONX, formerly known as the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition, was founded in 1974 in response to the widespread arson and abandonment that devastated the Bronx during the NYC fiscal crisis.
Tenant associations, clergy, students and community members united to stop “arson for profit” and worked alongside organizations nationwide to help pass the Community Reinvestment Act – legislation requiring banks & the federal government to reinvest in the very communities that they had harmed, expanding access to affordable public housing.
Since then, OUR BRONX has continued to rebuild and strengthen its neighborhoods by fighting for energy efficient housing, improved public schools, sustainable economic development, universal healthcare, immigrant rights and a safer, greener environment. Through collective organizing, OUR BRONX helped win landmark legislation that delivered the strongest tenant protections New York State had seen in a generation.
Delivering NY Health Act petition postcards to lawmakers in Albany
Today, OUR BRONX remains committed to building power for our people through collectively owning our assets, developing shared governance of institutions, and transforming systems to advance long-term community control and justice.
For more than five decades, OUR BRONX has demonstrated that social, economic, and racial justice are achievable when communities rise together and defend democratic principles. PNHP NY Metro deeply values our partnership with this inspiring organization and are honored to present OUR BRONX with our 2026 Health Justice Award in recognition of their extraordinary accomplishments and their unwavering commitment to single payer healthcare and the NY Health Act.
Secure your ticket to join us in Celebrating Single Payer Champions on Thursday, May 28th, and raise a toast to this year's dedicated health justice champions, including OUR BRONX, Dr. Julie Wegener, Dr. Alec Pruchnicki, and more!
Can't join us? You can donate in OUR BRONX's honor here.
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