Cambridge Health Alliance Honors John Rosenthal with Art of Healing Award

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA) honored John Rosenthal, president of Meredith Management Corporation, a champion of the underserved, with its annual Art of Healing Award on April 14th at the Charles Hotel in Cambridge. Mr. Rosenthal was honored for his social justice work advocating for local homeless populations, strengthening gun policies and preventing gun violence, and working with local police to curb opioid addiction.

The award was presented during CHA’s annual signature fundraising event, which raised $460,000 to benefit CHA and its critical community health mission. The Art of Healing Award celebrates visionary men and women who transcend boundaries, joyfully embrace humanity, and profoundly inspire the healing of body and spirit. Robin Young, co-host of NPR affiliate WBUR’s Here & Now, emceed the program, and Jim Braude, host of Greater Boston on WGBH, served as auctioneer for the event. A CHA patient speaker also bravely told her story of addiction recovery and received a standing ovation. Included in the audience were several mothers from the community who lost children to the disease of addiction.

Mr. Rosenthal is president of the real estate development company Meredith Management Corporation and has distinguished himself with the ability to balance corporate and individual responsibility. He founded the Friends of Boston’s Homeless in 1987, a partnership with the City of Boston, which serves 800 people every night, and helps transition more than 400 formerly homeless men and women beyond shelter with housing and job placement each year.

In October 1995, Mr. Rosenthal co-founded Stop Handgun Violence with his close friend, Michael Kennedy. The organization has been symbolized by a 252’ x 20’ billboard displayed along the Mass. Turnpike near Boston’s Fenway Park. Although the original billboard was dismantled, its message lives on through a new billboard in Back Bay near the Prudential Center. Stop Handgun Violence has been the lead advocate for Massachusetts enacting the most comprehensive gun laws and becoming first in the nation in consumer protection regulations for firearms.

In response to the opioid crisis, Mr. Rosenthal co-founded the Police Assisted Addiction and Recovery Initiative (PAARI) in 2015 with Gloucester police chief, Leonard Campanello. The mission of PAARI is to support the Gloucester Police Angel Program, to aid other police departments to implement similar programs, and to foster a dialogue around the opportunity for law enforcement to take direct action against the disease of drug addiction in their communities. Under PAARI, people suffering from the disease of addiction who present to the police department for help are immediately placed into treatment and ongoing recovery programs.

“I’m in awe of John Rosenthal’s commitment to our communities,” said Mary Cassesso, President of the CHA Foundation and Chief Community Officer. “John Rosenthal’s work builds stronger, healthier and safer communities. 80% of population health happens not in the doctor’s office, but in our neighborhoods. John takes the fight to the streets. He addresses the social determinants of health by working to end homelessness, improve gun safety, and combat opioid addiction, and I am so proud we were able to recognize him.”

Cambridge Health Alliance is an academic community health system committed to providing high quality care in Cambridge, Somerville and Boston’s metro-north communities. CHA has expertise in primary care, specialty care and mental health/substance use services, as well as caring for diverse and complex populations. It includes three hospital campuses, a network of primary care and specialty practices and the Cambridge Public Health Dept. CHA patients have seamless access to advanced care through the system’s affiliation with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. CHA is a Harvard Medical School teaching affiliate and is also affiliated with Harvard School of Public Health, Harvard School of Dental Medicine and Tufts University School of Medicine. For more information, visit www.challiance.org.