Natalia Cineas (she/her)

Senior Vice President and Chief Nursing Executive Co-Chair, Equity and Access Council New York City Health + Hospitals

Dedicated healthcare leader, championing equity for marginalized individuals within the nation's largest public healthcare system and beyond.

“I have always felt the importance of being connected to others.” So says Dr. Natalia Cineas, the youngest of seven children, whose immigrant parents stressed the value of community and education. As a child she dreamed of becoming a teacher, but her urge toward service came into tighter focus when, as an undergraduate, she took a job at the student health center. She not only loved the work; it revealed a potential path toward helping those marginalized by medical systems.

Dr. Cineas has since forged a health-services career defined by steadily increasing responsibility and impact. Today, having earned NYU graduate degrees in both nursing and management, Dr. Cineas is the Senior VP and Chief Nursing Executive for the entire NYC Health + Hospitals system. She oversees the care of more than 1.4 million New Yorkers annually, and she is educating and training nearly 10,000 nurses to treat every patient—regardless of race, income, gender-identity, or immigration status—with the same high standard of care.

Advocacy for the underserved has been the keystone of Dr. Cineas’ impressive and still-evolving career. In 2021 she was named a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, one of the most prestigious honors in her profession. She speaks frequently on evidence-based best practices and is currently rolling out a Nursing Care Delivery Model—the first of its kind—that emphasizes cultural awareness in patient care. “This is my dream job,” she says. “I truly believe that we all have it within ourselves to change the world.”