Honorees
Patient Heroes
We invite you to add a patient or caregiver in your life to our honoree list. During the dinner and our virtual program, our digital “Patient Heroes Wall” will feature e-journal tributes and a scrolling list of all honorees’ names. To add the patient or caregiver in your life to our honoree list, please click below
Martha Stewart
JAX-NYSCF Honorary Scientist
Martha Stewart is a New York Times–bestselling author, Emmy Award-winning TV host, entrepreneur, and lifestyle expert who has taught billions of people the joy of homemaking. Martha is best known for turning her passion for everyday living into a business empire that has made her a household name around the world. In 1972, she launched a catering business in Westport, Connecticut, which led to her first book, Entertaining, now available again as a facsimile edition.
She has since published 102 books and founded Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, spanning publishing, television, and digital platforms. Her products are sold worldwide, reaching over 100 million fans each month. Among her philanthropic efforts, she established the Martha Stewart Center for Living at Mount Sinai in 2007. She is the proud mother of Alexis Stewart and grandmother of Jude and Truman.
Dinakar Singh
Pioneering Patient Advocate
Dinakar Singh is the CEO and Founding Partner of Axon Capital, a leading global investment firm. The firm was founded by Mr. Singh in late 2004 in partnership with Texas Pacific Group. He was previously a Partner at Goldman Sachs, where he was co-head of the Principal Strategies Department. During his 14 years at Goldman Sachs, he served on a number of the firm’s key leadership committees, including the Securities Division Operating Committee, Risk Committee, Partnership Committee, and Asia Management Committee.
Mr. Singh serves as Chairman of the Board for the SMA Foundation, which he co-founded in 2003 to accelerate the development of treatments for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), the leading genetic cause of death in young children.
Mr. Singh also serves on the Yale University Investment Committee, Trilateral Commission, and the Boards of the New York Public Library, Columbia University Medical Center, The Rockefeller University and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories. He is a graduate of Yale University.
Arya Singh
Pioneering Patient Advocate
Arya Singh is a public health researcher and rare disease advocate based in NYC. She is a current Ph.D. student at Weill Cornell Medicine in its Population Health Department and also works at NYU Langone, leading the hospital’s triennial Community Health Needs and Assets Assessment focused on disability. Arya also holds a MPH/BA from Yale. She was born with Spinal Muscular Atrophy and her family founded the SMA Foundation, which funded the three safe and effective treatments that turned SMA from a fatal to a chronic disease in the last 25 years.
Based on her 20+ years of clinical trial experience as a rare disease patient, Arya has authored a children’s book about the ethics of clinical research and regularly speaks for congressional briefings, academia, and industry on topics related to disability, rare disease ad drug development. She also currently sits on three healthcare boards – including the Save Rare Treatments Taskforce (a subsidiary of Leavitt Partners), Hole in the Wall Gang Fund, and DKI Health.
Past Honorees
| 2024 | Donna Karen | Mona Sutphen & Clyde Williams | Regeneron |
| 2023 | Kay Unger | Feng Zhang, PhD | Janet & Jerry Zucker |
| 2022 | Sanjay Gupta, MD | Siddhartha Mukherjee, MD, DPhil | Irving Weissman, MD |
| 2021 | Susan & Stephen Scherr | Victor Garber | Derrick Rossi, PhD; Kizzmekia Corbett, PhD; Barney Graham, MD, PhD; Katalin Karikó, PhD; Drew Weissman, MD, PhD |
| 2020 | Brooke Ellison, PhD | Frank Gehry | David Rockwell |
| 2019 | Peter Goulandris & Karen Elizabeth Burke Goulandris, MD, PhD | Jay Kriegel | Greg Hicks & Rick Foster |
| 2018 | Karin Hehenberger, MD, PhD | Carol Roaman | Ian Schrager |
| 2017 | Andreas C. Dracopoulos NYSCF Humanitarian Award | Roy Geronemus, MD NYSCF Leadership Award | Clifford Ross NYSCF Arts Leadership Award |
| 2016 | David A. Carmel NYSCF Leadership Award | Alan M. Cohen NYSCF Leadership Award | Victoria Gordon NYSCF Stem Cell Hero |
| 2015 | Stephen M. Ross NYSCF Leadership Award | Jack Gernsheimer and Jeff Gernsheimer NYSCF Stem Cell Heroes | Mark McCauley NYSCF Stem Cell Hero |
| 2014 | Anne & Vincent Mai NYSCF Stem Cell Hero | Sabrina Bertucci NYSCF Stem Cell Hero | Rich Rundle NYSCF Stem Cell Hero |
| 2013 | Shirley Cook NYSCF Stem Cell Hero | Richard D. Kaplan NYSCF Stem Cell Hero | |
| 2012 | Bonnie Pfeifer Evans NYSCF Stem Cell Hero | Alice Shure NYSCF Stem Cell Hero | Seun Adebiyi NYSCF Stem Cell Hero |
| 2011 | Julian H. Robertson NYSCF Leadership Award | Christo NYSCF Humanitarian Award | |
| 2010 | Dorothy Lichtenstein NYSCF Humanitarian Award | ||
| 2009 | Frank Gehry NYSCF Humanitarian Award | Joel S. Marcus NYSCF Leadership Award | |
| 2008 | Governor David A. Paterson NYSCF Leadership Award | ||
| 2007 | Chuck Close NYSCF Humanitarian Award |