2017 Baton Awards Recognize CUMC Team Players
CUMC presented the 2017 Baton Awards at a ceremony on Dec. 7. Three staff members—Martha Adorno, Akil Johnson, and Karen Pagliaro-Meyer—received Baton Awards, which were created in 2009 to recognize exceptional team players at the medical center. The awards were presented at the December meeting of the CUMC Administrators Network.
Baton recipients:
![](https://www.cuimc.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/styles/cola_media_200/public/media/images/2020-02/baton-awards-2017-martha-adorno.jpg?itok=FQiyv4CF 200w, https://www.cuimc.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/styles/cola_media_260/public/media/images/2020-02/baton-awards-2017-martha-adorno.jpg?itok=JD_24p-z 260w, https://www.cuimc.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/styles/cola_media_320/public/media/images/2020-02/baton-awards-2017-martha-adorno.jpg?itok=Vn-I4t_j 320w, https://www.cuimc.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/styles/cola_media_400/public/media/images/2020-02/baton-awards-2017-martha-adorno.jpg?itok=w3S6rupL 400w, https://www.cuimc.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/styles/cola_media_520/public/media/images/2020-02/baton-awards-2017-martha-adorno.jpg?itok=VOTi1QPM 520w, https://www.cuimc.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/styles/cola_media_640/public/media/images/2020-02/baton-awards-2017-martha-adorno.jpg?itok=-6s1aRm- 640w, https://www.cuimc.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/styles/cola_media_800/public/media/images/2020-02/baton-awards-2017-martha-adorno.jpg?itok=VgP_pi4b 800w, https://www.cuimc.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/styles/cola_media_1040/public/media/images/2020-02/baton-awards-2017-martha-adorno.jpg?itok=F6aUh4cz 1040w, https://www.cuimc.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/styles/cola_media_1280/public/media/images/2020-02/baton-awards-2017-martha-adorno.jpg?itok=FcaYVYic 1280w, https://www.cuimc.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/styles/cola_media_1600/public/media/images/2020-02/baton-awards-2017-martha-adorno.jpg?itok=CwqjVsFr 1600w)
Martha Adorno, Columbia University Health Care, Inc., administrator at the College of Dental Medicine, has been at Columbia since August 2005. First hired as a financial coordinator, she has been promoted several times. Her current position as administrator for Columbia University Health Care, an entity that allows CDM to be a New York State Department of Health Diagnostic and Treatment Center, requires her to maintain a range of compliance requirements, from faculty training and certifications, to ensuring the ongoing work of groups associated with the CUHC.
![](https://www.cuimc.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/styles/cola_media_200/public/media/images/2020-02/baton-awards-2017-akil-johnson.jpg?itok=OyAsHz6u 200w, https://www.cuimc.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/styles/cola_media_260/public/media/images/2020-02/baton-awards-2017-akil-johnson.jpg?itok=CoC36LmC 260w, https://www.cuimc.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/styles/cola_media_320/public/media/images/2020-02/baton-awards-2017-akil-johnson.jpg?itok=ecIO_laR 320w, https://www.cuimc.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/styles/cola_media_400/public/media/images/2020-02/baton-awards-2017-akil-johnson.jpg?itok=q-FsZYGX 400w, https://www.cuimc.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/styles/cola_media_520/public/media/images/2020-02/baton-awards-2017-akil-johnson.jpg?itok=ZkSVF4jw 520w, https://www.cuimc.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/styles/cola_media_640/public/media/images/2020-02/baton-awards-2017-akil-johnson.jpg?itok=dRWOzuJ5 640w, https://www.cuimc.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/styles/cola_media_800/public/media/images/2020-02/baton-awards-2017-akil-johnson.jpg?itok=Lpq0-iYI 800w, https://www.cuimc.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/styles/cola_media_1040/public/media/images/2020-02/baton-awards-2017-akil-johnson.jpg?itok=hLNq9hdB 1040w, https://www.cuimc.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/styles/cola_media_1280/public/media/images/2020-02/baton-awards-2017-akil-johnson.jpg?itok=spRpJjsi 1280w, https://www.cuimc.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/styles/cola_media_1600/public/media/images/2020-02/baton-awards-2017-akil-johnson.jpg?itok=OQt9i82m 1600w)
Akil Johnson, assistant director of operations at the School of Nursing, joined Columbia in 2013 and leads a team responsible for managing the physical and AV operations of the school. His skills were on display over the past year, when he identified ways to minimize the school’s environmental footprint and helped the faculty and staff recycle and dispose of records that no longer were needed. Leading up to the school’s move to a new building, he led donation drives that resulted in donations of books, computers, and furniture to charities.
![](https://www.cuimc.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/styles/cola_media_200/public/media/images/2020-02/baton-awards-2017-karen-pagliaro.jpg?itok=V7WR8ojY 200w, https://www.cuimc.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/styles/cola_media_260/public/media/images/2020-02/baton-awards-2017-karen-pagliaro.jpg?itok=bvkEro3o 260w, https://www.cuimc.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/styles/cola_media_320/public/media/images/2020-02/baton-awards-2017-karen-pagliaro.jpg?itok=vDJW8m2F 320w, https://www.cuimc.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/styles/cola_media_400/public/media/images/2020-02/baton-awards-2017-karen-pagliaro.jpg?itok=aYNSHFLC 400w, https://www.cuimc.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/styles/cola_media_520/public/media/images/2020-02/baton-awards-2017-karen-pagliaro.jpg?itok=ZjvHT6kY 520w, https://www.cuimc.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/styles/cola_media_640/public/media/images/2020-02/baton-awards-2017-karen-pagliaro.jpg?itok=TlbJzSz9 640w, https://www.cuimc.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/styles/cola_media_800/public/media/images/2020-02/baton-awards-2017-karen-pagliaro.jpg?itok=B6j7PAbW 800w, https://www.cuimc.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/styles/cola_media_1040/public/media/images/2020-02/baton-awards-2017-karen-pagliaro.jpg?itok=VpJ-8t8J 1040w, https://www.cuimc.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/styles/cola_media_1280/public/media/images/2020-02/baton-awards-2017-karen-pagliaro.jpg?itok=XYk5Qh-B 1280w, https://www.cuimc.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/styles/cola_media_1600/public/media/images/2020-02/baton-awards-2017-karen-pagliaro.jpg?itok=njYiIpEf 1435w)
Karen Pagliaro-Meyer, chief privacy officer for CUMC, has more than 25 years of experience in health care, the past 10 years at CUMC, where she is responsible for assuring the medical center’s compliance with all aspects of HIPAA, the federal legislation intended to safeguard patient medical information. Her involvement in creating policy, her programs to train faculty and staff on changes in HIPAA and to refresh their knowledge of responsibilities for patient privacy, and her role in vetting privacy complaints make her job one that requires ongoing and vital teamwork.