Commentary: The Influentials

Long Island Business News, Dec 28, 2007

Calvin O. Butts III

President: SUNY Old Westbury

Butts is an Influential with many hats. As president of SUNY Old Westbury he's doing his best to secure a young workforce to foster Long Island's future. But he's also a board member of the Long Island Association, fighting brain drain and coming up with viable ways to provide affordable housing. Of course, he's also a man of the cloth, leading the Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York City.

Donna Jones

Superintendent: Brentwood School District

This business and finance-oriented mind will be put to the test running Long Island's largest school district. Brentwood, which encompasses many predominantly minority areas, serves 16,000 students. That's a lot of families counting on Jones to keep academics, facilities and extracurricular programs up to snuff, while working with a spending-per-pupil budget that falls below the state average.

Maxwell Corydon Wheat Jr.: Nassau poet

Though Wheat never got the job as Nassau's poet laureate, he definitely challenged the government's rhyme and reason. Wheat was initially tapped for the job because of his large canon of poems about Long Island's natural beauty. A poem deemed against the Iraq war turned the county's Republican legislators against him, though the New York Times picked up the story and spread it across the country. In the end, Wheat was given the poet laureate title by his poet peers. As for Nassau, the post has yet to be filled.

Shirley Strum-Kenny

President: Stony Brook University

Stony Brook University has adopted a sort of manifest-destiny outlook while Strum-Kenny has helmed the school. Stony Brook just launched degree programs in its new Southampton campus, and is moving forward with its energy research and wireless technology centers. And with 13,000 employees, Stony Brook represents a major economic player.

HEALTH CARE

Miriam Balsamo

Network Administrator for Long Island Regional Operations:

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center

You probably don't need to know much about Balsamo or MSKCC on Long Island unless you or someone you know has cancer. Long Islanders once had to travel to Manhattan to obtain services from Memorial Sloan-Kettering. Not anymore. With Balsamo's help, world- class MSKCC is bringing its services closer to home for Long Islanders. MSKCC operates sites in Commack, Hauppauge and Rockville Centre.

Kevin Dahill

President: Nassau-Suffolk Hospital Council

When health-care providers lobby Albany against health-care cuts, Dahill, as the leader of this group including Long Island's 24 not- for-profit and public hospitals, leads the charge. So far, Dahill and the health-care industry can point to some successes, this year staving off the bulk of the proposed Medicaid cuts that would have sheared $68.5 million from Long Island hospital revenues. Health- care providers can count on more trips to Albany in upcoming years as the industry fights to avoid financial hemorrhaging.

Michael Dowling

Chief Executive: North Shore-Long Island Jewish Healthcare System