11 earn 2021 Shattuck Award
COVID heroes among winners of Henry L. Shattuck Public Service Award
When COVID hit 18 months ago, East Boston Neighborhood Health Center President and CEO Manny Lopes braced for its impact with his staff of more than 1,400 people.
“We gave them the freedom to think creatively because we knew this was going to be the pandemic of our lifetime,” said Lopes, who last week was named a Henry L. Shattuck City Champion by the Boston Municipal Research Bureau for his efforts to make the city a better place — one of 11 people recognized for the prestigious annual local award.
Under his leadership, the center opened the state’s first major COVID testing drive-through for first responders and essential workers at Suffolk Downs in East Boston and soon opened it to the general public.
Then the center opened pop-up testing sites throughout the city and started a COVID town hall for community leaders so that they could disseminate the latest accurate information about the virus.
When vaccines finally became available, the center opened community-based vaccination sites in East Boston, the South End, Chelsea and Revere for people who couldn’t get to mass sites.
And just as it had done with testing, the center opened pop-up vaccination sites that didn’t require appointments.
Blue Cross Blue Shield also gave the center a grant to use ride-sharing to get people without transportation to the nearest vaccination site.
For those who were reluctant to get tested or vaccinated, the center leveraged its relationships with trusted community partners like La Colaborativa in Chelsea to go door to door with volunteers to urge people to get tested and vaccinated.
To date, the center has processed more than 150,000 COVID tests and administered over 100,000 doses of vaccine.
“It’s all been about passion and love, and I know it’s going to continue to do great work in our community,” said Lopes, who will join Blue Cross Blue Shield Massachusetts as of Nov. 1 as executive vice president of public markets and government relations.
Another Shattuck Award winner for public service this year is Shekeima Dockery, operations manager for the small business division of the Mayor’s Office of Economic Development.
When the pandemic hit, Dockery — at record speed — created a training module to teach her team how to use the digital tools they suddenly had to learn.
She and her coworkers were able to handle more than 2,000 calls and emails from imperiled small business owners within the first two months of the pandemic, and they’ve fielded thousands more since then.
Dockery also helped create and execute the COVID-19 relief funding process, which has issued more than $16 million in grants to nearly 4,000 business owners whose livelihoods depended on it.
“For our first few funds, there were times when we had to say no,” she said. “That has been one of the toughest parts.”
Other Shattuck Award winners this year are Boston Police Detective Marivelle Crespo; Richard DePiano, second assistant collector-treasurer, Treasury Department; Patricia Finnigan, senior administrative assistant, City Clerk’s Office; Stephanie Haynes, administrative secretary, Zoning Board of Appeals, Inspectional Services; Rebecca Phu, director of operations and licensing, Licensing and Consumer Affairs; Delavern Stanislaus, director of transportation, Boston Public Schools; Bradford Swing, director of energy policy and programs, Mayor’s Office of Environment, Energy and Open Space; Colette Phillips, CEO and president, Colette Phillips Communications, Inc.; and The New Commonwealth Racial Equity and Social Justice Fund.