University Reporter: April, 2000
Quinn Award Presented to Stephen V. Tang, Chinatown's Community Health Care Advocate
By Anne Marie Kent
Deemed a "great success" by Chancellor Sherry Penney, this year's UMass Boston Community Breakfast on March 14 was attended by a diverse group of over 200 neighborhood leaders, elected officials, local businesspeople, and members of the UMass Boston faculty and staff.
Vice Chancellor for External Relations Ed O'Malley said, " The celebration of the 14th annual Community Breakfast underscores UMass Boston's role as the only public university in the city."
"The Community Breakfast is a special opportunity for us to welcome friends from the community to the UMass Boston campus," Director of Community Relations Gail Hobin added. "It is also a time to honor our co-founder Robert H. Quinn, a man with a strong record of community service in Massachusetts."
Quinn's legendary record includes service as speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, Massachusetts attorney general, and chair of the UMass Board of Trustees. Each year the Robert H. Quinn Award for Community Leadership is presented at the Community Breakfast to an individual who has displayed exemplary community leadership.
This year's recipient, Dr. Stephen V. Tang, holds degrees from Yale, MIT, and Harvard Medical School, but is perhaps best known as co-founder and abiding board member of Chinatown's South Cove Community Health Center.
Drawing a metaphor from his field of dermatology, Dr Tang remarked, "Community work gets under your skin. You are transformed by it." His transformation began in 1970, when he was newly married and working in the telecommunications industry. The son of Chinese immigrants, Tang felt called to join the Chinese Community Health Projects Task Force, where he discovered an alarming need for affordable, multi-lingual health care in the Asian-American community.
"It occurred to me, for example, that when immigrant women would go to the hospital to deliver babies, these women would often find in the delivery rooms no one who could speak their language. Something had to be done." He became involved in the effort to create a health center in Chinatown.
Tang's community involvement increased in the mid-70s when his company downsized, eliminating his telecommunications job in Boston. Would he take a sizeable promotion offered to him in New York or stay in Boston, jobless, where the community needed him? He chose Boston, saw the health center project through, and decided to attend medical school. Today, the South Cove Community Health Center serves more than 11,000 patients annually and is a major Chinatown employer.
Presenting the award, Robert Quinn praised Dr. Tang's work to benefit the residents of the Chinatown community, and said that he "epitomizes the spirit of UMass Boston."
College of Nursing Professor Lin Zhan, whose longstanding public health outreach work in Malden exemplifies this spirit, attended the breakfast with a group of her students. After hearing Dr. Tang's presentation, UMass Boston senior Phy Sao commented, "It was wonderful to hear Dr. Tang speak. He has a strong voice representing the Asian community."
In her remarks, Chancellor Sherry Penney discussed Professor Zhan's work and the scholarship of UMass Boston's Asian American Studies Institute, as well as a number of community service activities sponsored by the University. Chancellor Penney said, "From conducting research that benefits our natural environment to providing public schools and small businesses with needed assistance, our faculty, staff, and students are committed to community service." She added, "Their efforts are bearing fruit--in Malden, in South Boston, at Dorchester High School, and all over the city."
Past Quinn Award winners in attendance were:
Joe Chaisson, Columbia /Savin Hill Civic Association; Ed
Forry, Dorchester Reporter; Chris Hayes, Neighborhood Crime
Watch; Ruby Jaundoo, Harbor Point Community Task Force; Rev.
Thomas McDonnell, St. Augustine's Parish; Maria
Menconi-Waldron, Dorchester Day Celebration; Sister
Maryadele Robinson, Labouré Center; Paul White,
Boston College.