On May 15, NYAM held its 19th Annual Gala and continued its tradition of honoring outstanding individuals that have made significant contributions to the quality of life and health of New York City and cities worldwide. More than 300 guests enjoyed an elegant evening of dinner and dancing at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel hosted by Cheryl Wills, award-winning news reporter and anchor for NY1 News.

The annual Junior Fellows Research Poster Session and Culmination Ceremony is a cornerstone event at NYAM, as the middle and high school students in NYAM's selective and academically rigorous Junior Fellows Program celebrate the completion of a ten-month course of study spent learning about the health professions and conducting secondary research.

Understanding the complexities of health care is just one of the many challenges facing health care professionals, policy makers, and the general public who often struggle to keep pace with the rise in their health care costs. For high-needs, high-cost patients, the challenge is even more daunting.

The mandatory-sentencing craze that drove up the prison population tenfold, pushing state corrections costs to bankrupting levels, was rooted in New York’s infamous Rockefeller drug laws. These laws, which mandated lengthy sentences for nonviolent, first-time offenders, were approved 40 years ago next month. They did little to curtail drug use in New York or in other states that mimicked them, while they filled prisons to bursting with nonviolent addicts who would have been more effectively and more cheaply dealt with through treatment programs.