March 27, 2014
Prior to assuming the position as President of the School-Based Health Alliance, Linda served for 35 years as a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner and directed hospital, community, and school-based programs for adolescents. She served as Deputy Director of the School Health Policy Initiative at Montefiore Medical Center and Director of SBHCs at North Shore University Hospital in New York. She was the founding President of the New York Coalition for School Based Primary Care and was one of the founding members of the School-Based Health Alliance.
Linda’s legacy is cemented in the history of the school-based health care movement. As a member of the founding Board of Directors, and more recently in her role as President, Linda has guided the School-Based Health Alliance through an unprecedented period of success. Her tenure has seen the first federally appropriated source of funding for school-based health centers; a new brand for the organization; partnerships with dozens of corporate, philanthropic, and government entities; and strides in our data, evaluation, and quality improvement work. Linda published extensively on adolescent health and school-based health care, and many of her articles are seminal texts in the academic literature on school-based health centers.
In lieu of flowers, Linda has requested that donations be made to the Linda Juszczak Legacy Fund. This fund will be used to strengthen the school-based health care movement by developing future leaders who can follow in her footsteps. In addition, messages of support for her family can be left below.
Dearest Linda,
ReplyDeleteMy heart is heavy as I hear that you have stepped down for medical leave. I am completely impressed by your strength and dedication to the field of School Based Health Centers. I know I've said this to you countless times, but the shopping trip we shared together in LA during my first pregnancy was such a highlight for me. I was (and am) in such awe of you and was delighted by your warmth and friendship. I appreciate your support of my work over the years, and your inspiration has kept me working in the SBHC field for 15 years now! I am sending you all of my love. With great fondness, Sara (Peterson) Geierstanger
Linda,
ReplyDeleteAll of us at the California School-Based Health Alliance are thinking of you and how pivotal you have been in all of the amazing progress in our field in the last few years. You've put the School-Based Health Alliance in such a strong position to continue the momentum you generated - and that is really the mark of a great leader.
Sending all our love, respect and hugs -
Serena and colleagues at the California Affiliate
Linda,
ReplyDeleteThank you for always being tenacious, as well as holding high expectations and never settling for complacency. You've been part of the pulse that's driven the SBHC movement.
On a personal note, I will miss seeing your enthusiasm for frozen yogurt as our favorite afternoon snack.
Lots of love,
Iliana
Linda will be missed so much. She was truly the face of our school-based health center movement for the country. She loved the kids, the providers, the associations. Thank you for your leadership and commitment Linda. Your journey here is done, well and faithful servant.
ReplyDeleteIt is because of Linda that I care about school health. Her passion for this movement was inspiring and she showed me that loving your job makes working worthwhile. We lost a true champion today and my heart is heavy. Linda - you were loved, will be missed, and we will do our best to honor your legacy.
ReplyDeleteThere will always be sunshine in the world because you carried sunshine in your heart. I will also be grateful to have had the opportunity to know you and to work with you and will be thankful for all that I learned from you. There are so many young people in this world that you either touched directly or indirectly that will carry forward your spirit and sunshine. deb brinson
ReplyDeleteMy deepest sympathies to Linda's family, friends and the school based health care community. I was always so impressed with Linda's knowledge, clarity and kindness. Many years had passed since my last contact with Linda until very recently. Of course, the reason for the contact had to do with support for school based health care. It was then that I learned of Linda's remarkable battle with cancer. I am sadden by her passing and grateful for our last interaction.
ReplyDeleteRosemary Reilly-Chammat
RI Department of Education
Linda was an amazing professional colleague and mentor. She will be missed so much.
ReplyDeleteOn behalf of Kenneth Schonberg, M.D.
ReplyDeleteMarch 27, 2014
We first met Linda over 30 years ago when, in the early 1980’s, she joined our leadership group in the implementation of a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant to provide health services for high risk youth of the Bronx, New York. Over the ensuing three decades our careers drifted apart and then drifted back together as we found ourselves once again working together in the School Based Health program at the Montefiore Medical Center.
As our opportunities for professional colleagueship waxed and waned our friendship did not. She remained forever a member of the “extended family” of the Division of Adolescent Medicine at Montefiore. We saw her with frequency and profited from her wisdom and kindness. She was a person of great strength, never as evident as in these past trying years.
All of us who have had the opportunity to work with Linda profited from that experience and are better professionals and better people because of it. Although in three decades I never learned to spell her last name with consistent accuracy, in all other ways she was my mentor.
S. Kenneth Schonberg, M.D.
Professor of Pediatrics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Consultant in School Health, Montefiore Medical Center
If we are fortunate, we meet passionate people who inspire us to think bigger, work harder and defy the boundaries imposed by others. Linda in your quiet, knowing way you did that for all of us. Now, in our own ways we pledge to carry the torch you lit and carried so valiantly for the children and SBHCs everywhere.
ReplyDeleteJeanita W. Richardson, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
University of Virginia, School of Medicine
Department of Public Health Sciences
My sympathy goes out to Linda's family and friends. She was a wonderful mentor and advocate, teacher and director. It was an honor to work with her. Her legacy will continue for years to come, improving the health and well-being of children and teens everywhere.
ReplyDeleteMy sympathies go to Linda, her family, and to all of us that have relied on your leadership throughout the years. I have known and worked with Linda for almost 30 years, and she has been an inspiration and the strongest of advocates for health care in our schools. I am deeply saddened that she will not be physically here to lead and advocate, but I want her to know that those that have worked alongside her all these years will continue to spread the message that children everywhere need health care in the school setting. I want to thank Linda for promoting this mission and sharing her passion. Your work will continue. You will be in my heart and my thoughts when working on school based initiatives. Know that your short years with us will continue to inspire and make us better.
ReplyDeleteAnita Wilenkin, MA MPH
Linda had a profound effect on my professional development and career. She was an amazing mentor, friend, and leader and I will deeply miss her. From the early days of Robert Wood Johnson site visits to the more recent work on federal appropriations Linda’s vision was palpable and contagious. She was never too busy to offer advice, vision, and encouragement. She invested and grew talents of all the individuals whose lives she touched. May we all carry on Linda’s legacy of vision for the future, mentoring of those around us, and a spirit that surpasses this life on earth!
ReplyDeleteOne of my hero's has passed....dedicated to excellence and tireless in her flag-waving for SBHC's, it was an honor to know her.
ReplyDeleteI'm grateful for her passion and believe she will continue to serve as our GOLD STANDARD in the generations to come.
Thank you for your life, Linda.
My prayers for strength, comfort and hope are with her family and closest friends. She will never be forgotten.
Love and respect,
Anne Derouin
Dear Family and Friends of Linda
ReplyDeleteLinda's influence was very far reaching. For decades she was a valued colleague and member of the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. Linda lived all of the important and varied roles that nurses can play in improving the health of young people--by working together and building on each person's strengths. Her legacy will continue on in the lives of so many people whom she has touched.
Peace,
Rich Kreipe
Linda was a force of nature. I feel honored to have known and worked with her in the early days of NASBHC. Linda's leadership of the school health center movement means that she touched so many young people's lives, far beyond those that she met personally. I hope this knowledge brings some comfort to her family and friends. With Linda's passing the world has a little less light in it. To honor her memory, I will try to bring health and light back into the lives of my patients and the youth I work with.
ReplyDeleteOn behalf of Peggy McManus:
ReplyDeleteOn behalf of The National Alliance to Advance Adolescent Health, I want to extend our deepest condolences for the loss of an outstanding colleague. Throughout her career, Linda effectively advocated for a more comprehensive and accessible model of health care for adolescents, particularly for low income adolescents. She brought a unique blend of clinical, program, and policy skills to her work, and she was incredibly successful and resourceful in finding alternative strategies for getting to the finish line. She leaves behind an impressive school-based health field.
My condolences,
Peggy McManus
Please accept our heartfelt condolences on behalf of the UCSF Department of Family Health Care Nursing and the UCSF Elev8 project. Linda was a tireless advocate for school health, even during her illness, a brilliant strategist and a warm and generous individual. She freely gave of her expertise at the beginning of our UCSF Elev8 project, and cornered me at the last Elev8 meeting to share her passionate words of wisdom for the next phase of work. Although I did not know her well, I am much richer for that brief contact and we will all miss her. sincerely, Naomi Schapiro
ReplyDeleteLinda was a person in which she and I shared an unconditional bond of friendship. I met her at a Robert Wood Johnson meeting prior to the inception of NASBHC. She became my mentor and friend. I reminisce now bout the times I visited DC and shared a glass of wine in her back yard and she'd walk me back to Union Station to catch the Metro. I will always appreciate the encouragement she provided and the opportunities to gain professional growth in the school-based health arena. Thank you Linda for representing strength and tenacity during the rougher times of your illness. You always had room to hive to others. Heaven has an extra smile and you are now at peace with so many have been impacted by your work, you made the world a better place and you will be truly missed. I truly believe that nothing is an accident and there was a purpose for us meeting in 1992. Always grateful, Angelia Williams-Welch, Saginaw Michigan
ReplyDeleteLinda was the consummate advocate. She exemplified her passion for student health in the way she lived her life. I will miss her as a colleague and as a strong and caring friend.
ReplyDeleteWith sincere sympathy,
Mary Louise Embrey
On behalf of Ingrid Hayes-Burrell:
ReplyDeleteApril 14, 2014
Linda was receptive to a stranger. I am completing my doctoral study, and after many months of back searching the topic on teen pregnancy, I began to see one consistent word, “SBHC.” Because I work in the District of Columbia, a major resource was in my backyard. I contacted Linda and she returned my call, provided permission for me to use the data from NASBHC, and was excited about meeting me in the near future. I attended the 2013 conference in DC, and met the authors I referenced in my problem statement. Unfortunately, I did not speak face to face with Linda; I had the opportunity to speak again by phone to update the figures in my study. I was truly saddened when I received the news because she helped a total stranger understand the importance of health care services in the nation’s school systems. My Mom passed away October 6, 2013, and she will not be with on graduation day, but I know they are both standing together cheering me on to finish the study that I dedicated to the 20 angels and 6 teachers from Newtown, Connecticut.
With deepest sympathy,
Ingrid Hayes Burrell, DBA (ABD)
Walden University, 2014 Doctoral candidate
Dissertation: Financing School-based Health Centers: Sustaining Primary and Mental Health Services
I am so very sad to not have been able to say goodbye to Linda, the remarkable woman who took me under her wing when I started my research at Families and Work Institute five years ago.
ReplyDeleteLinda had a brilliant mind and an honorable heart; she was admirably devoted to the cause of healthier, happier children and I will never forget the kindness and encouragement she magnanimously offered me when I was starting out. I called her nearly every other day as I plowed through the near three years of research. It was a very challenging endeavor and she was both my champion and my savior. She guided me through case studies across the country, and through the laborious process of writing my report; she made me get over being shy and present my findings at conferences.
Thank you, Linda, for all that you did and for everything you are. I owe so much of who I am, both as a person and professional, to your lovely existence. You will be so dearly missed.
With love, admiration and sympathy to all who had the privilege of knowing Linda,
Alanna Beckman