Building Congress Event
Healthcare and Life Sciences Week
Moderators
RACHEL BELSKY, AICP
ASSOCIATE
LANGAN
Rachel Belsky is a land use planner with 25 years of experience in environmental impact analysis, historic preservation planning, public reviews, and agency coordination. Throughout her career, she has worked in the public, private, and non-profit sectors, overseeing City Environmental Quality Review (CEQR) for several large-scale developments throughout New York City. Her professional achievements span multiple industries, from securing land use and zoning approvals for New York University’s 1.5 million SF expansion in Greenwich Village to managing environmental impact analyses and reviews for the Coney Island Rezoning and East 125th Street Development projects.
As the leader of Langan’s land use planning practice, Ms. Belsky has managed a fast-track environmental assessment statement for the Flushing waterfront rezoning, office development in Long Island City, and concept planning for Sunnyside Yards. She is also responsible for client services related to federal, state, and city environmental reviews (NEPA, SEQRA, CEQR) and Uniform Land Use Review Procedure applications.
In 2019, Ms. Belsky was named one of the Leading Ladies in Real Estate by Real Estate Weekly and an Outstanding Woman by Women Builders Council.
Panelists
JONATHAN B. COGSWELL
ASSISTANT VICE PRESIDENT, FACILITIES SERVICES & ENGINEERING
NORTHWELL HEALTH | MANHATTAN REGION
Jonathan B. Cogswell, Assistant Vice President, Facilities Service & Engineering for Northwell Health’s Manhattan region, has been working in healthcare facility operations & development for more than 20 years. After starting his career in the development of Cancer Centers in the Metro New York area, he transitioned into managing full hospitals 15 years ago when he moved to Lenox Hill. Currently, he works for Northwell Health managing the operations and development of facilities in the system's Manhattan region, which includes Lenox Hill Hospital, Manhattan Eye, Ear & Throat Hospital, Lenox Health Greenwich Village and an out-patient network of nearly 80 sites.
CHRISTINE FLAHERTY
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT – CAPITAL PROJECTS, CONSTRUCTION AND DESIGN
NYC HEALTH + HOSPITALS
Christine Flaherty is the Senior Vice President of Health + Hospital’s Office of Facilities Development responsible for all real estate, planning, design, construction and facilities management for Health and Hospital's system, comprising of more than 20 million square feet of building assets across all five boroughs. NYC Health + Hospitals is the largest public health care system in the United States, providing essential inpatient, outpatient, and home-based services to more than one million New Yorkers every year in more than 70 locations across the city’s five boroughs. She is also responsible for developing H+H’s Housing Initiative to accelerate access to housing for the systems most vulnerable homeless high-risk patient population.
Ms. Flaherty is a capital delivery executive with over 20 years of experience managing and leading capital projects for both the private and public sectors in the New York City area. Over the past 5 years, Ms. Flaherty has served in capital leadership positions for New York City at Department of Design and Construction and now Health and Hospitals overseeing diverse portfolios of building project improvements valued at over $3 billion and over 200 professionals.
Prior to serving the City of New York, Ms. Flaherty has worked as a consultant and contractor in roles from project manager to Vice President. She has been a key member of the senior leadership teams responsible for account management, client satisfaction, strategic planning and business development. Ms. Flaherty has diverse experience working on both public and private programs ranging in value from $1 million to over $1.2 billion.
As a volunteer leader, she is the Past President of CMAA's Metro NY/NJ Chapter, a new board member of the Greater New York ACE Board of Directors.
Ms. Flaherty earned her Bachelors of Science in Civil Engineering from Bucknell University and her Masters in Business Administration from New York University’s Stern School of Business. She is a Certified Construction Manager and periodically facilitates and teaches sessions on project management and leadership.
MICHAEL K. KIMURA, P.E., CCM
DIRECTOR – LIFE SCIENCES & HEALTHCARE
GROUP PMX
Michael Kimura serves as Group PMX’s director for life sciences and healthcare. In this role, he leverages his program management and senior executive oversight expertise to improve the healthcare delivery process for patients throughout the New York metropolitan area. A licensed professional engineer and certified construction manager, he is using his project leadership background to upgrade and improve numerous New York City public hospitals and senior care facilities that suffered extensive damage during Hurricane Sandy. During this $1.7 billion effort, which includes making the facilities more resilient against future flooding, Mr. Kimura oversees teams of program managers handling all project phases from planning and design through construction and project closeout. His responsibilities include developing and tracking master budgets and schedules and advising clients on how to best manage and minimize their risk exposure.
On Long Island, for one of the largest healthcare networks in the region, he served as owner’s representative or project manager during the extensive expansion and renovation of medical office and treatment suites, academic and research buildings, training centers, and parking lots and other support facilities.
Mr. Kimura excels at resolving complex field issues, meeting or exceeding challenging budget and schedule requirements, and quickly resolving issues among key project stakeholders, including clients, architects and engineers, construction managers, and trades. Earlier in his career, he also served as the project director or resident engineer during numerous assignments to improve drainage infrastructure, parks, and highways and roadways throughout Queens and Long Island.
CHRISTOPHER J. PROCHNER, P.E., LEED AP
PARTNER
JAROS, BAUM & BOLLES
Christopher Prochner has been a Partner at JB&B, one of New York City’s premier consulting engineering firms, since 2005, and has been the leader of the firm’s healthcare division for the past 12 years, growing, developing and guiding a 40-member team spanning all trades. Mr. Prochner has worked with some of New York’s most renowned and respected medical centers and research facilities, where he has particularly established himself as a key player in campus master planning efforts. He has set the healthcare division’s focus on implementing cutting-edge technologies to provide buildable, maintainable and scalable systems while improving both the patient environment and the patient experience, enabling a more interactive, empowered hospital stay. In response to the recent pandemic, Mr. Prochner was instrumental in leading the design of SUNY Stony Brook’s 5-tent, 1,028-bed Alternate Care Facility to serve both COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 patients.
Mr. Prochner is a licensed Professional Engineer, a U.S. Green Building Council LEED Accredited Professional, and an AEE Certified Energy Auditor. He also serves as co-chair of the New York Building Congress’s Healthcare & Life Sciences Committee.
