NEW YORK—Ruth Finkelstein, 59, looks out of her window through royal blue cat-eye glasses. From her Upper East Side office, she can see the colors of the leaves change in Central Park. Although Finkelstein grew up in Ohio, she said in many ways, she has always been a New Yorker.
Finkelstein is the senior vice president for policy and planning at the New York Academy of Medicine (NYAM).
She was born in a New York hospital. Her parents were Columbia University graduate students at the time. Shortly after her birth, her family moved to Columbus, Ohio, where her father got his first faculty position. But in many ways, she said they have remained New Yorkers. The liberal milieu of New York never left them.
She had a frame of mind that did not necessarily fit well in the Midwest in the ‘50’s and ’60’s.
Finkelstein has vivid memories of her father pulling her away from their neighbor’s porch. “I remember I used to lecture adults on racism, from as early on as 4 years old,” she said.
She was not afraid to speak her mind, even if it meant speaking out against something widely accepted as an absolute truth.
“There are things that we take as true, but a lot of those things were made up by people,” she said. “Our lives were constructed by laws and policies, and if they’re not meeting our needs then we can change them.”
Today, her work at NYAM largely revolves around overturning conventional thoughts about the issues of our time—from creating an aging-friendly city to providing health care access to those who were formerly incarcerated.
She has over 30 years of experience in policy planning and research for improving the health of vulnerable groups of people. But her sense of justice stems from her early childhood.
At age 10, Finkelstein watched Martin Luther King Jr. speak when he visited black churches in Cleveland. They were one of the few white families who attended the congregation.
“I remember being moved in my core, by his words, his genius as a writer, and by his message of justice and equality spoke to my deepest commitments,” Finkelstein said. “The world changed to catch up with us, we got less and less weird as time progressed.”
As a child she dreamed of going to Harvard. But she did not realize that Harvard only accepted men at the time.
“To my mother’s credit, she never told me that,” Finkelstein said. “She simply said she hoped that by the time I’m ready to go there, they’re ready to have me.”
She was accepted into Harvard’s graduate program but she did not study there. Instead, she received a doctorate in health policy from Johns Hopkins University.
Shaping Change
Before going to graduate school, Finkelstein’s first job was a community organizer for the Senior Citizen’s Coalition in Cleveland. They were fighting for utility discounts at the time.
“A lot of older folks were living in wooden, drafty houses,” she recalled. “All of their money was spent on utilities and taxes but it still wasn’t enough to bring heat.”
Finkelstein organized a protest where seniors in walkers, canes, and wheelchairs marched—or perhaps more like trekked—down Cleveland’s Euclid Avenue to see the mayor. Former representative Dennis Kucinich was the mayor of Cleveland at the time. Eventually he agreed to negotiate discounts with utility companies.
“What is most meaningful is to be able to change how people think about issues,” Finkelstein said.
