News & Press Releases
1/18/2012
Joseph DiStefano, Esq. receives 2011 Benjamin Sturges Distinguished Service Award
(Warwick, R.I. – December 12, 2011) – Joseph DiStefano, Esq., who has served on the board of trustees at St. Joseph Health Services of Rhode Island for 26 years, is a recipient of the 2011 Benjamin R. Sturges Distinguished Service Award from the Hospital Association of Rhode Island. DiStefano was recognized for his service as a St. Joseph trustee, along with his contributions in creating CharterCARE Health Partners, the health system that affiliates St. Joseph and Roger Williams Medical Center. He currently serves on the CharterCARE Board of Trustees.
“There are many tests of effective trusteeship including leadership, stewardship, vision and consistency of effort,” said Edwin J. Santos, chairman of the CharterCARE board of trustees. “Joseph DiStefano has met the challenge of each of these tests over the 26 years he has been a member of the St. Joseph Health Services Board of Trustees.”
DiStefano received the award on November 27, 2011 at the “Celebration of Excellence in Hospital Care,” an annual awards ceremony held by the Hospital Association of Rhode Island (HARI). At this event, recipients for distinguished service were recognized, along with employees of the year from HARI’s member hospitals.
The Distinguished Service Award is bestowed in honor of Benjamin Sturges, a community leader who devoted his life to health care and to bettering the community. For half a century, Sturges was active in hospital issues as a trustee at South County Hospital and Butler Hospital, as well as taking up many educational and environmental causes.
DiStefano has more than two decades of recognized leadership in health care. He served on the St. Joseph board as it led Rhode Island's Catholic health system into the comprehensive community hospital and health provider it is today. He has chaired multiple board committees, including the strategic planning committee, and has served on numerous ad hoc and special board and hospital task forces.
He has been instrumental in the advancement of philanthropy at St. Joseph, leading the creation of the development function at the hospital and serving as the Foundation’s president. DiStefano has also co-chaired successful capital campaigns, special fundraising events and annual appeals.
In helping to bring St. Joseph together with Roger Williams Medical Center, DiStefano helped assure continuation of Catholic-sponsored health care in Rhode Island while helping create, in CharterCARE Health Partners, a community-centered health system that gives Rhode Islanders another choice as to where to seek care.
CharterCARE Health Partners is the corporate parent of Roger Williams Medical Center and St. Joseph Health Services of Rhode Island. It operates a total of 579 licensed hospital beds, employs approximately 3,200 employees and has annual operating revenues of approximately $330 million.
(L-R) Kenneth Belcher, Joseph DiStefano
