Outstanding Leadership in Queens
2018 Honoree of the Queens Federation of Churches

Gloria M. Rochester

Gloria M. Rochester, founder, president and CEO of The Queens Sickle Cell Advocate Network, Inc. (QSCAN), is also the mother of two boys and two girls. When her youngest daughter was diagnosed with Sickle Cell Anemia at the age of 18 months, she embarked on a determined mission and search to find out about the disease. In her quest to find answers to the many questions, she began to collect information and identify the agencies which were supposed to manage the care of Sickle Cell.

She realized that the disease was not high on the priority of either the medical institutions or the legislative authorities. She was so frustrated by her own struggles to obtain information and relief for her daughter that she became determined to try to change the culture surrounding the treatment and provisions of service.

Passionately, from the basement of her home in 1978, she started a parent support group and in a short time this grew into an organization known as The Queens Sickle Cell Advisory Network. Ms. Rochester faced many obstacles and a host of other complications. She made a commitment to be in the forefront of the drive to make a difference in bringing awareness, support, advocacy and empowerment to the families and individuals affected to enhance their quality of life.

In 1997, the Queens Sickle Cell Advocacy Network, Inc. was incorporated as a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization with the express purpose of raising awareness of the public at large, and more importantly, the legislatures in the community of the devastating impact of the disease. As the numbers of people depending on her for support grew, Ms. Rochester chose to apply herself full-time to broadening her mind and obtaining much knowledge, skills and resources from other agencies and organizations with a similar social welfare orientation.

Over the past 28 years, Ms. Rochester equipped herself with the necessary training and leadership skills to provide families and individuals with networking support and activities enabling them to make positive changes when they feel overwhelmed by the barriers and painful experiences they face. To prepare herself for the challenge of her chosen mission, and to structure QSCAN into the organization required to provide families and individuals with access to federal, state, city and local resources that will enhance their quality of life, she became involved in the activities of the NYS Developmental Disabilities Planning Council, and the NYS Department of Health Bureau of Child Adolescent Health. She works with the NYS Parent and Partners in Health Organizations to empower families and care for children with special health care needs. She also attended training courses in Leadership, Public Speaking, Conflict Management and Coalition Building run by the Citizens Committee of New York Leadership Institute.
Through her tireless and almost single handed efforts, QSCAN has become a multi-purpose organization serving not only the Sickle Cell community, but also providing advocacy and other support for the unemployed and under privileged that knock on QSCAN’s doors. The organization has come to be known nationally and internationally and has developed partnership and collaboration with health care professionals, government agencies, private institutions and community groups.

Despite all of her achievements, caring for her family, building a functioning organization, becoming a surrogate parent to so many individuals with Sickle Cell with whom she immediately bonds, or dealing with institutions and legislators in whose hands the fate of her clients rests, Mrs. Rochester has remained approachable, helpful and consistent.

Her organization is capable of much more than it has been able to achieve, but her fundraising efforts have not so far generated the kind of funding it now needs to go to the next level.

Hopefully, her constant appeals may soon bear fruit to allow changes in the structure of the organization, and to relieve some of the pressure under which she has been performing for the past decade. To God be the glory!