STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — In celebration of Black History Month, Richmond University Medical Center will host a presentation Feb. 26 by retired nurse and Sandy Ground descendant Lucille Herring.
Her presentation will reflect on both her personal and professional journey, as well as the history and legacy of Staten Island’s Sandy Ground community in Rossville.
She will also share two historical family artifacts, the Herring Family Quilt and the Crown Quilt, which highlight her family’s heritage and her ongoing commitment to cultural preservation.
Herring is a retired nurse epidemiologist and infection control professional with decades of experience in clinical nursing, public health, and community education.
She earned her nursing degree from Bayonne Hospital School of Nursing, her Bachelor of Science degree in nursing from Jersey City State College and her Master of Science in Health Care Administration from Central Michigan University.
She also completed specialized studies in Infection Control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
A lifelong community advocate, Herring is a descendant of Staten Island’s Sandy Ground, one of the oldest continuously settled free Black communities in the United States and a vital stop on the Underground Railroad. Her distinguished career includes service on Staten Island at Bayley Seton Hospital and St. Vincent’s Medical Center, now Richmond University Medical Center.
Herring is an active participant in the American Cancer Society’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer event, a cause especially meaningful to her as a breast cancer survivor since 1999. She is also a past president of the Sandy Ground Historical Society and a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, where she received the 1993 Staten Island Branch Humanitarian Award. She was named Staten Islander of the Week by NY1 in both 2011 and 2014 and received the Staten Island Borough President’s Black Achievers Award in 2011.
She is also a legacy life member of the Staten Island National Council of Negro Women (NCNW), where she was honored as a Humanitarian Award recipient, and a 2014 awardee of the Staten Island Chapter of the New York Urban League Humanitarian Award.
Herring currently serves as a member and national public relations chairperson for the Lambda Chapter of Lambda Kappa Mu Society, Inc., and is the past president of the board of directors of Frederick Douglass Memorial Park.
Herring’s presentation will take place from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in RUMC’s Sipp Auditorium, 355 Bard Avenue, West Brighton.
A photo ID is required for admission to the hospital.