Linda Koh Honored as One of BusinessWest’s 2025 Healthcare Heroes

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Assistant Professor Linda Koh, PhD, MS, RN, PHN, has been named one of the 2025 Healthcare Heroes by BusinessWest and The Healthcare News. Selected in the Community Health category, this honor recognizes her significant contributions to public health, nutrition education, and community wellness in western Massachusetts.

In her Healthcare Hero spotlight, Dr. Koh reflects on how being raised with an early exposure to nutrition through her family led to a personal and professional journey toward advocating for plant-based diets, sustainable food practices, and culturally responsive educational methods. Her work extends beyond academia into meaningful collaborations that address food access, health equity, and public policy. Dr. Koh says in the featured video:

"It is a great honor to receive this award, as it recognizes the work that my team and I are doing to help train the next generation of nurse scientists, while also bringing visibility to the need to continue working towards advancing health equity— both in the community and through nutrition and sustainable food systems."

—Linda Koh, 2025 BusinesstWest Healthcare Hero and EMCON Assistant Professor

Crystal Neuhauser, chief development officer for the Marieb College of Nursing with the UMass Amherst Foundation, nominated Dr. Koh. She remarked to BusinessWest:

“Dr. Koh’s impact is clear: families eating better, students entering the workforce more prepared, and communities being heard... What makes her heroic is not just her scholarship— it’s her radical belief that everyone deserves to live with health, dignity, and joy."

—Crystal Neuhauser, EMCON Chief Development Officer

The 2025 Healthcare Heroes will be celebrated at an awards gala will take place on Wednesday, Oct. 22 from 5:30 to 9 p.m. at the Log Cabin in Holyoke. Tickets cost $95 per person, and tables of 10 are available. Make a reservation.

According to their website, the BusinessWest Healthcare Heroes program began in 2017 "to honor the heroes working across the region’s wide, deep, and all-important healthcare and wellness sector. These leaders, innovators, and collaborators have devoted their careers to improving the quality of individual lives and the health of entire communities."

Dr. Koh completed her PhD in Nursing at the Elaine Marieb College of Nursing in May 2022 and started as an assistant professor here last fall.

Additional Coverage

• "BusinessWest unveils Healthcare Heroes class of 2025," WWLP22
• "Presenting The 2025 Healthcare Heroes," HealthcareNews.com