Each year, hundreds of UUPers publish books and articles, and are recognized for accomplishments on campus and in their communities. The Voice is pleased to recognize three members in this issue.

• Two Buffalo Center UUP members were among 10 recipients to receive Western New York Hispanic Heritage Awards.

Hector Alejandro and Darlene Mercado were recently honored as “Educators of the Year” by former state Sen. Antoine Thompson. This was the third year Thompson handed out the awards, which recognize Western New Yorkers for their dedication and contributions to the fields of education, international business, faith-based leadership, community advocacy, health education and humanitarianism, and entertainment.

Mercado and Alejandro work at the University of Buffalo’s Educational Opportunity Center. Mercado is supervisor of counseling and advisement; Alejandro is a counselor.

• UUP member Jeffrey Borer, a professor and chair of cardiovascular medicine at Downstate Medical University in Brooklyn, was recently named by New York magazine as one of the best doctors in New York’s five boroughs and several surrounding counties.

A physician in Downstate’s Howard Gilman Institute for Heart Valve Disease, Borer is editor-in-chief of Cardiology and serves on multiple other editorial boards. In May 2009, he received Celebrate Downstate’s Transforming Lives Through Research Award.

Doctors chosen for New York magazine’s “Best Doctors” issues were selected by Castle Connolly Medical Ltd., the nation’s leading provider of information on top physicians.

— Karen L. Mattison