Northwell Health publicist Michelle Pinto, of Queens, dies at 71

A publicist with the heart of a storyteller, Northwell Health’s Michelle Pinto could bring even seen-it-all journalists to tears.

“Her press conferences would be filled with photographers and reporters because she had made such a compelling pitch, and we would all have tears running down our faces because the stories were so emotional and she was able to really crystallize the humanity in a story,” said WCBS-TV Long Island reporter Carolyn Gusoff. “She could convey that like no one else.”

In her nearly three decades at the hospital and health care giant, Pinto conveyed the humanity with stories of global impact, such as nurse Sandra Lindsay in December 2020 receiving the first COVID-19 vaccine outside clinical trials.

And she did so with smaller stories about one of her passions, pediatric health care, alerting the public to transplant surgeries and rare blood disease treatment at the New Hyde Park-based Northwell’s Cohen Children’s Medical Center.

“She was also very much an advocate for mental health,” said one former boss, Terry Lynam. “She did a lot of work with [Northwell’s] Zucker Hillside Hospital, highlighting their mental health services in a very tactful way.”

He trusted her judgment, he said. “She'd come to me with some ideas that I'm scratching my head about, not sure whether they were going to work, and 99% of the time they did.”

Pinto, who had no surviving family, was found dead at her home in Oakland Gardens, Queens, on Jan. 27 at age 71. The New York City medical examiner’s office said she died from hypertensive atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, which can lead to a heart attack or stroke.

Born July 8, 1953, she was the only child of Harry W. Schneider and Natalie Schneider. Her father was in the U.S. Army Air Corps, now the Air Force, and she spent her childhood in locales as varied as Alaska and Newfoundland, Canada, before the family settled in Queens.

After attending Newtown High School in that borough, she graduated from Queens College in 1972 with a bachelor’s degree in English. She went on to a master’s in that subject from the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut.

She married Paul Hollett, whom she later divorced, in 1980. That same year she became editor of an in-house magazine at the financial information company Monchik-Weber. Other editing positions followed until April 1997, when she joined the media relations department of Northwell Health, remaining there through this past September.

A second marriage, to Isaac Pinto, also ended in divorce. The couple had one son, Michael Pinto, of Queens, who died in adulthood in the late 2010s.

“She was a former reporter but was always a reporter, really,” said her friend and Northwell work colleague Betty Olt, “and an excellent writer and editor. She mentored so many people — myself, interns. She had an enormous amount of talent and passion for telling health stories that would have impact.”

Pinto will be interred at Baron Hirsch Cemetery in Staten Island. A memorial service will be held Feb. 20 from 4-6 p.m. in the second-floor executive conference room of Northwell Health’s headquarters at 2000 Marcus Ave. in New Hyde Park.