President and CEO, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, M.D., MBA, is president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a position she has held since 2003. Under her leadership, RWJF has focused on building a comprehensive Culture of Health for all, extending the Foundation’s 40-year history of addressing key public health issues. To advance the nation’s movement toward better health RWJF concentrates on four major themes: Healthy Communities; Healthy Children, Healthy Weight; Transforming Health and Health Care Systems; and Leadership for Better Health.
A specialist in geriatrics, Lavizzo-Mourey came to the Foundation from the University of Pennsylvania, where she served as the Sylvan Eisman Professor of Medicine and Health Care Systems. She also directed Penn’s Institute on Aging and was chief of geriatric medicine at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Medicine. In previous years, she worked on the White House Health Care Reform Task Force and served on numerous federal advisory committees, including the National Committee for Vital and Health Statistics. She also co-chaired a congressionally requested National Academy of Medicine study on racial and ethnic disparities on health care.
Lavizzo-Mourey earned her medical degree from Harvard Medical School, and also holds an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. She is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, The American Philosophical Society, and the President’s Council for Fitness, Sports and Nutrition. She currently serves on the Smithsonian Institution Board of Regents and several other boards of directors.