Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Risa Lavizzo-Mourey. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, M.D., M.B.A., president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, is a national leader in transforming America’s health systems so people live healthier lives and receive the health care they need. A practicing physician with business credentials and hands-on experience developing national health policy, she was drawn to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation by the opportunity, as… See full bio.

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Story: Here is just a sample of one piece of research RWJF worked on around school food called “Improving Child Nutrition Policy: Insights from National USDA Study of School Food Environments, Feb 2009:” In the United States, nearly one-third of children and teens are overweight or obese. Because children consume a significant portion of their daily calories at school, the nutritional quality of school meals and competitive foods, such as those offered in vending machines, a la carte lines and school stores, is under particular scrutiny. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) sets nutrition standards for its two major school meal programs but currently has limited authority to set nutrition standards for competitive foods. Some states and local school districts have developed their own competitive food policies, but there are no national nutrition standards that regulate all foods available to students at school. Some key findings of the report were: • Body mass index (BMI) data indicate that students who participated in the School Breakfast Program had a lower likelihood of overweight and obesity than non-participants. • Only 8 percent of schools offered lunches that were consistent with the 2005 Dietary Guidelines recommendation for fiber, and no schools met the recommendation for sodium. • While more than 90 percent of schools offered children the opportunity to select low-fat items and a low-fat school lunch, students most often chose high-fat options. (Source: http://www.rwjf.org/files/research/20090102sndapolicybrief.pdf)

Evidence of Impact Summary:

The Robert Wood Johnson foundation is credited for its funding of several organizations and initiatives designed to improve childhood health outcomes. Beyond the range of programs funded, the attention which they have drawn is also cited as examples of impact.
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Organization Strengths Summary:

The foundation's leadership, staff, and funding are cited as its major assets. Other operations elements are occasionally mentioned by experts, as well.
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Areas for Improvement Summary:

The most commonly-cited areas for improvement involved expanding programming, enhancing funding, and fostering more collaboration.
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Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, M.D., M.B.A., president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, is a national leader in transforming America’s health systems so people live healthier lives and receive the health care they need. A practicing physician with business credentials and hands-on experience developing national health policy, she was drawn to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation by the opportunity, as she puts it, to “alter the trajectory and to push society to change for the better.” Driven by the belief that the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is a steward of private resources that must be used in the public’s interest, particularly to help the most vulnerable, Lavizzo-Mourey combines the values she learned as a doctor—commitment to others, a sense of altruism—with the skills and knowledge from her business training—the importance of measuring results and outcomes, of clear accountability, of taking a disciplined approach to managing resources and motivating people. Through it all, she is guided by the conviction that philanthropy is about simultaneously improving individual lives, transforming systems and in turn, achieving lasting social change. Lavizzo-Mourey was a leader in academic medicine, government service and her medical specialty of geriatrics before joining RWJF in 2001 as senior vice president and director of the health care group.  Previously, at the University of Pennsylvania, she was the Sylvan Eisman Professor of medicine and health care systems and director of Penn’s Institute on Aging. In Washington, D.C., she was deputy administrator of what is now the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality. She is a member of the Institute of Medicine of The National Academies. Raised in Seattle by physician parents, Lavizzo-Mourey earned a medical degree from Harvard Medical School, and an M.B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. She completed a residency in Internal Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston; was a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania; and trained in geriatrics at Penn. Always a physician as well as an agent for wide-scale social change, she still treats patients at a community health clinic in New Brunswick, N.J. She and her husband of more than 30 years have two adult children.

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