Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, MD, will be leaving her position as president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) after serving since January 2003.
“Risa’s commitment to improving the health of this nation during her tenure as CEO is simply unparalleled, and she has led this Foundation with an extraordinary sense of purpose and passion,” RWJF board chairman Roger Fine said in a statement.
The announcement came with a long list of Lavizzo-Mourey’s accomplishments while leading the nation’s largest philanthropic organization devoted to health. Among them are the efforts to reduce childhood obesity. In the nine years since the foundation’s project began, and with more than $1 billion put behind it, the obesity rate for children between the ages of 2 and 19 has stopped increasing, and among the 2-5 age group, it had fallen 5 percent by 2014, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Lavizzo-Mourey will remain in the position until a successor is chosen.
John joined TriMed in 2016, focusing on healthcare policy and regulation. After graduating from Columbia College Chicago, he worked at FM News Chicago and Rivet News Radio, and worked on the state government and politics beat for the Illinois Radio Network. Outside of work, you may find him adding to his never-ending graphic novel collection.