RWJBarnabas Health announced the appointment of Susan C. Reinhard, PhD, RN, FAAN as the Chair of the RWJBarnabas Health Board of Trustees, effective July 1. Dr. Reinhard will be the first woman and the first nurse to hold this position for the health system.

A Founding member of the Board since 2016, Dr. Reinhard has served as Vice Chair since 2022 and has served as Chair of the Quality and Safety Committee and participated on the Compliance and Strategic Planning/Academic Affairs Committees. She also served on the Board of Directors for Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital since 2013 and was a member of its Finance, Strategic Planning and Quality Committees.

Dr. Reinhard is a nationally recognized expert in health and long-term care policy, with extensive experience in conducting, directing and translating research into action to promote policy change. Dr. Reinhard is a Visiting Professor for the Betty Irene Moore Fellowship for Nurse Leaders and Innovators at the University of California, Davis. Prior, Dr. Reinhard was the Senior Vice President and Director of the AARP Public Policy Center, the focal point for policy research and analysis in health, long-term care, and economics at the federal, state and international levels in Washington, DC. She also served as the Chief Strategist for Family Caregiving Initiatives and the Center to Champion Nursing in America, a national resource center created to ensure that America has the highly skilled nurses it needs to provide care in the future. Previously, Dr. Reinhard was Professor and Co-Director of the Rutgers University Center for State Health Policy, where she advanced the formulation of sound and creative state health and long-term policy across the nation. She also served as Deputy Commissioner for the New Jersey Department of Health from 1996-1999 and again from 2002-2005. In that role, Dr. Reinhard served three governors from both political parties and was responsible for hospital, nursing home and community-based care licensing, regulation, financing, and quality oversight.

“We are thrilled to welcome Susan as our new Board Chair,” said Mark E. Manigan, President and Chief Executive Officer for RWJBarnabas Health. “Her vast experience and expertise have been tremendous assets to our organization and will continue to be instrumental to the growth and advancement of our mission to create and sustain healthier communities across New Jersey.”

As evidence of her belief in service, Dr. Reinhard has served on numerous boards including the National Alliance for Caregiving, the National Academy for State Health Policy, the International Journal of Care and Caring, Generations and The Leapfrog Group.

“I am deeply honored to serve as Board Chair for the largest academic health system in New Jersey,” said Ms. Reinhard. “I look forward to working with Mark and my fellow trustees in continuing to enhance and transform the health care landscape across New Jersey and beyond.” Dr. Reinhard will succeed Lester J. Owens who has served as Board Chair since 2022.

A lifelong member of the American Nurses Association and NJ State Nurses Association, Dr. Reinhard served as a NJSNA lobbyist early in her career. She earned a PhD at Rutgers University, a Masters at University of Cincinnati, and Bachelors at College of New Jersey.