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Mary Ann Christopher, RN, MSN, FAAN is President and Chief Executive Officer of Visiting Nurse Association of Central Jersey (VNACJ), a community based organization which provides comprehensive care to individuals and families throughout Monmouth, Middlesex, Ocean, Mercer, Somerset, Union, Burlington and Gloucester counties. VNACJ is the largest Visiting Nurse Association in the State of New Jersey and among the largest in the nation, with 1,500 serving over 100,000 individuals each year. Mrs. Christopher has been a nurse for thirty years and has worked at the VNACJ since 1983. During her tenure as President and CEO, Mrs. Christopher, has spearheaded the agency’s growth into its region’s leading provider of in-home and hospice care. Under her stewardship, the VNACJ provides a broad array of programs, including clinics for the poor, school based health services, a mobile nursing program to the deinstitutionalized mentally ill and community outreach and prevention programs. The agency serves as an essential safety-net for thousands of individuals and families without access to primary and preventative services. Mrs. Christopher is a leading national voice on a wide range of health care issues. She regularly interacts with decision-makers on Capitol Hill, and in her State Capitol, to develop legislative and regulatory policies to enhance the delivery of home care, hospice, and community-based health care services. Her public policy work has included advancement of public/private partnerships to address the growing nursing shortage, expansion of telehealth services, ensuring adequate reimbursement for Medicare home health, improving Medicaid managed care programs strengthening her state’s human services system for the most vulnerable. Her work has included serving with distinction on numerous Boards of Directors, and appointments to several health-care related positions across the country. She currently serves on the Board of Trustees for both the National Association for Home Care and Hospice ("NAHC") and the Visiting Nurse Associations of America ("VNAA"), and is the Chair of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation New Jersey Nursing Initiative, aimed at addressing the shortage of nurses across the state. She is also a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, the Nurse Executive Program at the Wharton School of Business, and the Public Health Leadership Institute of the Centers for Disease Control. Mrs. Christopher earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Nursing from Fairfield University and a Master of Science Degree in Nursing from Seton Hall University. She and her husband George Christopher reside in Avon By The Sea, and have four children. Mrs. Christopher was appointed to the UMDNJ Board of Trustees by Governor John S. Corzine in June 2006, and reappointed to a full five-year term in 2007. | 
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