Mary Jane Koren, M.D., M.P.H., is the former vice president of the Commonwealth Funds Frail Elders Program from 2002 to 2012. In this role, Dr. Koren worked on improving the way primary care is given to people with complex care needs and coordinating health and long-term supports and services for those patients. Dr. Koren began her career in geriatrics at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, New York, where she started the geriatrics fellowship program and was assistant medical director for their home care agency. In 1986, Dr. Koren joined the faculty of the department of geriatrics at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and was named Associate Chief of Staff for Extended Care at the Bronx Veterans Administration Medical Center. She later joined the New York State Department of Health as the Director of the Bureau of Long Term Care Services, which oversaw the state's nursing homes and adult day health care programs.
While at the Fund, Dr. Koren gave invited testimony to Congressional committees on nursing home quality, the implications for health care of the aging of the baby boomers, and senior hunger and the Older Americans Act. She also serves on numerous advisory committees and expert panels for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and other federal agencies. Dr. Koren is the immediate past chair of Advancing Excellence: Long-Term Care Collaborative, which runs the Nursing Home Quality Campaign. In 2010 she was the recipient of the Terrence Keenan Leadership Award in Health Philanthropy from Grantmakers in Health..
