Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey has headed the private group since 2003
PLAINSBORO -- The head of the nation's largest health charity plans to resign.
Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey will stay on as CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation until her replacement is hired, it announced Tuesday
Lavizzo-Mourey has led the Plainsboro-based $10 billion foundation since January 2003.
One of its biggest goals has been reversing the nation's childhood obesity epidemic.
The foundation has helped make strides, as the obesity rate decreased from 13.9 percent in 2003-04 to 8.9 percent in 2013-2014 among children between 2 and 5. Meanwhile, the obesity rate among all children ages 2 to 19 has stopped rising and has held steady at 17 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The foundation committed $500 million towards the program in 2007 and an additional $500 million last year.
Before coming to the RWJUF, the Seattle native was a professor at the University of Pennsylvania. She also directed Penn's Institute on Aging and was chief of geriatric medicine at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Medicine.
Among her other previous stops, Lavizzo-Mourey served as deputy administrator of what is now the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality and worked on the White House Health Care Reform Task Force.
She has been named eight times to the Forbes list of most powerful women in the world.
Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook.