Avis de décès de Margaret-E. Mahoney - Nécrologie - MesAieux.com

MAHONEY--Margaret E., a leader in American health care philanthropy, died on December 22, 2011, after a long illness. Mahoney was the first woman to head a major U.S. philanthropic foundation, becoming president of The Commonwealth Fund in New York City in 1980. Prior to her leadership of The Commonwealth Fund, she was a senior executive of The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and of the Carnegie Corporation. She played a key role in the transition of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation from a family foundation to one of the largest U.S. foundations in the 1970s, and revitalized The Commonwealth Fund, which was founded in 1918 and today has assets of $680 million. In a career spanning more than four decades, Mahoney helped redefine and reenergize American health care philanthropy. Under her leadership, The Commonwealth Fund became a significant force for improving the delivery of health care, addressing the health care and developmental needs of vulnerable populations, and strengthening key health care institutions. Upon her retirement from The Commonwealth Fund in 1995, Mahoney worked with the Fund and others to create Healthy Steps for Young Children, a national initiative to encourage pediatricians to focus on developmental issues in the first three years of a child's life. Some 50 Healthy Steps practices are in operation around the country, and serve as models for integrating health care and social services needed by vulnerable children. A leader of American philanthropy from the late 1960s into the 1990s, Mahoney was noted as a talent spotter and for her willingness to take risks with promising, but yet unproven, health care professionals and researchers. A native of Nashville, Tennessee and a graduate of Vanderbilt University, Mahoney served as a Foreign Affairs Officer for the U.S. Department of State from 1946 to 1953 before entering the foundation field. She received honorary degrees from many colleges and universities including Smith College, Williams College, Brandeis University and the Medical College of Pennsylvania. She served on numerous non-profit boards including the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Columbia University, the Alliance for Aging Research, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, the Dole Foundation, the New York Academy of Medicine, and the Dartmouth Medical School/Koop Institute Board of Overseers. She was a member of the National Academy of Science's Institute of Medicine, which she helped create in the 1970s.