Jessica L. Israel, MD
Corporate Chair of Geriatrics and Palliative Care at RWJ Barnabas Health, Corporate Director, The James and Sharon Maida Geriatrics Institute
Dr. Israel leads the RWJ Barnabas Health’s Geriatrics and Palliative Care service lines. She formed the RWJBH Geriatrics System Collaborative, which is made up of 36 interdisciplinary members, representing all 11 of the system’s acute adult care medical centers. In addition to leading initiatives through the Geriatrics Collaborative, she is focused on developing NICHE programs, introducing HELP Programs, and obtaining Geriatrics Emergency Department Accreditations in all of our acute care facilities. With a team of educators from across the system, Dr. Israel also leads the effort to redesign, enhance and grow the system’s current Geriatrics fellowship opportunities to train New Jersey’s Geriatricians for the future.
Dr. Israel spent the first 12 years of her career at The Mount Sinai Medical School in New York (now the Icahn School of Medicine). After completing training, she accepted a job as the course creator and director of “The Art and Science of Medicine”. Dr. Israel was a faculty scholar at the MACY Institute and the Palliative Care Education and Practice Program at Harvard University School of Medicine.
In 2002, Dr. Israel moved to New Jersey and Monmouth Medical Center. In her role as Section Chief of Palliative Care, she built a new clinical program in palliative medicine for the hospital with a focus on community, medical student and resident education. Dr. Israel developed the first palliative care outpatient program in New Jersey. She was active in teaching at the Drexel University School of Medicine where she was a faculty member and was recognized with a Golden Apple Teaching Award, the Oksana Korzenowski Award for Clinical Excellence, and induction into the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society. During this time, she co-edited a textbook for Elsevier Press entitled “Medicine a Competency-Based Companion” with Dr. Allan Tunkel. This book is used in medical schools both nationally and abroad to teach students not just internal medicine, but how to practice medicine within the competencies developed by the ACGME.
In 2006, Dr. Israel became the Division Chief of Geriatrics at Monmouth Medical Center and worked to grow the clinical program in senior care at the hospital. In 2015, she took on the role of Regional Director for Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine for Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch and the new Monmouth Medical Center Southern Campus in Lakewood. She has been involved in the development and growth of two GEM Programs, an ACE Unit, two NICHE certifications, The Anna Greenwall Geriatrics Outpatient Practice at Monmouth Medical Center, and the James and Sharon Maida Geriatrics Institute at the Southern Campus.
From a leadership perspective, before becoming the Corporate Chair of Geriatrics and Palliative Care at RWJBH, Dr. Israel served as the Interim Chairperson for the Department of Medicine at Monmouth Medical Center on four separate occasions, covering more than 5 years of her tenure there. She chairs the Professional Services Committee for Spring Point Senior Living Communities, where she also serves as a board member. Dr. Israel also serves as an Advisory Board member to the Visiting Nurse Association of New Jersey’s Advanced Care Institute and Home Care Program. She is a Steering Committee Member of the Conversations of Your Life (COYL) task force and a member of the New Jersey Goals of Care Palliative Care Coalition.