Mary O'Neil Mundinger is the Centennial Professor in Health Policy and Dean of the Columbia University School of Nursing. She is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, and the American Academy of Nursing. Dr. Mundinger currently sits on the board of directors of UnitedHealth Group, Gentiva Health Services, and Cell Therapeutics, Inc.

Dr. Mundinger served as a member of the Commonwealth Fund Commission on Women's Health from 1993-98 and was a founder and the first President of Friends of the National Institute for Nursing Research. In 1993 President Clinton appointed her to the Health Professionals Review Group, which analyzed the President's plan to reform the health care system before he presented it to Congress. In 1984-85 she received a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellowship and worked as a staff member for Senator Kennedy on the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee.

Dr. Mundinger is the founder of Columbia Advanced Practice Nurse Associates (CAPNA), the first nursing school faculty practice where nurse practitioners hold commercial managed care contracts and are compensated at the same rate as primary care physicians. Recently she established at Columbia the Doctor of Nursing Practice degree, the first clinical nursing doctorate in the nation. In 1998 she was named Nurse Practitioner of the Year by The Nurse Practitioner: The American Journal of Primary Health Care.

Dr. Mundinger holds a BS cum laude from the University of Michigan and a doctorate in public health from Columbia University School of Public Health. In 1996 she was awarded a Doctor of Humane Letters (Honorary) from Hamilton College. In 1995 she was the first nurse to be honored and profiled by the University of Michigan as a distinguished alumna. She is a noted health policy expert, primarily known for her work on workforce issues and primary care. Author of Home Care Controversy: Too Little, Too Late, Too Costly (1983) and Autonomy in Nursing (1980), she has led Columbia's nursing school since 1986.

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