The twenty-five member staff of the Center is comprised of seven Ph.D.-level researchers trained in health services, aging, and policy research, complemented by a staff of masters level graduates in public health, social work, computer sciences and related fields. Members of the senior staff have held appointments at the Harvard University School of Public Health, the John F. Kennedy School of Government, the Johns Hopkins University Schools of Hygiene and Public Health, Nursing, and Medicine, and the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research.

A unique strength of the Center is its relationship to VNSNY, its parent agency, and its ability to enhance its research activities by drawing on the agency’s programmatic and clinical expertise, its rich databases, and its administrative and technical resources.

VNSNY was established in 1893 on the Lower East Side of Manhattan by Lillian D. Wald, the founder of public health nursing in the United States, to provide nursing care and health education to new immigrants. VNSNY is now the largest not-for-profit provider of home health care in the United States and is dedicated to providing quality home care and related community services to people of all ages and of all social and economic means. Every week, the agency provides comprehensive services to approximately 22,000 New Yorkers in almost every neighborhood of New York City. The agency’s programs include Adult Care, Long-Term Home Health Care, Managed Long-Term Care, Hospice Services, AIDS services, Community Mental Health Services, and Maternal/Child Health and Pediatric Care.