Kristin Silvani, learning specialist, equity lead, joined the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) in 2001. Drawn to the Foundation’s focus on increasing access to healthcare and advancing equity, she views her role as helping to facilitate continuous learning to improve the skill, knowledge, and effectiveness of RWJF’s workforce. As she puts it: “we want to make knowledge and learning accessible to all staff, across the board. When we all have expanded knowledge, we can do our best work together to advance health equity nationwide.”
Kristin also serves as an equity lead for RWJF’s Equity Leadership Group (ELG). Launched in 2021, the ELG seeks to create equitable access to opportunities and resources at RWJF, and to provide staff with opportunities for input into the group’s evolving equity work. The backbone of the Foundation’s equity plan, the ELG seeks to align RWJF’s internal culture to its organizational mission and values, with equity and inclusion forming an integral part of the cultural foundation upon which our organization is built.
Previously, Kristin served as an RWJF production coordinator and co-created an RWJF series called “Healthy Debates: A Space for Civic Dialogue,” which has the goal of modeling and encouraging healthy debate and dialogue within the Foundation.
Born and raised in New Jersey, Kristin now splits her time between New Jersey and Maine with her wife, Martha Bleeker, a principal researcher with Mathematica in Princeton, N.J., and their two dogs. She enjoys meditating, reading, walking in the woods, watching stand-up comedy and documentaries, and attending many self-enrichment classes.