Michellene Davis

As the Executive Vice President and Chief Corporate Affairs Officer for RWJBarnabas Health, Michellene Davis leads Social Impact and Community Investment across the System. She oversees the areas of Policy Development and Governmental and External Affairs, Healthy Living and Community and Employee Wellness and Engagement, and Global Health. She is the creator of the RWJBarnabas Health Women’s Leadership Alliance and Institute for Corporate Internship. Ms. Davis helps to direct the strategic policy decisions of the System and strengthens the System’s position with state and federal elected officials and agencies. Ms. Davis joined Barnabas Health in 2009, and soon after was named Executive Vice President of Corporate Affairs, the first woman and first person of color to serve as an Executive Vice President in the Barnabas Health system’s history.

In 2017, she was named to the top 10 on the NJBIZ Health Care Power 50, and to the 2017 Top 100 in Business, both lists on which she has been named previously. She has also been ranked by NJBIZ as the State of New Jersey’s top lobbyist in the healthcare industry and by PolitickerNJ as one of the most politically powerful people in the State of New Jersey. Prior to her current position, Ms. Davis served in several high-ranking statewide political appointment positions.

Before joining Barnabas Health, Ms. Davis served as Chief Policy Counsel to former New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine, the first African American to serve in the role, and Acting New Jersey State Treasurer. Prior to Treasury, Ms. Davis led the $2.4 billion New Jersey Lottery as Executive Director and CEO and served as a senior policy advisor in the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services.

Ms. Davis has a proven record of supporting women throughout her career and, while Acting State Treasurer of New Jersey founded the New Jersey Department of the Treasury’s Office of Supplier Diversity and Division of Minority and Women Owned Businesses.

Ms. Davis is also active in her civic community. She serves as: a member of the Board of Governors of Rowan University – Rutgers Camden; a member of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center Women’s Board, Trustee of the New Jersey Women Lawyers 2 Association; Secretary to the Board of the New Jersey Legislative Black Caucus Foundation; and President of the Executive Women of New Jersey. She also serves on the Board of Directors of the Caucus Educational Trust, and is a member of the Seton Hall Law School Diversity Council, the Association of Black Women Lawyers, the New Jersey State Bar Association, the Garden State Bar Association, the National Bar Association, the American Bar Association, and the Women’s Political Caucus of New Jersey. Formerly, she served on the Corporate Advisory Board of the Boys and Girls Club of New Jersey, the Board of Trustees of Essex County College and Sacred Heart University in Connecticut.

Ms. Davis has received national and statewide recognition for her dedication and career accomplishments. Most recently, she received the 2016 Evangelina Menendez Trailblazer Award from U.S. Senator Robert Menendez and was also the recipient of the 2016 Corporate Sector Award from the New Jersey Women Lawyers Association. Previously, she was named the 2015 LUPE Amiga of the Year, 2014 Business Advocate of the Year by the Statewide Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and selected as one of The Network Journal’s 2014 Top 25 Most Influential Black Women in Business in the United States. She has been honored by numerous civic organizations.

She began her legal career as a trial litigator, is an Honors graduate of Seton Hall University and holds a Juris Doctorate from Seton Hall School of Law.