Selection positions organization for continued momentum in policy and systems change
New York, NY (December 22, 2025) – Rani E. Snyder, MPA, a leader in the fields of aging, health care and philanthropy, has been selected as president of The John A. Hartford Foundation (JAHF), a private foundation dedicated to improving care for older adults.
Snyder has served as acting president since April 2025 and was vice president of program since 2016. She succeeds President Emerita Terry Fulmer, PhD, RN, FAAN, as head of the nation’s leading philanthropy focused solely on aging and health, which holds an endowment of over $750 million. Snyder begins her duties as president on January 1.
“Rani Snyder will help us achieve the foundation’s mandate to do the greatest good for the greatest number through our work to improve care for older adults,” said John R. Mach, Jr., MD, chair of the board of trustees. “With Rani’s selection, we are reaffirming our organizational mission and priorities, while positioning the foundation for accelerated momentum in achieving our goals.”
Snyder is known for her passion and long career centered on improving the care of older adults. She has a track record of careful stewardship and strategic allocation of philanthropic resources to achieve large-scale systemic change. For 10 years, Snyder has overseen the program team and all grantmaking at JAHF, directing $220 million in funding to nonprofit organizations and academic health centers that are advancing initiatives in three priority areas: creating Age-Friendly Health Systems, supporting family caregivers, and improving serious illness and end-of-life care.
Previously, Snyder served for 14 years as director of health care programs and the Aging and Quality of Life portfolio at the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation, where she expanded and institutionalized geriatrics education in medical training programs nationwide and supported initiatives in nursing and caregiving.
“Creating real change in the care of older adults requires collaboration between the private, nonprofit and governmental sectors,” said Snyder. “As president, I will continue to lead high-impact coalitions to build a society where we can all thrive as we age.”
Beyond grantmaking, Snyder has demonstrated leadership in creating partnerships with policymakers, funders and other organizations that have expanded JAHF’s impact on behalf of older adults and family caregivers. Through these collaborations, she has been at the forefront of embedding age-friendly care and support for caregivers into policy and systems, while developing co-funded partnerships with numerous foundations to scale national initiatives. She is a prominent speaker and writer who uses her platform as a philanthropic leader to influence aging in America.
Snyder’s notable achievements include leading the creation of a public-private partnership between JAHF, the Administration for Community Living, the National Academy for State Health Policy and other organizations to advance the National Strategy to Support Family Caregivers. Developed following the passage of the RAISE Family Caregivers Act in 2018, the National Strategy is whole-of-society blueprint that builds on more than 350 actions from 15 federal agencies to better support caregivers.
Under Snyder’s leadership, the foundation’s decade of grantmaking in serious illness and end-of-life care expanded services, increased professional training, and strengthened the field through the networks it helped foster, as documented in an evaluation by NORC at the University of Chicago published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
Snyder has also played a key role in shaping federal policy and quality measurement related to the care of older adults. She convened experts whose work informed a new comprehensive dementia care payment model from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). She similarly helped organize grantee activities and outreach to CMS that led to the 2025 implementation of the Age-Friendly Hospital Measure, the first-ever health care quality measure of age-friendly care for older adults.
Currently, Snyder serves as a board member for the American Society on Aging and is on the Elder and Home Care Committee of MaineHealth Mid Coast Hospital in Maine. She is a past board chair for Grantmakers In Aging, a fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine, and previously served as a volunteer long-term care ombudsman for the State of Nevada Aging and Disability Services Division. She earned an MPA in health care policy from New York University’s Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, followed by doctoral studies in health services research at the UCLA School of Public Health. She began her professional career with JAHF’s Health Care Cost and Quality program in the 1990s before transitioning to supporting health policy initiatives at the Commonwealth Fund in New York City.
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Media Contact: Andrew Silva, 508-933-8054, asilva@MessagePartnersPR.com
About The John A. Hartford Foundation
The John A. Hartford Foundation, based in New York City, is a private, nonpartisan, national philanthropy dedicated to improving the care of older adults. For more than four decades, the organization has been the leader in building a field of experts in aging and testing and replicating innovative approaches to care. The foundation has three priority areas: creating age-friendly health systems, supporting family caregivers, and improving serious illness and end-of-life care. Working with its grantees, the foundation strives to change the status quo and create a society where older adults can continue their vital contributions. For more information, visit johnahartford.org.