The Center for Medicare Advocacy is delighted to welcome Cinnamon St. John as our full-time Chiplin Medicare & Health Policy Fellow. Ms. St. John previously worked with the Center through a fellowship from the American Political Science Association (APSA). During that time, she authored an important paper regarding challenges and best practices for skilled nursing facility residents during the COVID pandemic, entitled Geography Is Not Destiny: Protecting Nursing Home Residents from the Next Pandemic
Most recently, Ms. St. John served as Associate Director of the Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing (HIGN) at NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing, where she designed and managed programs focusing on ensuring optimal health and quality of life for older adults through interprofessional and patient education. Her work at HIGN helped train over 2,000 Bronx seniors on wellness and disease self-management, strengthened collaboration between a major NYC health system and community-based organizations, and drove the national and international dissemination of elder care training modules. She has also led the development of a strategic partnership between HIGN and a New York-based long-term care provider as part of the state’s “Workforce Investment Organization” (WIO) initiative. This program is helping to build and support a robust training infrastructure that will enhance the skills and advancement opportunities of long-term care workers in the region.
Prior to her APSA fellowship with the Center, Cinnamon served as an APSA fellow with the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging in the office of (then) Chairman Susan Collins (R-Maine). While with the Senate Aging Committee, Ms. St. John helped inform policy and drive the oversight of legislation focused on improving the support infrastructure for older Americans, with a particular focus on Alzheimer’s Disease.
As a former journalist, Cinnamon is passionate about increasing public awareness of the concerns of older adults, the challenges that our society faces in addressing those needs, and the opportunities we have to improve care for our aging population.
Ms. St. John received a Master’s of Public Administration from the NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and an MA in International Peace and Security from King’s College London.
The Center is excited and grateful to have Cinnamon St. John joining our staff. She will focus on issues facing individuals with long-term care conditions, health equity matters – especially for people receiving care in in facilities – and continued concerns exposed by the COVID pandemic.