Robert Wood Johnson Foundation history

Started in 1973, it provided young physicians the opportunity to study such non-clinical topics as demography, economics, management, and similar fields at the graduate level for two years at major colleges and universities.

In 1980, for example, the Foundation evaluated such changes in health care as the growth in outpatient services and modified its goals to reflect this and other changes.

1985: Gustav Lienhard retires as chairman and is replaced by Robert Myers.

Beginning in 1986, the foundation focused on funding programs for the treatment HIV/AIDS, despite the stigma surrounding the disease.

1987: Foundation revamps mission and goals to reflect changes in health care needs.

By May 1989, the foundation had given $50 million to care services and prevention campaigns.

After Doctor Steven A. Schroeder became the foundation's president in 1990, he made substance abuse a major focus of the foundation’s work.

Terrence Keenan, the Foundation's special program director, addressed the issue in a booklet published in 1992.

The foundation launched Smokeless States in 1993, a program designed to educate local groups about the effects of tobacco and options for regulating tobacco usage.

The foundation's Center for Tobacco-Free Kids was asked to participate as a "disinterested and trustworthy party" in state litigation leading up to the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement of 1998.

Wentz stepped down in 1999 and was replaced by Robert E. Campbell.

By 2007, 31 states and the District of Columbia had adopted the program.

The foundation established the Commission to Build a Healthier America in 2008.

In 2010, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation partnered with the University of Wisconsin's Population Health Institute to launch the County Health Ranking program, which calculates and compares the health of each county, nationwide.

In 2011, the foundation established a $100 million impact capital fund to develop the Green House model.

Critics of the shift expressed concern that funding for some areas—such as leadership training for doctors, and programs for nursing and health policy—was being discontinued as part of the shift. It had previously focused on specific health issues, and would instead focus on changes that could lead to large-scale social shifts by building what it called a "culture of health." The change built on the Culture of Health Action Framework adopted by the foundation in 2013.

By 2014, 27 states had adopted versions of the Green House Project.

RWJF pledged a second $500 million in 2015 to continue the work.

In 2018, the foundation co-funded a study along with the National Institutes of Health that found police killings of unarmed black Americans led to adverse mental health affects among black American respondents.

In 2019, the foundation worked with the Global Reporting Initiative and others to develop the Culture of Health for Business Framework.