Editor’s Note: McKnight’s Long-Term Care News, McKnight’s Home Care and McKnight’s Senior Living are profiling the McKnight’s 2024 Pinnacle Awards honorees daily in April and May. For additional McKnight’s Pinnacle Awards content, visit this page.

As a young immigrant in a tough neighborhood of Elizabeth, NJ, Roberto Muñiz dreamed of a life beyond volunteering at a local hospital that provided him with free meals. Today, he is president and CEO of Parker Health Group, a company he has led for 26 years. 

During his tenure, Parker Health has grown from serving 127 residents in two small facilities to providing a full continuum of care for more than 9,000 older adults across central New Jersey. 

Among other accomplishments, Muñiz has partnered with VNA Health Group to develop a program of visiting physician services and palliative care to more than 6,000 chronically ill older adults who are homebound. 

He also joined with fellow New Jersey nonprofit Springpoint Senior Living, to create LivWell, a three-year pilot program to assess the ability of specialized programming to improve health outcomes for affordable senior housing residents. 

In November, Muñiz, who was born in Puerto Rico, was installed as chairman of the board of LeadingAge, the national association of nonprofit senior living and care providers. 

“When I was a young boy, I never thought I would amount to anything. My early life was spent feeling like I had no future,” he said at the time. 

That comment came just four months after Parker Health Group made an $18.8 million gift to the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School to create the Parker Health Group Division of Geriatrics to focus on improving care for older adults through applied research, education and interdisciplinary collaboration. 

  • Muñiz is a senior health administration fellow at his alma mater, Rutgers University. 
  • He helped create a long-term certificate program and curriculum to supplement the number of hours required for licensed nursing home administrator training. 
  • He is an adviser to the Vision Centre, a group that aims to bridge relationships between universities and providers to cultivate sustainable academic leadership programs to support the field.

The McKnight’s Pinnacle Awards program is jointly administered by McKnight’s Long-Term Care News, McKnight’s Senior Living and McKnight’s Home Care. Honorees were recognized March 21 at a dinner and awards ceremony in Chicago. Omnicare was the Silver sponsor for the 2024 Pinnacle Awards program. Parker Health Group and Sentrics were event sponsors.