Dr. Akunyili became the first Black person to hold the CMO role for Jersey City Medical Center in January 2023. She oversees a comprehensive medical staff in ensuring the highest quality patient care, from initial assessment and stabilization to complex surgical interventions and comprehensive rehabilitation. She handles strategic planning, quality improvement initiatives, physician engagement and patient care experience. During her tenure, she has helped to solidify the medical center’s position as a regional leader in trauma care, leading the opening of two new trauma bays in its emergency department. Dr. Akunyili has been key to the hospital’s utilization of the new neuro interventional cath lab, which makes it the only facility in its county to provide full-time open and endovascular neurosurgical care of complex neurovascular pathology. She has also focused on the continued delivery of full-spectrum cardiac care, supported by a partnership with Rutgers University. She is currently a clinical associate professor of emergency medicine at Rutgers Medical School as well.
