Tara Cortes Biography
Dr. Tara A. Cortes, RN, PhD
President and Chief Executive Officer
Dr. Tara A. Cortes, RN, PhD, assumed the position of President and Chief Executive Officer of Lighthouse International on June 20, 2005 following Dr. Barbara Silverstone’s retirement from the Lighthouse after 21 years of service.
Prior to joining the Lighthouse, Dr. Cortes was Senior Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer of Patient Care Operations for the Yale New Haven Health System at Bridgeport Hospital. She has a distinguished 38-year career in health care. Along with her wealth of experience in designing and sustaining community-based and model health care programs, Dr. Cortes brings to the Lighthouse her strong academic teaching skills and her wide breadth of scholarly writing with a focus on geriatric, cross-cultural and disability issues.
Dr. Cortes has extensive and impressive clinical, managerial, administrative and academic experience working in institutions ranging from Columbia University and New York Presbyterian Medical Center; Rockefeller University and Hospital; Hunter College School of Nursing; Mount Sinai Hospital and School of Medicine and New York University Medical center. A graduate of Villanova University and New York University, where she received her PHD in Nursing Science and Research, Dr. Cortes was named a fellow in the highly competitive Robert Wood Johnson Executive Nurse Fellow program and has won many professional academic honors. She is a member of the Villanova University Board of Trustees.