Patient and Family Advisory Council Members

Get to know the members of the Patient and Family Advisory Council (PFAC) at Jersey City Medical Center! These dedicated volunteers collaborate with hospital staff and administration to influence policies, procedures and activities that will improve the quality of care we provide and the patient experience.

Dr. Barbara Trueger

Having grown up in New Jersey, my husband and I have now lived on Jersey City’s Hudson River coast for the last 17 years. We fully enjoy the spectacular New York City view.

I am a retired educator. The breadth and depth of my teaching encompassed pre-kindergarten through and including graduate school. Over the course of my career, I have been a presenter at numerous conferences and have been a keynote speaker at universities.

Currently, I teach Jersey City adults and inmates who aspire to pass their high school equivalency test. I am also a supervisor of student teachers for both Rutgers University Graduate School of Education and Teachers College Columbia University. I have had many opportunities to teach internationally. I travel to China twice a year to teach originally written STEM science units to early elementary students. Additionally, as a Fulbright Fellow, I not only taught in rural, disenfranchised South African schools, but also provided them with innovative staff development and parent workshops. My Rutgers University doctoral research was conducted in South Africa.

My interests extend beyond academics. Watching our three children excel and spending quality time with our five little grandchildren are the highlights of my life! Additionally, I am Vice-President of Rutgers Graduate School of Education Alumni Association and chair of several committees.

As a charter member of the Jersey City Medical Center Patient and Family Advisory Council, I am impressed to have been well-informed of the various departments and accolades of JCMC. I was so proud to have been included in the celebration of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit’s consecutive fifth, sixth, and seventh-year national awards for zero infection rates. I am also pleased to have been instrumental in tabulating and interacting with nurses and doctors on their use of hand sanitizer as they entered and exited patient rooms. Another impactful experience was personally interviewing onsite patients’ families – recording their impressions of the hospital staff and services.

Danielle Walker

I am a lifelong resident of Jersey City, NJ. I am a mother of three daughters and my passion is advocacy around social emotional learning and education with the focus on special education. As a PFAC member, I helped coordinate a virtual town hall webinar around COVID-19 for the communities who have minimal access to resources. Initially it was called the Holland Gardens COVID-19 discussion, but soon afterwards its recording was disseminated to other Jersey City Housing Authority sites. The partnership with RWJBH as a PFAC member has proven community outreach to be a extremely rewarding experience.

When time permits, I love to read, watch the National Geographic and Game of Thrones.

Ms. Allen is the Co-Founder and President of Act Now Foundation Dementia Center, a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to raising awareness of, educating and supporting families living with Alzheimer’s disease. As a public policy advocate, she has co-written two laws on Alzheimer’s disease in the State of New Jersey. She is a founding member of the Hudson County Caregiver Coalition, Board Chair of the Community Networking Association of New Jersey, Advisory Board Committee member of the Office of Disability Services for Hudson County, elected Board member of the Hudson County Department of Health & Human Services, newly elected Co-Chair of the Hudson County Food Security Task Force, and a member of the Jersey City Medical Center’s Patient and Family Advisory Council. She is also a Certified Dementia Practitioner, a Certified Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia Care Trainer, a Certified Alzheimer’s Disease First Responder Trainer, an MOCA-Certified Cognitive Assessor, and a Teepa Snow Certified PAC Trainer. Ms. Allen has appeared as a keynote speaker, guest lecturer, and panelist speaker throughout the state of New Jersey. She has also appeared on Univision, Telemundo, and NBC News as part of the organizations' Alzheimer’s Awareness Movement. She has also received several proclamations, certificates, and congressional awards for her work in supporting families with Alzheimer’s disease since 2015.

On a personal note, Ms. Allen was a caregiver for her grandmother, mother-in-law, and stepfather for more than 16 years, which served as the inspiration for Act Now Foundation. Their legacies live on in the work she does at Act Now Foundation through each home visit, each support call, each memory screening, and each smile and hug.

If you have any questions or know someone who is interested in becoming a PFAC member, please call (973) 450-2177.