February 7, 2012 — VNA Care Network & Hospice, a nonprofit home health care, hospice, and wellness agency serving eastern and central Massachusetts, announced that it has named Mary Ann O’Connor as its president and CEO.

O’Connor brings more than 35 years of health care management experience to VNA Care Network & Hospice, with 24 years at the senior executive level. Her career spans the acute care, home health, hospice, and private duty sectors of health care as well as home-based disease management programs.

O’Connor previously served as the regional director of Manhattan for the Visiting Nurse Service of New York (VNSNY), the largest not-for-profit home health agency in the United States. During her tenure at VNSNY, O’Connor was responsible for management, business development and patient admissions, implementation of strategic business plans and service delivery models, and promoting relationships with hospitals, nursing facilities, and physicians in the Manhattan region.

Prior to her work with VNSNY, O’Connor served as vice president of strategic planning and business development for the Visiting Nurse Services of Connecticut in Bridgeport, Conn.; president and CEO of United Visiting Nurse Association in Trumbull, Conn.; and executive director/director of nursing of Trumbull Public Health Nursing Service in Trumbull, Conn.

O’Connor holds a master’s in business administration from Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Conn., and a bachelor’s of science in nursing from Syracuse University in Syracuse, N.Y.

She has worked to further nonprofit home health care at the national level as a member of the board of directors and government relations committee of the Visiting Nurse Associations of America and at the state level as a member of the board of directors for the Connecticut Association for Home Care. She has also been on the board of directors of Bridgeport Hospital School of Nursing and president of the board of directors of the Women’s Campaign School at Yale University.

VNA Care Network & Hospice, which has offices in Danvers, Gloucester, Leominster, Needham, Southborough and Worcester, provides disease management programs and rehabilitation/therapy services. It also provides hospice services to terminally ill patients and their loved ones in patients’ homes and hospice residences in Cambridge, Needham, and Worcester.