MONICA JONES

Luminis Health

Dr. Monica Jones has built her career on a conviction that the true honor in medicine belongs to patients, whose courage, resilience and sacrifice inspire physicians to give their best. As system chair of Luminis Health Women’s and Children’s Services, she has channeled that belief into a lifelong commitment to advancing quality care through patient education and cancer prevention, eliminating maternal morbidity and mortality and strengthening the future healthcare workforce.

That commitment led to the development of a comprehensive perinatal quality structure at one of the busiest birthing centers in Maryland. Through this framework, Jones and her colleagues sustained high-quality care and reduced cesarean and preterm births even during the coronavirus pandemic, while creating perioperative efficiencies that freed hospital beds for COVID-19 patients. She also led the certificate of need application to establish perinatal services in Prince George’s County, where many women currently leave the county to deliver their babies. With approval secured, the program is set to open in 2028 to reduce care fragmentation, address disparities in outcomes and advance health equity for families.

Jones also serves as director of gynecologic cancer prevention, leading clinical strategy and quality initiatives across a three-hospital system. Earlier in her career, as a faculty member at Mayo Clinic and Duke University, she focused on molecular biology research and cancer surgery, producing numerous peer-reviewed publications and contributing to national clinical guidelines that shaped gynecologic cancer treatment worldwide.

After leaving academic medicine and relocating to Annapolis, she broadened her work in hospital policy across the state as chair of the Birth Outcomes Accountability Work Group and co-chair of the Anne Arundel County Health Department Maternal and Infant Health Taskforce, guiding birthing centers to share best practices and reduce disparities in severe maternal morbidity. She established a peer review process grounded in a Just Culture approach.