Top 25 Women in Healthcare - 2005

As executive director of the 45,000-member California Nurses Association, the country's largest professional association and union for registered nurses, Rose Ann DeMoro helps shape public policy in California and throughout the U.S. DeMoro, 56, led the push for California's landmark nurse-to-patient ratios that took effect Jan. 1, 2004. Under her direction, the CNA also has achieved ground-breaking patient advocacy legislation such as whistle-blower protection and prohibitions on unsafe floating policies for nurses and mandatory overtime.