Profile

Alma L. Saravia concentrates her practice in health care law.  Her clients consist of medical staffs, nursing homes, physicians, nurses, chiropractors, and other medical health care providers as well as statewide health care organizations including the New Jersey Association of Nurse Anesthetists.  She counsels practitioners on licensure and disciplinary matters before the Board of Medical Examiners of which she was a member from 1992 to 1994.

Her lobbying efforts helped New Jersey become the third state in the nation to allow physicians and dentists engage in joint negotiations with managed care entities.  In 2003, she was profiled in a special issue of the New Jersey Law Journal titled, "Women and Minorities in the Legal Profession" as "one of New Jersey's most expert and accomplished lawyers in the field of healthcare law, both in the public and the private sector." Ms. Saravia was honored by the foundation of the New Jersey State Nurses Association-the Institute for Nursing, with its 2005 EPIC award. The EPIC award is given to "exceptional people impacting the community, the advancement of health care and the profession of nursing."  In 2007, she was named "Outstanding Woman of Burlington County" in the category of law by the Burlington County Commission on the status of women.

Certified by the American Health Lawyers Association in Arbitration Training in 2003, Ms. Saravia is a former director of the New Jersey Division of Mental Advocacy.  She has extensive legislative and regulatory experience, and served as director of Legislative and Regulatory Affairs for the New Jersey Department of the Public Advocate and executive director of the New Jersey Legislative Commission on Sex Discrimination in the Statutes.  In 2002, then New Jersey Governor-Elect James McGreevey selected her to co-chair the transition committee for the state's Department of Human Services.

An advocate for women, she served as a speaker at the Governor's Conference for Women and presented "Powerful Women, Powerful Voices, Powerful Visions."  A frequent lecturer and author, Ms. Saravia has presented seminars at ICLE's Annual Health Law Symposium. Her health care law articles have appeared in the New Jersey Law Journal and the New Jersey Lawyer, and she is a regular columnist for the Camden County Medical Society "Bulletin."  She also co-authored a chapter in the Health Care Dispute Resolution Manual titled, "External Review of Health Plan Decisions."  She serves as co-editor of Flaster/Greenberg's Health Law Report newsletter.  She is vice president of the Friends of the Library Company of Burlington-the state's oldest library.

Ms. Saravia previously served on the Board of Directors of the LEAP Academy Charter School, Inc. in Camden.  She also served as the chairperson of the State Affairs Committee of the Southern New Jersey Chamber of Commerce, and on the Board of Trustees of Family Services of Burlington County, as well as various governmental commissions, judicial commissions and other task forces.

Community Service and Affiliations

• Pam's List
  • Member -- Board of Directors
• Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University
  
  • Member -- Senator Wynona Lipman Chair in Women's Political Leadership Advisory Committee
• Family Service 
  • Emeritus Board of Directors 

• Friends of the Library Company of Burlington
  • Vice President Outstanding Woman of Burlington County