Our Executive Director

Eileen F. Swan is an attorney and current Executive Director of Advocacy for Patients with Chronic Illness, Inc., a tax exempt organization that provides free information, advice and advocacy services to patients with chronic illnesses.

Ms. Swan comes to Advocacy with a wealth of experience that includes an extensive background in social services and management complimenting her legal expertise. For over the past 27 year, Ms. Swan has dedicated many years to working with disadvantaged people as a professional in social services and health care, as well as the law. After leaving a successful career on Wall Street as a mutual fund’s manager in the late 1980’s, Ms. Swan began her social services career, working for several New York City agencies dealing with such concerns as homelessness and literacy. She went on to pursue a Master’s Degree in Education and Rehabilitation Counseling, after which she entered the health care field, focusing on the mentally and physically disabled. As Administrator on Duty at Jacobi Medical Center, as well as Director of Rehabilitation at North Central Bronx Hospital Center, she gained extensive experience in hospital management and patient advocacy. A growing desire to advocate for disadvantaged people led Ms. Swan to attend law school, and she obtained her J.D. degree from the City University of New York School of Law.

Upon graduating from Law School, Ms. Swan served as a prosecutor for the Bronx District Attorney’s Office for over three years. There she worked in the Domestic Violence and Sex Crimes unit prosecuting cases and advocating for the rights of victims. She continued her work with poor and indigent individuals as a legal services professional with Legal Services of the Hudson Valley (LSHV) where she handled a diverse case load. While at LSHV, Ms. Swan became the Deputy Director and program-wide Domestic Violence Coordinator. In addition to her legal representation of clients, she was responsible for developing a training and evaluation program for staff attorneys and as well as other stakeholders within the domestic violence prevention and legal field. In 2007, Ms. Swan went to work at the New York State Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence, an Executive level agency on policy. As OPDV’s Director of Public Policy and Administration, Ms. Swan was responsible for the development and implementation of statewide training of law enforcement, the judiciary, advocacy agencies and other stakeholders. With her team, she successfully wrote a million dollar grant to develop a one of a kind, online web-based training for police officers in domestic violence case handling. In addition, she wrote policy for the State of New York in the areas of officer involved domestic violence, probation, parole and victim advocacy agencies. In her role as the Director of Administration, Ms. Swan was responsible for successfully steering the agency through the recent fiscal crisis while spearheading the reorganization of the operations department, an effort that allowed the agency to pursue the mission and priorities set by the Executive Director.