Rowan University/Rutgers-Camden Board of Governors Holds Inaugural Meeting

Camden, NJ – After being sworn into office by New Jersey State Senator Donald Norcross (5^th Legislative District), the newly appointed Rowan University/Rutgers-Camden Board of Governors held its first meeting today at the Cooper Medical School of Rowan University on the City’s Health Sciences Campus. In its first order of business, the Board of Governors elected the Hon. Jack Collins as chair and Louis S. Besich as vice-chair, and welcomed several distinguished guests.

Created by the New Jersey Medical and Health Sciences Education Restructuring Act, the Board of Governors will encourage the development of curricula and programs at Rowan University and Rutgers-Camden in the area of health sciences and partnerships between the institutions. The Board’s mission reflects an extension of Camden’s significant “eds and meds” presence and is expected to leverage the educational and research assets of the universities to support the growth of the area’s health care capacity and lead to regional economic growth and civic engagement.

In his remarks to the Board, New Jersey Senate President Stephen Sweeney noted the impact and the historic nature of the day. “We have two great universities joining together to improve this region’s economy,” he said. “This is another great day for the City of Camden which makes it another great day for the State of New Jersey.”

The legislation is anticipated to spur an innovative dual-university College of Health Sciences in Camden that will address the region’s critical educational and health care needs by educating professionals and fostering research in a variety of health disciplines.

Referencing the importance of both “eds” and “meds” to the region, Senator Norcross said, “We are talking about education for the next generation of health care workers, but more importantly, this is about the people…We are really talking about providing the lifeline for the next generation of our residents here in South Jersey.”

The Board also heard from the presidents of the two universities who emphasized the collaborative process that has brought the two institutions together.

“What we are doing today is putting a final girder into that bridge that we’ve been building,” said Rutgers University President Dr. Robert Barchi. “This will create an entity between our great universities, the state and the city that will bridge us to a future in health care delivery and health care education.”

Rowan University President Dr. Ali Houshmand pointed out that the collaboration of the two universities was an “incredible accomplishment” that others around the nation are struggling to duplicate. “This sets an example for the rest of the country to follow – how different institutions can come together with different missions, different backgrounds and different cultures to help rewrite the economy of a region.”

The initial phases of this collaborative effort are expected to include Rowan Master’s and Ph.D. degree programs in the allied health fields and population and public health studies. Rutgers-Camden will leverage its programs in the sciences and in nursing with the Rutgers Center for Computational and Integrative Biology – which is home to a unique Ph.D. program in that cutting-edge field – and with the Rutgers School of Nursing-Camden, which will expand with the opening of the state-of-the-art Rutgers Nursing and Science Building at Federal and Fifth Sts., proximate to the Cooper Health campus, in 2016.

The members of the Rowan University/Rutgers-Camden Governing Board, comprised of two representatives from each institution and three individuals appointed by Gov. Christie, are:

• Louis S. Bezich – Cooper University Health Care, Chief of Staff to the President and Executive Director, Population Health Management
• Chad M. Bruner – Gloucester County Administrator
• Jack Collins, Esq. – former New Jersey Speaker of the General Assembly
• Michellene Davis, Esq. – Barnabas Health, Executive Vice President for Corporate Affairs
• Fred Graziano – TD Bank Group, Head of Regional Commercial Banking and Executive Vice President
• Robert Mortensen – R.E. Mortensen Associates; Rutgers University Trustee and Member of the Board of Overseers at Rutgers University Foundation
• Dana L. Redd – Mayor of Camden

About Rowan University

Rowan University is a state-designated public research institution with campuses in Glassboro, Camden and Stratford, N.J., that just received a $3.05 million grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to develop innovative approaches that respond to the region’s emerging needs for access to affordable and effective health care services. In the past two years, Rowan has opened the Camden-based Cooper Medical School of Rowan University and incorporated the School of Osteopathic Medicine, making Rowan only the second university in the nation to grant both M.D. and D.O. medical degrees. Rowan offers bachelor’s through doctoral programs to 13,500 students.

About Rutgers University

As the southernmost campus of Rutgers, New Jersey’s flagship public research university, Rutgers University–Camden enrolls 6,350 students in 35 undergraduate and 18 graduate programs, including three doctoral programs and South Jersey’s only law school. Rutgers-Camden faculty are respected internationally for their significant contributions to the advancement of knowledge across many disciplines. Faculty consistently command funding from such top federal agencies as the National Institute of Health, the National Science Foundation, and more.  During the past three years, two Rutgers–Camden faculty members were named MacArthur Fellows, the highly coveted “Genius Grant” honor. Known as a rapidly