Alumnus Dr. Ira Monka, president of the American Osteopathic Association, addresses SOM students

It’s been 40 years since Dr. Ira Monka graduated from the Rowan-Virtua School of Osteopathic Medicine (then part of the University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey) and when he returned Jan. 23 to address students at his alma mater it was not just as a successful family physician and alumnus, but as president of the American Osteopathic Association (AOA).

Monka, who was among the fourth class to gradate from his medical school in 1984, said the field of osteopathic medicine, like his former campus in Stratford, has virtually exploded in the intervening years, and that growth is vital to helping offset a critical projected shortfall of primary care doctors in the U.S.

“There’s a projected shortage of 100,000 by 2030,” Monka said moments before addressing students in the campus’s academic building.

Though many specialize, Monka noted that the core practice for most osteopathic physicians remains primary care and that they’re fast adding to the pool of needed physicians.

“In 1990 there were fewer than 30,000 (primary care osteopathic physicians in the U.S.) and now we’re at 186,000,” he said.

A Rowan University 2016 Distinguished Alumnus of the Year (along with William J. Castner Jr. ’95), Monka, a past president of the SOM Alumni Association, is the first SOM graduate to be named president of the AOA.

A fellow of the American College of Osteopathic Family Physicians, Monka practices at the Medical Institute of New Jersey in Cedar Knolls, has been named a “Top Doc” by New Jersey Monthly Magazine, and is a past president of the New Jersey Association of Osteopathic Physicians and Surgeons.

In 1988, Monka returned to SOM as a volunteer assistant professor where he mentored medical students and advocated for the school and the osteopathic profession.

Addressing students this week, Monka marveled at SOM’s growth, from about 35 students when he graduated to more than 1,000 today.

Among other initiatives, he said the AOA is working to expand access to telemedicine, especially in rural areas where it’s arguably needed most, and said osteopathic physicians hold leadership positions across the U.S. They include Dr. J.D. Polk, chief health and medical officer of NASA; Dr. Ronald Blanck, the 39^th Surgeon General of the United States Army (now retired); and Dr. Barbara Ross-Lee, the first Black female dean of an American medical school.

“Our students are in key places across our country,” Monka told students gathered before him in between classes. “You have great futures in front of you.”