Noteworthy Achievements

The PROFessionals of the Month program celebrates exemplary Rowan University employees, as nominated each month by their colleagues across the University community. To read honorees’ profiles, visit PROFessionals of the Month.

Wendy Aita, Rowan Integrated Special Needs Center, received $250,000 (FY 2026) from NJ Department of Human Services, NJ Division of Developmental Disabilities to support the study “Psychiatric and behavioral health clinical services for adults with IDD through RISN Center. 

Gerard Capellades, Chemical Engineering, received $110,468 from Pfizer, Inc. to support the study  “Material-sparing workflow for impurity rejection based on thermodynamic screening.”

Rick Dammers and Deborah Shapiro, College of the Arts, received  $132,170 (Total funding over two year period: $264,540) from NJ State Council on the Arts to support NJSCA General Program Support for the Marie Rader Presenting Series.

Rachel Haroz, CMSRU Clinical Faculty, received $2,407,780 from NJ Department of Human Services (Prime sponsor: US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) to support the study “Emergency medication for opioid use disorder.”

Subash Jonnalagadda, Chemistry & Biochemistry, received  $113,059 (Total funded to date: $241,832) from Tulane University (Prime sponsor: NIH) to support the study “Mechanism-driven virtual adverse outcome pathway modeling for hepatotoxicity.”

Monica Kerrigan, Educational Leadership, Administration, and Research, received $41,400 from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey - New Brunswick (Prime sponsor: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation) to support the State Noncredit Data Project - Governance Analysis.

David Libon, New Jersey Institute for Successful Aging, received: $99,289 (Amount funded to date between all subawards: $235,434) from Tulane University (Prime sponsor: NIH) to support the study “The i3C DECADE Study: Disparities and Equity in Childhood Cardiovascular Exposures and Alzheimer's Dementia.”

Justin Major, ExEED, received $27,500 from The New Jersey Office of the Secretary of Higher Education to support the study “Hunger-Free Campus Act Grant: Addressing accessibility in food insecurity at Rowan University.

Islam Mantawy, CREATES, received $350,000 from New Jersey Department of Transportation (Prime sponsor: US Department of Transportation) to support the NJDOT Bridge Resource Program-1, BRP1. 

Yahaira Marquez, Child Abuse Research Education & Service Institute, received $5,221 (Funding to date: $62,180) from University of Puerto Rico (Prime sponsor: US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) to support the study “Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Children and Adolescents of Puerto Rico.”

Gerard Capellades Mendez, Chemical Engineering, received $113,228 (Total funding to date: $345,669) from National Science Foundation to support the study “CAREER: Transport phenomena and the uptake of foreign species during crystal growth.”

Andrew Perrone, Service Learning, received $3,000 from Swipe Out Hunger to support the study MicroFridge Swipe Out Hunger Grant.

Steven Pew, Public Safety, received $8,932 from NJ Division of Highway Traffic Safety to support the study 2026 Drunk Driver Enforcement Fund.

Linda Pollock, Public Relations & Advertising, received the Anthony J. Fulginiti Award for Commitment to Education from the Philadelphia Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America. 

Mary Salvante, Art Gallery, received $33,040 (Two-year total: $66,080) from NJ State Council on the Arts to support 2026 Gallery Programming. 

John Shjarback, Law & Justice Studies, received the Best Policing Book of the Year award from the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences for his book, Chasing Change in Camden.

Joseph Stanzione, AMMI, received $42,000 from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (Prime sponsor: NJ Department of Environmental Protection) to support the study “Decarbonizing New Jersey Higher Education Institutions with Enhancing Recycling Activities.”

Gina Tang, VR lab, received $20,000 from IEEE Systems, Man & Cybernetics Society to support the study “An open course on prompt engineering with a game-based testbed for real-world applications.

Stephen Trzeciak, M.D., MPH, the Edward D. Viner Endowed Chief of Medicine and medical director for the Adult Health Institute at Cooper, has been awarded the inaugural Schwartz Compassion Champion Award by the Schwartz Center for Compassionate Healthcare.

Winona Wigfall, CHAMP/GEAR UP, received $4,498 from The New Jersey Office of the Secretary of Higher Education to support the 2026 NCCEP/National GEAR UP Academy.

Wei Xue, Mechanical Engineering, received $100,000 (Total funding to date: $354,115) from Office of Naval Research to support the study, “Designing strong dielectrics for GHe-Cooled HTS systems through nanocomposite property tuning.”