Press Release

July 25, 2006
Contact: Anna Farneski
(973) 972-3000
farnesam@umdnj.edu

UMDNJ BOARD APPOINTS PRESIDENTIAL SEARCH COMMITTEE
- Panel Includes Former Gov. Byrne and Other Distinguished Individuals -

NEW BRUNSWICK — The Board of the Trustees of the University of Medicine and Dentistry today announced the members of a Presidential Search Committee.

The panel will commence a national search immediately and be led by Harold T. Shapiro, Ph.D., a UMDNJ trustee and former president of Princeton University. Shapiro is chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the National Advisory Council for Human Genome Research. He served as chair of the National Bioethics Advisory Commission, and was vice chair of President George H.W. Bush's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

“I want to thank the members of this distinguished panel for their time and commitment, as they begin the work of selecting a permanent president," said Board Chairman Robert DelTufo. "Their integrity, passion for public service, and commitment to excellence will serve the University well in the months ahead."

Shapiro will lead a panel of accomplished professionals comprised of UMDNJ faculty, political and educational leaders. They include:

• Eric S. Pennington, Esq., vice chair of the UMDNJ Board of Trustees, and a member of the board since 2001. He is an attorney with a Newark practice specializing in employment discrimination and civil litigation, and serves as municipal court judge in the City of Orange Township.
  
  
• Anthony P. Terracciano, a UMDNJ trustee and a businessman with an extensive background in banking and finance, who joined the board earlier this year. Terracciano is the former chairman of the Board of Riggs National Corporation, former chairman of Dime Bancorp, former president of First Union Corp., and former president of Mellon Bank Corp. He is a member of the New Jersey State Investment Council.
  
  
• Anita V. Spivey, Esq., an attorney with experience in corporate finance, securities law, environmental and energy matters, who was sworn in today as UMDNJ trustee. She serves as chair of the Brown University Emeriti Executive Committee, and chair of the Pembroke Center Associates Council; vice chair of Brown University’s Campaign for Academic Enrichment; and trustee of the E. J. Grassmann Trust.
  
  
• The Hon. Brendan T. Byrne, the 47th governor of New Jersey.
  
  
• Former New Jersey Supreme Court Justice Alan B. Handler, the longest-serving member of the court.
  
  
• Dr. William F. Owen, chancellor of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center and vice president for Health Affairs. A research scientist with a background in academic medicine clinical healthcare, he serves on the Department of Health and Human Services End Stage Renal Disease Advisory Board and is a member of the American Association of Kidney Patients.
  
  
• Carlos Hernández, Ph.D., has served as president of New Jersey City University since 1993. He is a former member of the Board of Directors of the American Association for Higher Education and chaired the Association's Hispanic Caucus. He is also a former member of the Governing Board of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities, served as a member of the American Council on Higher Education’s Commission on International Education, and serves on the Committee of the American Council on Education’s Commission on Advancement of Racial and Ethnic Equity. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities.
  
  
• Neil L. Rudenstine, Ph.D., an educator, literary scholar and administrator, is a former president of Harvard University and Provost Emeritus of Princeton University. A Rhodes Scholar, his career has been dedicated to educational administration. Dr. Rudenstine is the former director of the American Council on Education and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He serves on the board of the New York Public Library and the Barnes Foundation.
  
  
• Dr. Michael B. Wood, is an orthopedic surgeon and researcher. A professor at the Mayo Clinic Graduate School of Medicine, Dr. Wood is President Emeritus of the Mayo Foundation. He is a member of the Board of Overseers of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award; a member of the Board of Directors for the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.

Additional members of the committee will be named in the near future.

UMDNJ is the nation’s largest free-standing public health sciences university with more than 5,500 students attending the state's three medical schools, its only dental school, a graduate school of biomedical sciences, a school of health related professions, a school of nursing and a school of public health on five campuses. Annually, there are more than two million patient visits at UMDNJ facilities and faculty at campuses in Newark, New Brunswick/Piscataway, Scotch Plains, Camden and Stratford. UMDNJ operates University Hospital, a Level I Trauma Center in Newark, and University Behavioral HealthCare, a mental health and addiction services network.