RWJMS Grad Among America’s Best and Brightest

The U.S. Junior Chamber of Commerce has been recognizing Ten Outstanding Young Americans annually since 1938. Predicting future greatness isn’t a perfect science, of course, but the "Jaycees" have shown amazing insight. Among these best, brightest and most inspirational leaders spotlighted long before their fame, have been individuals like John F. Kennedy, Elvis Presley and Bill Bradley. Last summer, Anthony Mazzarelli, MD, 27, a 2002 Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (RWJMS) graduate, made this "A" list.

Mazzarelli, who won the award in the categories of Community Action and Medicine, has been in a joint six-year MD/JD program at RWJMS and the University of Pennsylvania Law School and was recently accepted into Penn’s Master of Bioethics program as well. He completed medical school in May, will finish both his law and bioethics degrees next June, and then begin his residency in emergency medicine at Cooper Hospital/ University Medical Center, a UMDNJ affiliate. While in medical school, Mazzarelli and two friends designed a clinic where students treated uninsured patients in Camden. Doctors from Cooper donated their time to supervise. "I’m honored to have won," Mazzarelli says. "It wasn’t hard to drum up enthusiasm for the clinic. It’s romantic to say we battled night and day against forces of evil but it was surprisingly easy to do a lot of good. Mainly, people wanted to do good." That project was also one of six distinguished programs in the country to receive a Pfizer-AAMC Caring for Community Grant in 2000.

Along with his three degrees and community service, Mazzarelli also worked as a technical advisor and writer for the television drama, ER, last summer. He’d like to take his medical, law and bioethics degrees and influence healthcare policy someday. "The best part about graduating will be to see what I can do with all of it," he says. "Just being in two schools is not an achievement. It’s what you do with it." If the Jaycees vote of confidence is any indication, Mazzarelli will do quite a lot.

Compiled by Maryann Brinley, Eve Jacobs and Mary Ann Littell.