On July 1, the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey will welcome its first African-American president, William F. Owen Jr., an accomplished researcher and clinician.
Owen is leaving his position as chancellor at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center to oversee more than 5,500 students attending New Jersey’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 spread across five campuses.
“A considerable number of highly qualified candidates demonstrated great interest in the presidency at UMDNJ,” says Dr. Harold T. Shapiro, a professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton University, who led the presidential search committee. “Owen’s vision of what was possible for UMDNJ’s future — coupled with his commitment to education, biomedical research and community service, along with his demonstrated capacity for leadership in challenging situations — made him our first choice.
“More importantly, our sense of excitement was echoed by the responses from students, faculty and staff who met with Owen during his visits to the campus,” adds Shapiro, who also serves as a UMDNJ trustee and president emeritus.
Owen faces many challenges when he takes the helm of UMDNJ, which is the No. 1 producer of minority doctors, according to Diverse’s Top 100 Graduate Degree Producers edition. UMDNJ has been facing mounting criticism over long-standing financial and political abuses. In December 2005, former federal prosecutor Herbert J. Stern was named as UMDNJ’s financial monitor by federal officials who alleged that the university had been overbilling federal and state governments for Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements for at least six years.
Stern’s appointment was done as part of a “deferred prosecution agreement” that prevented UMDNJ from being criminally indicted as long as it cooperated in the investigation. .
