Retirement of Dr. Denise Rodgers

November 5, 2025

Dear Rutgers Health community,

It is with both pride and admiration that I share the news of the upcoming retirement this December of Denise V. Rodgers, MD, FAAFP, Vice Chancellor for Interprofessional Programs at Rutgers Health.

Throughout her extraordinary career, Dr. Rodgers has been a driving force for equity, compassion, and transformation in health care and education. At Rutgers, she has redefined how we engage meaningfully with our communities. As principal investigator of the $10 million Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-funded REACH Grant, Dr. Rodgers has led efforts to address social determinants of health and improve outcomes for underserved populations.

As Vice Chancellor, Dr. Rodgers has overseen the development and implementation of interprofessional education at Rutgers Health. In her role as Interprofessional Education Faculty Advisory Council, she has ensured that all Rutgers Health students are provided with multiple opportunities to learn about, with, and from each other.

Prior to joining Rutgers, Dr. Rodgers served as the fifth and final President of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, overseeing the merger of UMDNJ and Rutgers. She also served as the UMDNJ Executive Vice President for Academic and Clinical Affairs from 2006–2013. In addition to her current leadership role at Rutgers Health, she is the RBHS Hunterdon Chair in Interprofessional Education at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, where she is a professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health.

Dr. Rodgers has spent much of her career working with poor, minority, and underserved patients and communities. For over a decade, she chaired the steering committee for the “Believe in a Healthy Newark” initiative, funded initially by New Jersey Health Initiatives and later by United Way of Greater Newark. From 2019 to 2022, she chaired the Newark Homelessness Commission and, in this role, led a task force that successfully prevented a COVID outbreak in the city’s homeless shelters. From 2021 to 2025, she chaired the board of directors of the Greater Newark Healthcare Coalition. Her further contributions to Newark include launching programs to prevent pediatric hospitalizations and deaths from childhood asthma. During the pandemic, Dr. Rodgers worked in the greater Newark community to address COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. Today, she is partnering with community leaders to address increasing overall vaccine hesitancy in adults and children in Newark and surrounding communities.

Dr. Rodgers’s extraordinary impact has been recognized across New Jersey and beyond. Most recently, she received the inaugural Health Equity Champion Award from the New Jersey Public Health Association, which has been named in her honor as the Dr. Denise V. Rodgers Health Equity Champion Award. During this year she has also received the Marc E. Berson Community Award from RWJB Newark Beth Israel Medical Center; the 2025 MLK, Jr. Steward of the Dream Award recipient from the New Jersey Performing Arts Center and the Newark chapter of the NAACP; and the 2025 Chancellor’s Beacon of Service & Leadership Award here at Rutgers Health.

Please join me in celebrating Dr. Rodgers for her remarkable career, steadfast leadership, and lifelong dedication to improving health for all people. We wish her all the best in the next chapter of her life and career.

Sincerely,

Brian L. Strom, MD, MPH
Chancellor