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Spotlight: Center for Public Health Workforce Development

Research at Rutgers–New Brunswick

The Vice Provost for Research serves as a strategic partner in New Brunswick fostering collaborations, advocating for resources, and developing communication to promote a culture of faculty and student innovative and inclusive research. The Office of the Vice Provost for Research provides advice and planning for university-wide research initiatives and priorities including its centers and institutes, supporting Rutgers–New Brunswick, its cross-campus and chancellor-led units’ research infrastructure development.

Our Goals

  1. Support and increase impacts of innovative inclusive research fostering interdisciplinary and cross campus collaboration

  2. Increase diversity in research faculty and build capacity for publicly engaged research

  3. Center research opportunities for students at all levels of training from undergrad to graduate and postdoctoral

  4. Promote equitable infrastructure and core facilities development

Strategic Priorities and Initiatives

Provost Strategic Taskforces

As an outgrowth of the Academic Master Plan, Provost Strategic Taskforces will be convened to develop guidance in areas which the chancellor-provost and her leadership team deem as critical to support and grow the vision of the Rutgers–New Brunswick academic enterprise and its relationship to the three other chancellor-led units.

  • The Climate Change Initiative Advisory Group is tasked with:

    • Developing a proposal to re-envision all existing Rutgers New Brunswick-wide climate/environmental systems/energy centers, programs, and faculty into a new framework.  
    • Proposing a working Mission and Vision Statement and set of Initial Strategic Plan Goals, Key Objectives and Results (OKR) that spans domains of Research, Education and Policy  
    • Determining possible reporting structures and organizational leadership and makeup.
    • Envisioning a new budgetary system with a general idea of what commitments NB Schools/Centers/Institutes and the Chancellor-Provost's office would need to make to provide a core set of resources that will be mutually supported.

    Advisory Group Members

    • Debashish Bhattacharya, Distinguished Professor, School of Environmental and Biological Sciences
    • Dunbar Birnie, Professor & Corning/Saint Gobain/Malcolm G. McLaren Chair, Materials Science and Engineering, School of Engineering
    • Anthony Broccoli, Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Science, School of Environmental and Biological Sciences
    • Robin Leichenko, Professor and Co-Director of the Rutgers Climate Institute
    • Julie Lockwood, Professor and Chair of the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources, School of Environmental and Biological Sciences
    • Oscar Schofield, Distinguished Professor and Chair of Marine and Coastal Sciences, School of Environmental and Biological Sciences
    • Rachael Shwom, Associate Professor, School of Environmental and Biological Sciences and Associate Director, Rutgers Energy Institute (REI)
    • James (Jim) Wright, Professor, Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, School of Environmental and Biological Sciences

  • Taskforce Members

    • Mark Aakhus, Co-Chair, Associate Dean for Research Professor of Communication, School of Communication and Information
    • J. Barr von Oehsen, Co-Chair, Associate Vice President, Office of Advanced Research Computing
    • Alyson Brooks, Associate Professor, School of Arts and Sciences, Department of Physics and Astronomy
    • Yuebin Guo, Henry Rutgers Professor of Advanced Manufacturing, School of Engineering, Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering
    • Ronald Hart, Professor, School of Arts and Sciences, Department of Cell Biology & Neuroscience
    • Woojin Jung, Assistant Professor, School of Social Work
    • Regina Liu, Distinguished Professor, School of Arts and Sciences, Department of Statistics
    • Meredith McGill, Professor and Chair, School of Arts and Sciences, Department of English
    • Thu Nguyen, Dean of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Professor, School of Arts and Sciences, Department of Computer Science
    • Katherine Ognyanova, Associate Professor, School of Communication and Information
    • Jaideep Vaidya, Distinguished Professor and Department Vice Chair, Rutgers Business School, Management Science & Information Systems

    Major Stakeholders

    • Yana Bromberg, Professor, School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology
    • Stephen K. Burley, University Professor and Henry Rutgers Chair, Institute for Quantitative Biomedicine, RCSB Protein Data Bank
    • Enrique Curchitser, Professor, School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, Department of Environmental Sciences
    • Richard Ebright, Board of Governors Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, School of Arts and Sciences, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology
    • Lauren M. E. Goodlad, Distinguished Professor & Chair of Critical AI @ Rutgers, School of Arts and Sciences, Department of English
    • Shantenu Jha, Professor, School of Engineering, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering
    • Matthew Weber, Associate Professor, School of Communication and Information, Department of Communication
    • John Wilkin, Professor, School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences

Fostering Innovative Research Collaborations

Attendees talk during a research ideation forum on machine learning and artificial intelligence

Research Ideation Forums

Research Ideation Forums encourage bold and disruptive research thinking across disciplines, foster collaborative research community-building in emerging thematic spaces, and help researchers develop roadmaps for future proposal development and submission.

Research leaders sit at a round table and talk during a networking event

Speed Networking

Speed Networking events bring together departments, schools, and centers to build new connections. The faculty who participate in the event have the opportunity to apply for research seed funding to support their new collaborations.

Office of the Vice Provost for Research Directory

Leadership | Research Development | Provost Leadership Research Fellows | Student Worker

Leadership

Denise Hien

Denise Hien, PhD, ABPP

Vice Provost for Research

Vice Provost Hien serves as a strategic partner in New Brunswick advocating for resources, developing communication/opportunities, and supporting funding initiatives to promote an inclusive culture for research and scholarship. She provides advice and planning for university-wide research initiatives and priorities including centers and institutes, supports cross-campus and chancellor-led units’ research infrastructure development, and works closely with the Office for Research and Office of Institutional Research and Academic Planning.
Jean Baum

Jean Baum, PhD

Vice Provost for Life Sciences Research and Partnerships

Vice Provost Baum is responsible for developing and promoting a strategic framework that re-envisions STEM, and particularly life sciences, research across Rutgers­–New Brunswick and in partnership with RBHS; fostering opportunities for joint research and external funding; overseeing the chancellor-led STEM/life science centers and institutes; and strengthening relationships with government, nonprofit, and industry partners.

Research Development

Sheila Rajguru

Sheila Borges Rajguru, PhD

Director for Research Development & Strategy

Sheila Borges Rajguru supports the Vice Provost for Research and works closely with Rutgers–New Brunswick research deans from key academic units, center/institute directors, liaising with senior leadership in the Office for Research, University Equity and Inclusion, EVPAA, Vice Chancellor for Research Offices across RBHS, Rutgers–Camden and Rutgers–Newark chancellor-led units (CLUs), and Rutgers University Foundation to develop synergistic programming and initiatives at the nexus of research and academic affairs.

Melissa Schmidt

Melissa Schmidt, MI, MS

Program Development Specialist

Melissa Schmidt supports the Director for Research Development and Strategy by facilitating Rutgers–New Brunswick strategic priorities pertaining to faculty, students, and postdoctoral associates’ research and professional advancement. Melissa works closely with Rutgers–New Brunswick research deans and the Office for Research to ensure the Academic Master Plan's objectives and Vice Provost for Research's strategic priorities are met and is passionate about using data-driven decision making to support cross-campus research development.

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Srishti Kaul

Administrative Coordinator

Provost Leadership Research Fellows

Andrea Hetling

Andrea Hetling, PhD

Professor of Public Policy and Associate Director of Heldrich Center for Workforce Development

Andrea Hetling, PhD, is Professor of Public Policy and Associate Director of the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy. Andrea’s research focuses on the implementation of public policies designed to reduce economic and social inequities and build financial stability for families.

Harini Sampath

Harini Sampath, PhD

Associate Professor of Nutritional Sciences

Harini Sampath, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Nutritional Sciences and Director of the Sampath Lab at the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences. Harini’s research goal is to delineate the cellular alterations that occur during the development of metabolic diseases, including fatty liver, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes. Her lab seeks to identify pathways that can be targeted for nutritional and pharmaceutical therapies to preserve health and improve health outcomes.

Valerie Tutwiler

Valerie Tutwiler, PhD

Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering

Valerie Tutwiler is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Rutgers, where her lab studies the structure and mechanics of blood clots. She received her PhD from Drexel University in Biomedical Engineering and conducted her postdoctoral work in Cell and Developmental Biology at the University of Pennsylvania where she was a NIH NHLBI K99/R00 Postdoctoral Fellow. Valerie is passionate about increased research and professional development opportunities at a university level.

Student Worker

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Aastha Gobind

School of Engineering Undergraduate Student