NEW JERSEY, USA—For Jasjit S. Ahluwalia, coming to New Jersey to oversee the Rutgers School of Public Health deepens his family’s connection to higher education in the state.
“In some ways, it’s a sort of a coming home,” said Ahluwalia, who will become the dean of the Rutgers School of Public Health in April.
A nationally recognized researcher in the fields of health disparities and nicotine addiction among minorities, Ahluwalia will join his sister, an associate professor at Montclair State University, and his father, a senior administrator and long-time professor and chairman of the mathematics department at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, in higher education in the state.
New Jersey represents a near coming-home for Ahluwalia, who spent a few early years in New York City before moving to Pearl River, just across the border from northern Bergen County.
He now is a professor of internal medicine and epidemiology at the University of Minnesota Academic Health Center, where he was recruited in 2005 to become the founding executive director of the Office of Clinical Research. He recently completed a term as chair of the National Advisory Council for Minority Health and Health Disparities at the National Institutes of Health, according to Rutgers.
He said he’s thinking about “disruptive innovation” and “team science” at the school of public health to find new potential answers to old questions.
So to take on the issue of tobacco addiction among minority groups, he said, solutions could be found by combining public health science with an economist who can talk about tax policy, an agricultural expert to infuse farming into the discussion and a retail expert to raise the implications of business decisions like CVS’ decision to drop cigarette sales.
Ahluwalia also said he wants to work closely with the state Department of Health, because he believes the school’s role goes beyond educating students, but to serve the state, nation and even the world.
That suits Health Commissioner Mary E. O’Dowd, who was involved in the search for a new dean.
“As Commissioner of Health, recruiting a leader for the Rutgers School of Public Health is a critical step in building a strong academic program,” she said. “A partnership between the department and the school will enhance the research and practice of public health to develop a workforce capable of taking on our current and future challenges.”
Brian Strom, chancellor of Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences, welcomed Ahluwalia as an experienced leader in his field.
“With Jasjit Ahluwalia’s exceptional experience, expertise, and energy, the Rutgers School of Public Health will build on its existing strengths and develop new areas of study and exploration, while fostering the growth of junior-level researchers,” he said. “These future achievements will benefit students, New Jerseyans and the rest of the country.”
“Rutgers is a very good school of public health,” Ahluwalia said. “My goal is to make it an outstanding school of public health.”
Ahluwalia has received more than $21 million in funding as principal investigator and more than $80 million as co-investigator and is widely published, according to Rutgers. In 2009, he was awarded a $6.2 million NIH grant establishing the Center for Health Equity at the University of Minnesota, it said.
His primary research work has focused on nicotine addiction and smoking cessation in African-Americans. He also has worked on determining the role of menthol in quitting smoking and chemical and genetic issues related to smoking.
Ahluwalia also is engaged in global health work with two active research projects in Mumbai and New Delhi, India.
According to a Rutgers news release, Ahluwalia received his undergraduate degree at New York University and a combined master’s degree and medical degree from the Tulane University Schools of Medicine and Public Health.
In addition, he held a two-year fellowship at Harvard, a joint appointment as assistant professor of medicine and assistant professor of health policy at the Emory University Schools of Medicine and Public Health in Atlanta, and served as vice chair and director of research for the Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health at the University of Kansas Medical Center in 1997 and then department chair in 2001.
Among other honors, Ahluwalia received the Society of Behavioral Medicine’s national award for excellence in mentoring, the Herbert W. Nickens award for national leadership and research in improving minority health, and the lifetime leadership award from the American Public Health Association for his work on tobacco.
George Rhoads, who had been serving as interim dean, will continue as a member of the School of Public Health faculty, Rutgers said.
