Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences Archives | Rutgers University Foundation

A Generous Tax Break

Posted on February 8, 2023 by Annabelle Arana-David

On December 29, 2022, the SECURE 2.0 Act was signed into law as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, which enhances charitable giving opportunities from Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs). The new law affirms the Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD) is permanent for those 70 ½ years of age and older, up to $100,000 annually. Beginning in 2024, the maximum annual QCD will increase based on inflation. The QCD is a distribution made directly from an IRA to a public charity. The QCD transfer avoids federal income tax and satisfies all or part of a required minimum distribution.

Also, as of January 1, 2023, a QCD may be elected as a once-in-a-lifetime distribution of up to $50,000 to establish a charitable remainder trust* or charitable gift annuity. This election may be combined with additional QCDs up to a total of $100,000.

For example, a 73-year-old who has a required minimum distribution of up to $50,000 could use this election to satisfy that required minimum distribution, avoid federal income tax on the transfer, and create a charitable gift annuity paying 6.3 percent annually for life.

To learn about this new opportunity and charitable giving options, please contact the Estate and Gift Planning Office at Rutgers University Foundation at giftplanningoffice@ruf.rutgers.edu.

*Various restrictions apply with a charitable gift annuity and charitable remainder trust. The QCD may not be elected to contribute to a previously funded charitable remainder trust. All charitable giving decisions should be made based on your specific circumstances and after consulting with your personal advisers.

Addressing the Need for Nurses

Posted on February 1, 2023February 2, 2023 by Annabelle Arana-David

New Jersey—especially Essex County—needs nurses. Now, one Newark high school and a generous donor to Rutgers School of Nursing is poised to create a new pipeline for nurses from and for the region.

By 2021, the relentless toll of the COVID-19 pandemic on health care workers led to a nationwide nurse vacancy rate of 17 percent, according to the 2022 NSI National Health Care Retention and RN Staffing Report. The New Jersey Collaborating Center for Nursing, a nonprofit housed at the School of Nursing in Newark focused on nursing workforce solutions, found that demand was high for nurses across the state. And the problem is particularly acute in Essex County, where health care systems and other employers posted more than 1,100 nursing job openings in 2021—the highest of any county in the state.

“It’s really putting a strain on hospitals,” says Edna Cadmus, RN, PhD the center’s executive director and clinical professor at Rutgers School of Nursing. “They’re struggling right now.”

To encourage students to join nursing’s dwindling ranks, an anonymous donor gave the Rutgers School of Nursing $2 million to establish an endowed fund that will provide full tuition scholarships for nursing undergraduates each year. The first preference for the scholarship goes to bachelor’s degree students from Newark area high schools, particularly those coming from Weequahic High School, where the donor graduated. A related gift of $60,000 will fund the first two scholarship awards beginning in the 2023-2024 academic year.

The donor—a Newark native who settled out of state—became motivated to fund this scholarship after her husband’s medical diagnosis made home health nurses a fixture in their home. The nurses hailed from countries as far-flung as Uganda and shared with the couple their stories of coming to the United States and joining the health care profession.

Since her husband’s passing, the donor has continued to partner with nurses in evaluating the effectiveness of her own care plan, advocating with primary care practitioners, ensuring comprehensive standards of care, and assisting in designing or implementing programs to address her needs. She hopes the scholarship will encourage more students to pursue careers in nursing.

The scholarship comes at an opportune time for Weequahic, one of Newark’s comprehensive public high schools. As part of a district-wide strategic plan, each of these six schools has launched a sector-focused “academy” in the 2019-2020 school year to jump-start their students’ future careers. The high-school academies focus on job sectors such as business and finance, education, law and public safety, engineering, and environmental studies.

The first cohort of Weequahic High School Allied Health Services Academy students will graduate in June. These 22 students spent four years studying subjects like human body systems and medical interventions and interning at nearby Newark Beth Israel Medical Center to prepare for futures in nursing, medicine, and other health care fields.

“We’re trying to prepare our students for the real world once they graduate and go into the field,” says Yolanda Cassidy-Bogan, school-to-career coordinator with the Pathways to College Program offered by the Newark Board of Education.

Thanks to an academic partnership with Rutgers School of Health Professions, the academy helps students graduate from high school with at least one advanced certificate. “We work hard to prepare the kids for admission to college,” says Newark Schools Superintendent Roger Leon. “That is clear.”

As in many communities across the country, plenty of high school students in Essex County struggle to afford college. “There’s a financial impact for students making that decision,” Leon says. “The [Rutgers nursing scholarship] donor eliminates the financial impediment to continuing their education.”

Cassidy-Bogan, a Weequahic graduate, says the scholarship is a once-in-a-lifetime chance for aspiring nurses. “If I were a freshman and had that opportunity, that would definitely be my focus,” she says. “This full scholarship is a dream come true for our students.”

Along with helping to address the overall nurse shortage in the state and the region, the Rutgers scholarship is also a nod to increasing diversity within the nursing workforce, giving first-generation college students preference for funding.

The scholarship will open doors for generations of Weequahic students, many of whom are the first in their families to pursue higher education, Leon says. “[This money] is going to provide the health care workforce with students who look like [our population] in Newark, and then create a pathway for more students to follow,” he says. “It’s just a complete game changer of a donation.”

Help on the Way

Posted on January 18, 2023January 21, 2023 by Annabelle Arana-David

One morning in May 2022, Devin* (her name and others in this article have been changed to ensure privacy), a journalist who covers health care, noticed that her 15-year-old son, Ajay*, was acting oddly. “He came out of his room, staggering,” she says. When asked, her son confessed to taking a dangerously large dose of cough medicine to get high. “He’d been experiencing anxiety and depression, but I had found him a therapist and a psychiatrist,” she says. “I thought I was doing everything right.” She called an ambulance, and as it arrived, she could clearly see that her son was intoxicated. “He was laughing, and the EMTs said his heart was racing,” recalls Devin. At the ER, the attending physician told her that Ajay was in the 99th percentile of the most depressed kids he’d seen and recommended that her son be admitted to the hospital. “Leaving him there was heartbreaking.”

While Ajay had struggled with his mental health since elementary school, the COVID-19 pandemic, says Devin, made her son’s challenges worse. “He always did better with social learning. Switching to remote was not a great set up for him,” she says. “He got more depressed, more removed, angrier.”

Ajay isn’t alone. The pandemic has exacerbated what was already an urgent mental and behavioral health crisis among young people. The reasons are many and varied, including sharp increases in bullying (in real life and online), pervasive violence in our culture (school shootings are now at their highest number in two decades), a growing sense of social isolation, and unrelenting academic and social demands. “It’s important to realize that youth mental health challenges don’t occur in a vacuum,” says Joshua Langberg, director of the Center for Youth Social Emotional Wellness at the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology (GSAPP), clinical psychologist, and professor of psychology. “We have to take seriously that many young people, especially those living in poverty, feel marginalized and hopeless,” he says.

Worse, as rates of depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and other mental health disorders have skyrocketed among young people, resources to help them have not kept pace: “Even as our expectations of kids have increased, we haven’t taught them the social and emotional skills they need,” says Brian Chu, chair of the Department of Clinical Psychology at GSAPP and director of the Youth Anxiety and Depression Clinic.

The numbers tell the story. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the share of high school students who reported persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness jumped by 40 percent between 2009 and 2019, to more than one in three students. Worse, suicides in young people aged 10 to 24 increased by nearly 60 percent during the same period, making suicide the second leading cause of death among 15- to 24-year-olds. Substance use is also on the rise, including abuse of over-the-counter (OTC) medications. A 2018 study published in the journal Innovations in Pharmacy found that nearly half of OTC-related poisonings and emergency room visits by adolescents were because of misusing medication.

The numbers are worse among people of color and transgender individuals (also referred to as sexual and gender minorities among clinicians). They are more isolated, more likely to experience violence, and often have less access to resources they need.

Meeting an urgent need

Rutgers, a leading provider of mental health services, is uniquely positioned to help, providing affordable, equitable care for the most marginalized and vulnerable children, teens, and young adults. The university’s new Youth Behavioral Health Initiative—co-led by Rutgers–New Brunswick Chancellor-Provost Francine Conway; Frank Ghinassi, president and CEO of University Behavioral Health Care; and Langberg—harnesses the community outreach and training efforts of the Center for Youth Social Emotional Wellness and the adolescent and young adult treatment and prevention services of the new Brandt Behavioral Health Treatment Center and Residence at Rutgers. The Youth Behavioral Health Initiative will be the first in New Jersey to implement a holistic and comprehensive model for improving youth mental health outcomes, according to Langberg.

Devin, for one, found it daunting to identify a suitable treatment program for her teenager. “It has always been a challenge to find mental health care providers with expertise in treating young children and teens because so many graduate programs seem to focus on adult mental health, with child-focused study not fully integrated into required training,” says Kelly Moore GSAPP’09,’11, director of the Center for Psychological Services, a low-cost center at GSAPP that serves Rutgers students and other adolescents as part of the school’s community outreach.

“Youth mental health challenges don’t occur in a vacuum. Many young people, especially those living in poverty, feel marginalized and hopeless.”

—Joshua Langberg, director of the Center for Youth Social Emotional Wellness

COVID-19 highlighted the problem of overwhelming demand for services—and too little supply. A 2019 study found that nearly half of the 7.7 million children and teens in the United States with at least one treatable mental health disorder weren’t getting the care they required. Then came COVID-19. As the need for quality mental health care climbed among young people, access to those services plummeted.

“When COVID hit, it was gasoline on a fire,” says Jennifer Foster GSAPP’10, an assistant teaching professor at GSAPP and director of the Multi-Tiered Systems of Support programs. “Before, kids at least had access to community services and their Monday-to-Friday school routine,” she says. “As communities shut down, all of that went away.” The lack of routine during the pandemic left many children and teens with almost unlimited access to social media as parents struggled to find childcare or adjust to working at home. “During the pandemic, my 10-year-old son, Jordan*, was depressed, and he began spending a lot of time on video games,” says Alonzo*. “I let it slide because I figured that at least he was talking to other kids online.”

His son then migrated to TikTok and began posting disturbing things, including a video of himself beating up a stuffed animal. When Alonzo tried limiting Jordan’s phone use, Jordan attempted suicide, downing a bottle of ibuprofen. “We ended up spending three nights in the local ER because there were no beds in any inpatient psychiatric units for a child his age,” Alonzo says. “Programs usually start for kids who are 12 or 13.”

Foster, a former district school psychologist for the Perth Amboy Public Schools in New Jersey, has heard countless stories like this. “I think of COVID as a tsunami: it swept everything away and then, suddenly, we were all plunged back into life. Many school and community support systems were quickly overwhelmed,” she says. “We’d send kids out for screenings, and they would have to wait hours to be seen, or sometimes they’d sit in emergency rooms for days because there were no beds. The magnitude of the need was tremendous.”

Addressing deep disparities

Mental and behavioral health needs are particularly acute for families of color who are already underserved, leading to a domino effect of crisis upon crisis. In 2021, 31 percent of Black and Hispanic youth in New Jersey lived in poverty compared to 11 percent of white and Asian youth. “In the pandemic, people of color had higher death rates, which created more emotional and physical health problems as well as economic problems related to losses of jobs and caregivers,” says Chu.

Moreover, the most vulnerable families have greater difficulty accessing even the most basic mental health care for their kids. “You have to know what mental health concerns look like and have an idea of what type of service provider to call,” says Langberg. “You also need transportation to get to that provider and to be able to pay for services.” And it’s the rare practitioner who looks like a child of color: in 2019, the American Psychological Association found that only 3 percent of psychologists nationwide were Black.

The inequities are just one of the structural and systemic barriers to care that the Rutgers Youth Behavioral Health Initiative is addressing. “It approaches mental health care more holistically by bringing different perspectives and types of expertise to the table,” says Langberg. That means not only training more therapists, but also recruiting and training a more diverse group.

“We are immensely proud of this initiative, which is providing mental and behavioral health care and support for adolescents and young adults in New Jersey and throughout the Northeast while fostering innovation and learning,” says Conway, a licensed clinical psychologist. “Our aim is to use the research engine of Rutgers to forge interdisciplinary teams that can address the region’s mental health treatment desert, solve grand challenges, and serve the public good.”

Serving the public good also means broadening the definition of what diversity means. “Rutgers and GSAPP are working to rapidly diversify the mental health workforce, training clinicians from underrepresented backgrounds, who speak more than one language, and who are ‘neurodiverse,’” says Langberg of practitioners who themselves live with conditions such as autism and ADHD. And making sure to include LGBTQ+ therapists is also crucial because this population often has difficulty accessing the care they need.

“It has always been a challenge to find mental health care providers with expertise in treating young children and teens.”
—Kelly Moore, director of the Center for Psychological Services

“These kids have been under stress for a long time. The demands on them have increased and the expectations have increased,” says Chu. “That’s why we need to take a more comprehensive approach.” That approach, he says, should include normalizing regular mental health checkups for kids at the pediatrician and in schools. “That’s a critical way we can identify and help young people who need help early.”

Fifteen-year-old Alex* was among them. When the transgender teen began struggling with feelings of isolation, anxiety, and depression in elementary school, he didn’t know where to turn. “For a long time, I felt I was different, that I didn’t feel comfortable in my body, and it got worse when I started getting breasts. I was, like, ‘This isn’t OK!’ But I didn’t even know that trans people existed,” he says.

To make matters worse, just before the pandemic kicked in, most of his friends at school began to shun him. “Then in-person school ended, and I felt even more lonely and stressed,” he recalls. “I was hit by huge waves of anxiety.”

*From left, Joshua Langberg, Jennifer Foster, Kelly Moore, Brian Chu, and Helen Paulucci.*

Alex’s parents knew he needed help—and quickly. A 2022 study in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence found that 80 percent of transgender youth have thought about committing suicide, and 40 percent have attempted to do so. “Before the pandemic, we started an intensive outpatient program for young adults with anxiety and mood disorders,” says Helen Paulucci, a mental health clinician and social worker. She addresses addiction with the Specialized Addiction Treatment Services program, part of Rutgers University Behavioral Health Care. The program offers an extensive range of mental health services for youths and people of all ages. Paulucci was struck, she says, by how many attendees of the outpatient program were LGBTQ+. “Seventy percent were LGBTQ+, a portion of whom were transgender young adults,” she says.

Yet, for Alex’s parents, finding a therapist who had experience working with trans teens was tough. “One therapist admitted that she had never worked with anyone in the trans community,” says Alex’s mother. “It was almost as if she was trying to learn from him, rather than the other way around.”

However, training more practitioners who can meet the needs of diverse patients is only part of the solution. The great need can be met only with the help of the community, Langberg and other experts at Rutgers agree. “We, the experts, must go where problems are most likely to be identified—schools, pediatricians’ offices, and community organizations,” he says. “We need to work together with providers in these settings so they can implement evidence-based assessments and prevention practices, and know when and how to connect with a psychologist if necessary.”

A community-based approach

There’s no time to waste. While the typical gap between someone showing signs of a mental health disorder and seeking treatment is about 11 years, kids and families will meanwhile encounter others in the community and schools who can potentially help them. “Part of how we address this shortage of practitioners amid the youth mental health crisis is to make sure we alert the public about the signs and symptoms that someone is struggling,” says Moore. “I’ve trained law enforcement, educators, church staffers, and scout troop leaders—the people who interact with children. They need to know how to ask the right questions.”

One way to help them do that lies in GSAPP’s multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) programs. GSAPP offers specialized MTSS training that teachers, support staff, and administrators can use to develop strong prevention and intervention programs. “With a tiered system, schools can begin to address mental health concerns by adopting programs that build foundational skills in social emotional learning (SEL) for all students,” says Foster. MTSS can be a highly effective and equitable way for schools to organize their SEL and mental health services and programs.

The premise of a tiered system is to identify when students need additional classroom support or when they struggle despite school-wide prevention efforts. For example, when students need more help with regulating their emotions, they can access services that use small groups to teach self-awareness and self-management skills. If kids continue to struggle, they can access more intensive Tier 3 services, which might include direct services such as individualized therapy. “That might mean seeing a school psychologist or working with a community agency to set up therapeutic interventions,” says Foster.

“I talk to a lot of parents who feel guilty, who tell me they wish they’d noticed the problems sooner, but parents can always intervene.”

Brian Chu, director of the Youth Anxiety and Depression Clinic

Children can also benefit from the data gleaned from regular and early screening for social emotional learning and mental health concerns. “Schools implementing a MTSS framework can then use this information in a systematic way to develop programming to meet the needs of a district, school, classroom, or individual student,” says Foster. “In doing so, schools provide students with equitable access to supports and avoid duplicating services, a must when school districts are already stretched thin.”

The in-school, in-community programs supported by Rutgers research and science give experts like Moore hope. “Kids are in school every day; having school-based mental health services is a huge way to tackle the problem of access.”

These kinds of partnerships are essential, especially now, and Rutgers already has some in place—and is building on that solid foundation. “The community needs to drive the mission,” says Langberg. “We have to stop assuming we have all the answers— and start listening.”

Listening to kids is also crucial in recognizing when they might need help. Alex, who is now seeing a therapist and psychiatrist he likes, is grateful that his parents listened to his concerns and wishes more adults would do the same. “So many adults see children as ‘less than,’” he says. “They assume that if a kid is upset about something, they’re just overreacting. But that’s not the case.”

Devin’s son, Ajay, is back in school, and she has had promising leads on programs that might work for him. Despite the huge challenges, Devin feels lucky that she has resources to keep pushing to find the right help for her teen. “I have excellent health insurance and my parents also help,” she says. “But knowing what I know now, I’m really scared for my kid.”

Chu says it’s never too late for parents to act. “I talk to a lot of parents who feel guilty, who tell me they wish they’d noticed the problems sooner, but parents can always intervene,” he says. “Rutgers is really investing in young people and mental health. The time to act is now.”

Story originally appeared in Rutgers Magazine.

Advancing the Art of Digital Dentistry

Posted on January 11, 2023January 12, 2023 by Annabelle Arana-David

By Christina Hernandez Sherwood

When Jessica Mitri’s father, Australian digital dentistry technology entrepreneur Georges Sara, died in a New York City hospital in November 2020, she was buoyed by support from an unlikely place—the Rutgers School of Dental Medicine.

Sara, 56, had become ill with COVID-19 soon after arriving in the United States that summer. He was there to complete a three-year project—the creation of a state-of-the-art digital dentistry center at Rutgers. Sara and his Australian company Stoneglass Industries had donated $1.3 million in equipment and software, along with countless hours of education and training for Rutgers faculty and students. But when the center finally opened in September 2020, Sara was in the hospital, fighting for his life.

“When [my father] did pass, my personal Instagram page blew up with students contacting me from Rutgers,” Mitri remembers. “I was getting emails saying, ‘Jessica, we found out about Georges. We can’t believe it.” The students recalled how Sara showed them photos of his grandchildren and told them what Mitri was up to back in Australia before he started teaching. “It was just so heartwarming,” says Mitri, now head of operations at Stoneglass.

Despite his tragic passing two years ago, Sara’s legacy is alive at the Rutgers School of Dental Medicine, where the now-named Georges E. Sara Digital Dentistry Center honors his innovation and generosity. The gift of the center was one of the largest in-kind donations in the history of the school, and it stands as a shining example of Rutgers’ position at the forefront of dental medicine. But it wouldn’t have been possible anywhere else, Mitri says, or without a series of serendipitous connections between like-minded dental experts.

“The relationships that my father built with the staff at Rutgers, and the belief that they had in him and what a prosthetic design center could do for the students and the patients,” Mitri says, “that was the difference.”

A family affair

It all started with spaghetti and meatballs.

Back in 2017, Rutgers periodontics professor Howard Drew and his wife, Ina, invited Georges Sara for dinner at their home at the suggestion of their son, Alex. While Alex Drew was chief resident of the Columbia University dental school’s prosthodontics department, he used Sara’s Stoneglass digital dentistry tools. Alex Drew thought his father—and Rutgers—should also get to know the entrepreneur.

Over Italian food and wine, Howard Drew instantly connected with Sara, whom he described as “a larger-than-life character,” with long curly hair and an effervescent personality. But Drew was equally impressed with Stoneglass technology, a host of thoughtfully designed tools meant to complement, rather than replace, traditional dentistry techniques.

Drew learned that Stoneglass technology positioned traditional dental techniques as the foundation of its process to produce partial and complete arch removable and fixed prostheses. This analog and digital synergy—including scanners, 3D printers, and a software suite—was especially appealing in the university setting. That’s because try-in prostheses could be designed and fabricated in-house to create a fully individualized prosthesis. (While typical dental prostheses come in standard sizes, with only certain colors available for teeth, Stoneglass equipment can produce more aesthetically pleasing implants because of its customization capabilities.)

Sara had created a system for clinicians that provided prosthetic support and guidance from engineers, technicians, and clinical specialists to ensure that even the most complex cases found solutions. “This was mind boggling, miles ahead of your average dental laboratory,” Drew said.

Drew introduced Georges Sara to Heba Elkassaby, now director of digital dentistry at Rutgers School of Dental Medicine.

The future of dentistry

Elkassaby quickly understood the educational potential of Stoneglass technology. Using the Stoneglass system to design and fabricate dentures digitally would enhance students’ ability to analyze tooth arrangement and occlusion, she realized, and it would also give Rutgers’ dentists-in-training access to the latest tools in dental technology, such as 3D printers.

“3D printing technology has been proving itself in dentistry recently in many applications… and there are ongoing advances in this technology,” Elkassaby says. “The future of dentistry is moving toward using digital technology in every aspect.”

Rutgers School of Dental Medicine Dean Cecile A. Feldman also recognized the possibilities of the Stoneglass partnership. “Like in all aspects of life, technology is greatly benefitting our field, and this collaboration has brought us to the forefront of digital dentistry,” said Feldman. “The center enables our students and faculty to get hands-on experience using the latest tools and techniques, which they then can employ in patient care.”

heba elkassaby — *Heba Elkassaby, assistant professor at the Rutgers School of Dental Medicine, walks students through the basics of digital dentistry.*

Elkassaby worked closely with Sara—the two bonding over their similar backgrounds and sometimes joking in Arabic—on the details of the partnership. Part of Sara’s gift was to install Stoneglass software on dental students’ tablets. This meant students could learn Stoneglass technology in the simulation lab and practice with it at home before entering the dental clinic.

The Sara Digital Dentistry Center has 23 workstations, three 3D printers, and three laboratory scanners. Stoneglass prosthetic technology became part of the school’s curriculum when the center opened in 2020. Students can use the technology to design complete dentures digitally. Postdoctoral students can also design implant-supported fixed prostheses.

“Because of this center, we now have the technology to teach and fabricate digital complete dentures,” Elkassaby says. “Most dental schools have some technology for fixed restorations, but only a few schools nationwide [including Rutgers] have the digital technology for removable prostheses.”

Rutgers dental graduates will long reap the benefits of their digital dentistry skills, whether their future career involves using Stoneglass technology, Elkassaby says. Once students have mastered computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM) with Stoneglass technology, they will have skills needed to learn other such programs.

In the meantime, Rutgers students who gather in the Georges E. Sara Digital Dentistry Center pay homage to the man who lent it his name by designing and manufacturing prostheses with Stoneglass technology. “One of the patients was dancing in the clinic last week after she got her dentures,” Elkassaby says with a smile. “She showed her dentures to everyone in the clinic, and she was dancing because the outcome was so nice.”

Fulfilling a Need in the Face of High Food Prices

Posted on December 14, 2022January 30, 2023 by Annabelle Arana-David

By Sam Starnes GSN’04

As grocery prices have increased in 2022, so have the numbers of students turning to the food pantry serving the Rutgers University–Newark community. “We’ve had a lot of new users,” says Hend El-Buri, director of PantryRUN. “Many are people who have never needed to ask for help.”

El-Buri says the cost of eggs has almost doubled, partly due to inflation and partly due to the bird flu outbreak, and that milk has also increased dramatically. “There are more people who suddenly are experiencing pain at the supermarket,” she says. “Some people are realizing, ‘Oh my gosh. We have to cut back on something.’”

The average number of students picking up food at PantryRUN has increased to about 275 per week, near pre-pandemic usage, and up from 175 per week in 2021. In November alone, the pantry provided food for 1,200 students. The pantry strives to destigmatize using a food pantry, which allows students to place orders online and pick up their packages instead of standing in line. The pantry has averaged about 160 new users per month over the last three months. El-Buri says she’s happy to see more students benefitting and she expects that usage is likely to continue to rise.

In addition to providing food to students, the food pantry also assists students who are eligible in signing up for New Jersey’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (NJ SNAP). “We know that about 18 percent of students are eligible for SNAP, but only about three percent are utilizing those benefits,” she says.

As costs for shoppers have gone up, so have expenses for the pantry. In addition to more overhead for eggs and milk, the pantry now pays more for popular items such as cereal and garlic. Although a campaign to raise funds for all four Rutgers food pantries ended successfully in November with more than 600 financial gifts, the need to help more students facing food insecurity remains. “We greatly appreciate the support that we received from our alumni and other donors in the Stop Student Hunger campaign,” says Robin Semple, vice chancellor for development at Rutgers–Newark. “The need to support our students struggling to feed themselves and their families continues year-round, especially in light of the high cost of groceries.”

In addition to the Rutgers–Newark pantry, which opened in 2017, three other food pantries serve Rutgers students: the Rutgers University–Camden Raptor Pantry, the Rutgers–New Brunswick Student Food Pantry, and the Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences (RBHS) Food Pantry at Newark Health Sciences.

You can donate to each of the four Rutgers food pantries at give.rutgers.edu/foodpantry.

Nursing the Nurses

Posted on December 7, 2022December 7, 2022 by Annabelle Arana-David

While the public showered nurses with well-deserved praise as health care heroes during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the workload remained when the public’s interest waned. And now, after caring for patients through a years-long health care emergency, many nurses have found the unrelenting stress to be too much. Across New Jersey and the country, nurses are leaving the workforce in droves.

“Nurses are caretakers,” says Lois V. Greene, a nurse by training who serves as interim chief strategic integration and health equity officer at University Hospital in Newark. “But we don’t necessarily care for ourselves.”

That’s why Greene participates in the New Jersey Nursing Emotional Well-Being Institute (NJ-NEW), a collaboration of the New Jersey Collaborating Center for Nursing (NJCCN) at the Rutgers School of Nursing and Rutgers University Behavioral Health to support the emotional needs of nurses throughout the state. NJ-NEW provides free, research-based programming to bolster nurses at both individual and organizational levels.

“A resource like NJ-NEW gives us a moment to breathe and remember that life can be difficult,” says Susan W. Salmond, NJ-NEW’s director and executive vice dean of the Rutgers School of Nursing. “We want to operate at our best, so it’s important that we do some self care.”

Initially funded by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, NJ-NEW recently received additional support from the Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey. The grant is the latest in a more than two-decade partnership between Rutgers University and the Millburn-based Foundation, which makes grants to reduce disparities in health care delivery and improve access to quality care for vulnerable populations in the Newark area and the Jewish community of Greater MetroWest.

To date, the foundation has awarded Rutgers and its partners more than 150 grants, including a $3.2 million gift in 2003 to establish The Healthcare Foundation Center for Humanism and Medicine at New Jersey Medical School, which promotes empathy and compassion for doctors-in-training. The grant funded an endowment for the center’s operation and annual student scholarships. Examples of more recent grant initiatives include those tackling opioid use, children’s mental health, and healthcare advocacy within the greater Newark area, to name a few.

According to executive director Michael Schmidt, the foundation has also long recognized the need to support New Jersey’s health care workers. The COVID-19 pandemic brought that need, for nurses particularly, into sharper focus.

With the NJ-NEW program, Schmidt says, Rutgers was equipped to support the nursing workforce. “We saw NJ-NEW as a priority new initiative we wanted to be at the forefront of supporting,” he says. “This grant is an opportunity to bolster nurses and help institutions retain nurses at a time when many are experiencing staff shortages.”

A key component of NJ-NEW is virtual Schwartz Rounds, where nurses can come together to discuss the emotional cost and personal impact of caring. Through NJ-NEW, these hour-long nurse-to-nurse discussions are facilitated by behavioral specialists and focus on specific nurse populations, such as school nurses, or key themes in nursing, including burnout, the nursing shortage, and building resilience.

Each session opens with one or two nurse panelists sharing a brief personal story related to the discussion’s theme, says Jennifer Polakowski, assistant director of NJ-NEW. Then participants break into smaller groups for more intimate and purposeful conversations.

Some 4,000 nurses have so far participated in more than 55 such sessions, which can count for a continuing-education unit. “We end with some self-care strategies like deep breathing,” Polakowski says. “It’s not always new content, but it’s reinforcing what we all need to hear sometimes, that you can take five minutes, take a pause, maybe go for a walk to help you reset yourself for the day.”

And to address their needs at the institutional level, NJ-NEW is also training nurses in Stress First Aid, a stress recovery framework that they can bring back to their workplaces. Meant to help organizations build a more resilient workforce, Stress First Aid uses a color-coded stress continuum model (green, yellow, orange, and red) to make it easier for people to communicate stress.

“Nurses want to feel valued. They want to be heard,” Polakowski says. “We hope this framework helps as a way to communicate within their organization in a way that feels safe and comfortable. It’s a big shift in nursing culture.”

Finally, NJ-NEW is building a repository for programming, services, and resources related to nurses’ emotional well-being and resilience. The goal is to bring together a host of evidence-based materials in a centralized repository that nurses can access around the clock.

“We want this program to expand and grow and meet nurses where they are.” Polakowski says.

For information about contributing to the NJ-NEW program, please get in touch with Jennifer Polakowski.

A Time for Radical Generosity

Posted on November 29, 2022January 30, 2023 by Annabelle Arana-David

When the holiday season gets underway, many of us begin focusing on family, friends, and festivities. But the holiday spirit is about much more than bright lights and big meals. It’s about caring for our neighbors and engaging in the “radical generosity” that propels us all toward a brighter future.

There’s no better onramp for that than Giving Tuesday, a global movement celebrated after every Thanksgiving to advance the common good. At Rutgers, Giving Tuesday is an opportunity to strengthen our Beloved Community and make a positive difference in the lives of others—whether that happens by giving financially or by donating time, energy, and expertise.

This year on November 29, Rutgers is partnering with organizations that are committed to service, active citizenship, and the flourishing of diversity and inclusion. All have a local presence in and around our university community, connecting directly with Rutgers students. We invite you to learn more about these amazing organizations and show your support for them!

Braven: Putting Education to Work

Did you know that only 25 percent of low-income or first-generation college students graduate and find robust employment? At the same time, local companies struggle to hire and retain local, diverse talent. Braven seeks to close this talent gap by equipping underrepresented young people with the skills, networks, and experiences they need to succeed professionally. Supporting or volunteering with Braven is a great way to pay it forward, gain leadership experience, and build strong relationships with mentees.

Embrace Kids: A Marathon Sprint for Families

Embrace Kids Foundation exists to lighten the burden, maintain normalcy, and improve quality of life for families in New Jersey and the New York City metropolitan area whose children are facing cancer, sickle cell, and other serious health challenges. The Rutgers University Dance Marathon is a student-run, year-long philanthropy project directly benefiting Embrace Kids Foundation. Over 2,000 Rutgers students dedicate countless hours to raising money, organizing projects, and volunteering at events that culminate in a spectacular dance marathon.

Rutgers Hillel: Home Away from Home

Rutgers Hillel is a thriving, dynamic, diverse Jewish community dedicated to exploring and celebrating Judaism and everything it means to be Jewish. There are no membership fees and students are encouraged to attend any of Hillel’s events and activities, all of which are supported by donations from parents, alumni, and the Jewish community. Whether it’s coming together for Shabbat, making a journey of discovery and delight to Israel, or just hanging out, a Hillel gathering welcomes all with warmth and inclusion.

Women of the Dream: Preparing Girls for Power

Want to give back to girls in underserved areas? Women of the Dream provides programs and services to young women ages 12-18 that prepare them for personal, professional, and economic success. Partnering with local schools, this organization offers important services in places of learning during school hours. In addition to financial support, Women of the Dream seeks facilitators for group services, presenters at its annual STEM conference, chaperones for trips and events, and mentors for young women in college.

On November 29, take a moment to give to or get involved with any of these vital organizations. Let’s make Giving Tuesday 2022 at Rutgers the best one ever!

Rutgers Center for Health, Identity, Behavior and Prevention Studies Premiers Film on LGBTQ+ Health Equity

Posted on November 28, 2022December 1, 2022 by Tahjaun Clarke

The Rutgers School of Public Health’s Center for Health, Identity, Behavior and Prevention Studies (CHIBPS) premiered the short film “Queer Health: Advancing LGBTQ+ Health Equity.”

“Queer Health,” which aired at the annual American Public Health Association Meeting and Expo, focuses on how we can move toward and achieve health equity for LGBTQ+ people and populations through research, education, and community-engaged programs by chronicling the work of CHIBPS, a nationally recognized center for the study of LGBTQ+ health at Rutgers. The center focuses on infectious disease, substance use, and mental health dipartites and burdens.

The documentary includes interviews with leading LGBTQ+ health and public health experts in New Jersey and highlights the 18.3 million LGBTQ+ people living in the United States. LGBTQ+ people have higher rates of mental health problems, including depression, mood disorders, substance use and suicidal ideation, according to experts. They also experience higher rates of some cancers and are disproportionately impacted by HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. LGBTQ+ people are also less likely to access health care for a variety of reasons including previous discrimination, stigma, financial concerns, fear of negative interactions with clinicians, and a lack of medical professionals trained in LGBTQ+ health.

Emphasizing the work of CHIBPS since the late 1990s, the film proposes an inclusive powerhouse institute that will advance health and visibility, as well as address health disparities that LGBTQ+ people face in New Jersey and beyond. The planned Rutgers Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Heath would be an incubator for individuals to come together to advance LGBTQ+ health efforts in a unified way.

“Too often efforts to address the health of LGBTQ+ people are fragmented and disconnected,” said Perry N. Halkitis, founder and director of CHIBPS. “Researchers work separately from clinicians, who work separately from policymakers. Efforts to unite these professionals will create a holistic approach to improving the health and well-being of LGBTQ+ people.”

The institute will provide a space where research, education, policy, and clinical services are coordinated.

“The institute will develop policies, laws, and white papers that advance LGBTQ+ health issues,” added Halkitis, who also is dean and Hunterdon Professor of Public Health and Health Equity and a Distinguished Professor at the Rutgers School of Public Health.

Halkitis, along with other leading LGBTQ+ health and public health experts, explains that there are very few such institutes in the U.S., with none in New Jersey.

“The dream is that the Rutgers Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Heath will be the home of all LGBTQ+ health work being done at Rutgers and in New Jersey,” said Kristen Krause, deputy director of CHIBPS and instructor at the Rutgers School of Public Health.

The film also highlights hundreds of bills that have been introduced by legislators in recent years that threaten, oppress, and silence LGBTQ+ people.

“Many bills have passed, undermining the health and well-being of LGBTQ+ people and populations,” adds Krause.

The work of CHIBPS, the Rutgers School of Public Health, and the proposed Rutgers Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Heath is especially critical as anti-LGBTQ+ hate and violence continue to occur at alarming rates.

“LGBTQ+ people have long been subject to discrimination and prejudice in all aspects of their lives. In recent years, the rhetoric against members of the LGBTQ+ population – uplifted by political figures as a means of advancing their own careers – has enabled those like the Colorado Springs shooter,” says Halkitis.

“In the end, hate, is the most significant driver that diminishes public health,” he adds.

One of the ways that the Rutgers School of Public Health, seeks to combat this oppression is through programs like the first known master of public health concentration in LGBT public health. The concentration prepares graduate-level students to conduct research and work in public health programs dedicated to improving the health of LGBTQ+ individuals and communities.

In addition to the work being done by CHIBPS and the LGBT public health concentration, faculty members like Rafael E. Pérez-Figueroa, associate dean of community engagement and public health practice, conduct research that takes into consideration social factors and conditions, including representing the most vulnerable sexual and gender minority individuals and groups.

“Ever since Rutgers hired Dean Halkitis, the school has taken an entirely new direction,” said James Dougherty, a member of the Rutgers University Board of Governors and past Chair of the Board of Trustees, who was the principal donor to the university’s Pride Bus Campaign.

Halkitis leaves the film’s viewers with a powerful message of hope.

“I want to say to people, particularly young people, who are questioning, wondering, and thinking about their sexual and gender identities that there are a lot of us out there who are in really powerful positions right now who are going to continue to fight for you,” Halkitis said. “So don’t give up.”

This story originally appeared on the Rutgers Today site.

Veterans House at Rutgers to Be Named After Medal of Honor Alumnus

Posted on November 28, 2022November 28, 2022 by Annabelle Arana-David

One year after graduating from Rutgers College at the height of the Vietnam war, a young ROTC-trained Army advisor named Jack Jacobs made a heroic rescue that earned him the Congressional Medal of Honor—a distinction few soldiers live to receive.

During an ill-fated mission in 1967 that left his commander disabled and his unit in chaos amid heavy casualties, Jacobs took control, ordering a withdrawal and forming a defense line at a more secure position.

Then, despite suffering head and arm wounds and impaired vision, Jacobs repeatedly ran across open rice paddies through heavy fire for hours to evacuate the wounded, personally saving a fellow advisor, the wounded company commander, and 12 other allied soldiers.

In honor of his exceptional act and years of subsequent service, the Office of Veteran and Military Programs and Services at Rutgers is launching a campaign to have Veteran’s House at Rutgers named after the retired Army colonel and raise $500,000 to create an opportunity fund that will support military-affiliated students at Rutgers.

“He is a total legend,” said retired Army Sergeant First Class and Rutgers-New Brunswick senior Paul Frabizzio, 39, a work-study supervisor at Veteran’s House and the vice president of Student Veterans of America.

“It’s pretty ingrained in you to know the Medal of Honor recipients and what they received their medal for, so I knew of Col. Jacobs even before I came to Rutgers,” said Frabizzio, who lives in Piscataway with his wife. “But I didn’t know he went to Rutgers, which I found really cool when I came to Veteran’s House.”

Jacobs called it a “great honor” to know Veteran’s House will one day bear his name. But he was quick to note that his decision to act in those fateful moments decades ago was motivated by brotherhood more than bravery.

“These were my buddies, and I guarantee you if the situation were reversed and I needed help, somebody would have come to get me,” said Jacobs, who resides in Far Hills with his wife. “As Benjamin Franklin said, ‘We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.’”

Jacobs’ modesty is typical of those who have seen combat, said Frabizzio, who served 12 years as a tank mechanic and infantryman in Afghanistan and Africa during Operation Enduring Freedom.

“You’re not doing anything for a medal when you’re in that moment. It’s about the guy to the left of you and the guy to the right of you,” said Frabizzio, a School of Social Work student who plans to assist other veterans in crisis after graduating this May. “I’m sure he’d give that medal back in five seconds to get his friends back, and that’s why he is so humble.”

After Vietnam, Jacobs returned to Rutgers Graduate School-New Brunswick and earned his master’s degree in political science in 1972. He went on to serve on the faculties of the National War College in Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where he is a senior fellow in the Department of Social Sciences. Jacobs also serves as a military analyst for MSNBC. Once he retired from the military, Jacobs founded and was chief operating officer of AutoFinance Group. He was inducted into the Rutgers Hall of Distinguished Alumni in 2003.

When growing up, Jacobs’ father, along with everyone else’s, enlisted in World War II. By the time Jacobs served, the number of Americans in the military had dropped significantly—especially once the draft had ended. Today, he says that most Americans don’t know anyone in uniform, so they don’t understand the veteran experience or what veterans have to offer as students and employees.

“I talk with corporations all the time. They want to hire veterans. When I ask why, they say, ‘Well, we owe it to them.’ But that’s not why. It’s not an act of charity,” said Jacobs, a father of three—including a daughter who graduated from Rutgers College in 1986.

“The fact is veterans have an enormous amount of authority and responsibility at a very early age and in difficult circumstances, too. It would be useful for people without military experience to understand the incredible capacity of veterans to get things done. They know how to show up on time, focus their attention on the objective and do a really good job with scarce resources.”

Following the longest period of sustained warfare in American history, the number of Rutgers students who have served in the U.S. Armed Forces has increased 180 percent in the last decade, totaling about 1,700 military-affiliated students, said Ann Treadaway, director of the Office of Veteran and Military Programs and Services. These students are often older with spouses, children, and full- or part-time jobs.

“The military clothes you, feeds you, houses you, gives you health insurance, and you have a retirement built in,” said Frabizzio. “It’s an awfully large safety net to walk away from.”

The additional responsibilities and challenges veterans face often create financial barriers not covered by the GI bill that prevent them from taking full advantage of all the opportunities available at Rutgers. Treadaway hopes Jacobs’ story helps the Rutgers University Foundation raise money to help fill the gaps for Rutgers’ military-affiliated students through the new opportunity fund.

“We have an emergency fund, but that is only for sudden financial crisis that students may face,” said Treadaway. “The fund could help a student take the LSAT or GRE, take a prep class or get an additional certificate. Maybe it covers a tuition balance that the GI Bill doesn’t cover. The goal is it will bridge the gap for military-affiliated students to succeed.”

Story originally appeared in Rutgers Today.

Quest Diagnostics Boosts Rutgers Political Equity Program

Posted on November 16, 2022November 23, 2022 by Annabelle Arana-David

Quest Diagnostics has contributed to Ready to Run® at Rutgers, the nonpartisan campaign training program for women. The gift will help fund a range of resources that help women from all political parties prepare for and execute political campaigns.

Nadia Hussain has participated in Ready to Run® going back to her time as an undergraduate at Rutgers–New Brunswick. In 2020 she ran for and won a seat on the Bloomingdale, New Jersey, Board of Education.

“Ready to Run® helped,” she said. “Traditional structures get you connected. I didn’t have those connections; I had to make them. Knowing what to do in an election, having a fundraiser, making fundraising calls, opening a campaign account—the program is a mechanism for feeling empowered.”

A national network aiming to address the underrepresentation of women in American politics, Ready to Run® helps women envision themselves in elected roles by offering a primer for those considering public office—locally and nationally. The Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) founded Ready to Run® and administers Rutgers’ instance of the program.

“We’re pleased to be able to help women get the needed resources to aspire to hold elected office in this great state,” said Cecilia McKenney, Quest’s Chief Human Resources Officer. “We’re pleased to team up with Rutgers University to support this important initiative.”

Debbie Walsh, director of CAWP, praised Quest Diagnostics for its support for Ready to Run®. “This contribution from Quest Diagnostics makes a powerful statement about the need for Ready to Run®,” Walsh said. “With women comprising less than one third of officeholders at every level of office we study, there is so much left to do. We welcome support from the private sector in the important work of advancing women’s public leadership.”

Hussain agrees. “Fifty percent of the country is female,” she said, “and that’s not what you’re seeing in elected office. Even women whose families have been in the country for generations, they don’t feel they have a voice.”

The CAWP-hosted Ready to Run® is the organization’s flagship New Jersey program. Over the past 20 years, the program has trained more than 4,000 women to run for office, seek appointed positions, and manage campaigns. Ready to Run® program attendees walk away with a range of skills and resources, including “how to” instructions for running for office, fundraising and media skills, real-world advice from experts, networking opportunities, and more.

Hussain took full advantage of these resources. In her successful 2020 campaign, she applied what she learned—fundraising, networking, earning publicity—with intensity, knocking on more than 1,000 doors. Her professionalism and work ethic earned her the highest vote returns of any candidate in her town in more than a decade. “Women,” she said, “work harder in politics—on the campaign trail and wherever they’re serving.”

“We are enormously grateful to Quest Diagnostics for supporting Ready to Run®,” said Jean Sinzdak, associate director of the Center for American Women and Politics. “Quest’s gift will help us engage more women as future public leaders, crucial in a moment when we all look towards building a better future and strengthening our democracy.”

In addition to its recent support for Ready to Run® at CAWP, Quest Diagnostics’ ongoing work with Rutgers includes support for no-cost laboratory tests to diagnose and manage acute and chronic diseases for uninsured and underinsured patients of the Rutgers’ H.O.P.E. Clinic in Plainfield, New Jersey. Like that program, Ready to Run® seeks to make an immediate impact on a long-running problem.

“The issue of women’s underrepresentation in politics has been an ongoing one,” said Walsh. “To help change that, we must ensure that women continue to have the resources and training they need to run for office and serve their communities as public officials.”

Hussain said, “When I was younger, I thought, ‘I’m a girl, and I can do anything.’ It amazes me that society doesn’t think that. It’s 2022 and it’s illogical. We know what to do, but the political will is still not there. I’m still pushing for that.”

About Quest Diagnostics
As the world’s leading provider of diagnostic information services, Quest Diagnostics empowers people to take action to improve health outcomes. Derived from the world’s largest database of clinical lab results, Quest’s diagnostic insights reveal new avenues to identify and treat disease, inspire healthy behaviors, and improve health care management.

Quest annually serves one in three adult Americans and half the physicians and hospitals in the United States. The company’s nearly 50,000 employees understand that, in the right hands and with the right context, our diagnostic insights can inspire actions that transform lives.

About the Center for American Women and Politics
CAWP is nationally recognized as the leading source of scholarly research and current data about women’s political participation in the United States. Its mission is to promote greater knowledge and understanding about the role of women in American politics, enhance women’s influence in public life, and expand the diversity of women in politics and government.

CAWP’s education and outreach programs translate research findings into action, addressing women’s under-representation in political leadership with effective, intersectional, and imaginative programs serving a variety of audiences. As the world has watched Americans considering female candidates for the nation’s highest offices, CAWP’s five decades of analyzing and interpreting women’s participation in American politics have provided a foundation and context for the discussion.

About the Eagleton Institute of Politics
The Eagleton Center for Public Interest Polling is a unit of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. The Eagleton Institute studies how American politics and government work and change, analyzes how democracy might improve, and promotes political participation and civic engagement. The Institute explores state and national politics through research, education, and public service, linking the study of politics with its day-to-day practice. To learn more about Eagleton programs and expertise, visit eagleton.rutgers.edu.