Messages to the Rutgers Community

December 2, 2025

Members of the Rutgers Community,

I am pleased to announce the launch of the search for the next Chancellor of Rutgers Health.

The search is being co-chaired by Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Keena Arbuthnot and Robert Wood Johnson Medical School Dean Amy Murtha; the full committee is listed below. They will be assisted by the executive search firm Spencer Stuart, which possesses a deep knowledge of Rutgers Health from conducting several previous searches.

New Jersey Medical School Dean Robert Johnson has agreed to serve as Interim Chancellor beginning January 1, 2026.  Dr. Johnson has led NJMS since 2011 and served simultaneously as interim dean of RWJMS from 2019 until Dr. Murtha’s appointment in 2022.  He will provide wise and steady leadership of Rutgers Health as we conduct this extremely important search.

I have bold ambitions for Rutgers Health and am eager to begin the search for a transformative leader to build on the tremendous work that has already been achieved under Dr. Brian Strom’s leadership as the inaugural chancellor. A search webpage has been established and will be updated as the search committee conducts its work in consultation with the wider Rutgers community.

Warm regards,

William F. Tate IV
President

November 24, 2025

Dear Rutgers Faculty and Staff,

In my Inaugural Address earlier this month, I declared that at Rutgers, “opportunity lives.” There and in my meeting with the University Senate last week, I emphasized the need for this remarkable university to keep focused on our mission of advancing learning, discovery, opportunity, and social mobility without distraction or distortion. Even as we traverse a changing higher education landscape, we must continue our work to expand access to an impactful education and deepen our commitment to innovation, engagement, and service.

In that spirit, I want to announce two new initiatives that will help Rutgers achieve those goals by supporting and engaging our outstanding faculty and ensuring equal opportunity for Rutgers students, faculty, and staff. These initiatives are part of an ongoing effort to maintain compliance with federal and state requirements while preserving the University’s autonomy as we provide both access to an excellent education for students of all backgrounds and the supportive framework for our faculty and staff to teach, conduct research, and work at the highest levels.

First, the University is establishing a new position: Vice President for Faculty Affairs and Engagement. This academic leader will oversee faculty affairs processes, policies, and activities, strengthen professional development and support for all faculty, and guide broader engagement efforts with students and other stakeholders. As we aspire to rise even higher among our peer institutions as a world-class public research university, it is more important than ever that we not only recruit and retain outstanding scholars and educators but also provide the resources and support they deserve to thrive throughout their careers at Rutgers. Reporting to Executive Vice President Keena Arbuthnot, this new role will provide central leadership, coordination, and amplification of our initiatives to enhance faculty development and engagement across the University. An internal search for this position will begin shortly.

To further Rutgers’ unwavering commitment to equality and opportunity, the University will also establish an Office of Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity. This new office will be charged with ensuring the University’s full compliance with federal and state civil rights laws—including Title VI, Title VII, Title IX, and the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination—and will strengthen our institutional capacity to prevent and address harassment, discrimination, and sexual misconduct.

The Office of Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity will serve as a visible and trusted resource for our community—one that upholds our core values, advances a culture of accountability, and makes certain that all members of our community are treated with fairness and dignity. The office will help ensure that Rutgers remains an institution that unequivocally rejects discrimination in all its forms and provides those who experience misconduct with meaningful support and clear pathways to resolution.

As part of the formation of these two new functions, the Office of Academic Affairs will incorporate the staff of the Office of University Equity and Inclusion, which will be closing. Formed in 2020 and directed by Senior Vice President Enobong (Anna) Branch, the Office of University Equity and Inclusion led the implementation of Rutgers’ first university-wide Diversity Strategic Plan. The office has excelled in fostering support and connection for all faculty through leadership, mentoring, and community-building programs.

As the University’s commitment to equal opportunity and faculty engagement remains steadfast, I would like to thank Dr. Branch for the incredible work she and her colleagues have done to enhance how Rutgers serves students, staff, and faculty, as she now plans her sabbatical and return to the faculty. The University will provide additional information about the Vice President for Faculty Affairs and Engagement and the Office of Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity in the weeks ahead.

Institutions that thrive and withstand the test of time, as Rutgers has done for nearly 260 years, adapt and evolve. Rutgers will continually assess its efforts, explore new approaches, and refine its practices to continue as a leader in social mobility and ensure that the doors of opportunity remain open to all.

Warm regards,

William F. Tate IV
President

October 30, 2025

To the Rutgers Community:

Brian Strom, who has led the evolution of Rutgers Health as an outstanding academic health center since his appointment as inaugural Chancellor in 2013, informed me that he will conclude his tenure as chancellor at the end of the fall semester.  

Dr. Strom—an eminent clinical epidemiologist and a founder of the field of pharmacoepidemiology—has brought vision, passion, energy, and wisdom to his job every day, and his imprint on Rutgers’ excellence is unmistakable. Under his leadership, Rutgers Health has become a research powerhouse that has served the health needs of New Jersey with outstanding patient care, health professions education, biomedical research, and community service.  

Among Chancellor Strom’s many achievements are:

• Recruiting nationally prominent faculty across a wide range of disciplines and supporting the establishment of the Rutgers Global Health Institute, the Brain Health Institute, the Rutgers Institute for Translational Medicine and Science, and many other research-based centers and institutes;
• Attracting $4 billion in federal funding over the past 12 years ($608m in fiscal 2025 alone), including two major NIH Clinical and Translational Sciences Awards to translate clinical research into patient treatments;
• Combining Rutgers’ and the former UMDNJ’s nursing schools into the School of Nursing, now one of the nation’s top-ranked nursing schools;
• Signing an affiliation agreement with RWJBarnabas Health to form New Jersey’s premier academic health system to better serve the state’s residents;
• Facilitating major capital projects now under way to better serve Rutgers’ health care mission, including the massive renovation of the Medical Science Building in Newark and construction of the 13-story Robert Wood Johnson Medical School building in New Brunswick;
• Launching the Rutgers Health Service Corps, enabling students and other community members to pursue volunteer opportunities to improve health and wellness across the state; and
• Forming the Rutgers Equity Alliance for Community Health, addressing social determinants of health in Rutgers’ host cities.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Chancellor Strom helped position Rutgers as a leading force in the battle against the disease, as Rutgers researchers conducted vaccine trials, developed new tests for COVID, conducted vital research on the effectiveness of personal protective equipment, while graduating its 2020 class early so they could join the front lines of the nation’s response to the coronavirus.

Chancellor Strom has also championed the Board of Governors-approved plan for Rutgers’ Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and New Jersey Medical School to seek accreditation as a unified Rutgers School of Medicine, a merger that will strengthen Rutgers’ standing among the best academic medical centers in the country.

There is much more that can and will be said about the work Brian Strom has accomplished as chancellor, and I want to applaud him for a historic and highly successful tenure at Rutgers. New Jersey has benefited greatly from his efforts in shaping Rutgers Health, and we are a stronger university overall because of his leadership of our biomedical division. We look forward to celebrating this in various ways in the coming months.

In the coming weeks, we will announce plans for a nationwide search and the appointment of an interim chancellor. In the meantime, I hope you will join me in expressing thanks and admiration to Chancellor Strom.

Warm regards,

William F. Tate IV
President

September 2, 2025

August 11, 2025

Dear Rutgers Faculty and Staff,

A core goal of my presidency will be to ensure that the central offices deliver the best possible support and service to the academic, research, and clinical mission of Rutgers University.

With this goal in mind, I am writing today to share appointments and transitions among my executive leadership team.

I have appointed Kimberly Lewis as Executive Vice President (EVP) and Chief Administrative Officer for the university, effective immediately. In this capacity, EVP Lewis will oversee the administrative activities of the university. Areas under her purview are Institutional Planning and Operations and University Finance and Administration, which includes University Human Resources and the Office of Information Technology. By bringing these areas under a single leader, my expectation is alignment around efficient support and service to the university.

I want to express my gratitude to Chief Financial Officer J. Michael Gower and Chief Operating Officer Antonio Calcado. The imprint of their expertise and leadership can be seen everywhere across Rutgers, and as we tackle the work that lies ahead, they will be working closely with EVP Lewis in developing new and innovative ways to work together in service to Rutgers.

EVP Lewis brings extensive experience in state government and higher education to Rutgers University. Most recently, Kimberly served as the Chief Administrative Officer at Louisiana State University, where she oversaw all financial and administrative strategy. She led transformative budget and administrative reforms at LSU, implementing processes that funded faculty merit raises, graduate assistant support, and strategic capital priorities. Her leadership advanced staff compensation, strengthened financial planning and modeling, and expanded insurance coverage amid regional risk. Her work contributed to LSU’s strong ratings from Fitch and Moody’s—even under projected fiscal stress.

Kimberly was the Chief Executive Officer for Louisiana’s Department of Revenue, overseeing $10B in state tax revenue. An attorney and partner at Jones Walker, LLP, where she specialized in economic development financing, state and local taxes, and incentives and government relations. While at Jones Walker, she represented multinational companies across the South, and during her Revenue time, she chaired a national tax policy organization. Kimberly has served as an advisor at the highest levels of state government in Louisiana.

I am also pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Keena Arbuthnot as the Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Chief Academic Officer, effective August 18. In this role, Dr. Arbuthnot will oversee the university’s central academic and research policy and support functions. EVP Arbuthnot will work closely with the chancellors, provosts, and academic leaders to drive forward Rutgers’ academic priorities. 

As Chief Academic Officer, EVP Arbuthnot will oversee the university’s tenure and appointments process, build a data-driven academic enterprise to support student and faculty success, and partner with our Senior Vice President for Research, Dr. Michael Zwick, to advance the university’s research agenda. As part of this transition, University Equity and Inclusion moves to Academic Affairs. 

EVP Arbuthnot, a scholar with expertise in educational measurement, applied statistics, and program evaluation, joins Rutgers following her service as Vice President and Chief Data Officer, Dean of the Pinkie Gordon Lane Graduate School, and Joan Pender McManus Distinguished Professor of Education at Louisiana State University. In these roles, she led the Office of Data and Strategic Analytics, where she advanced efforts to modernize data infrastructure, developed and promoted artificial intelligence initiatives and programs, and aligned institutional data with strategic planning. Her work supported academic and capital planning, student success initiatives, and advancement strategies in philanthropy and government relations. As Dean of the Graduate School, she championed efforts to better support doctoral students and graduate students in terminal degree programs.

I want to thank Dr. Henry Turner for stepping in as interim EVPAA during this transition period. Henry will stay on in Academic Affairs as Vice President for Academic Initiatives. 

Finally, the Rutgers Office of University Labor Relations will now be organized under the Office of the Executive Vice President for Legal Affairs and General Counsel. This office has been led with integrity and dedication by Vice President David Cohen, who is retiring September 1. David has our thanks and appreciation for more than a decade of service to Rutgers and his many contributions to our community.

In visiting all our campuses in my first month at Rutgers, I have begun to understand how remarkable we are. Only two university systems or family of state universities have at least three institutions ranked in the top 50 public universities in the country: the University of California and Rutgers University. I am excited to work with each of you to reach higher. Putting an exceptional leadership team in place will help us bring even more success and overcome the challenges that could prevent it. Please welcome Kimberly and Keena to Rutgers!

Warm regards,

William F. Tate IV
President, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

July 1, 2025

Dear Rutgers Community,
 
I arrived at LaGuardia Airport on a warm afternoon in mid-May—the day Rutgers-New Brunswick celebrated the Class of 2025. In the car, I read the box score of Rutgers-Camden’s baseball game versus Johns Hopkins University in the NCAA regional. Great run! The ride to New Brunswick reminded me of many past trips to New York. As we crossed into New Jersey, the landscape felt unfamiliar—yet somehow recognizable. I had seen this stretch of highway before, but never through the eyes of a social scientist.

We reached the hotel. No one knew who I was. I decided to walk the streets of downtown New Brunswick.

Children laughed and played. Students in graduation attire strolled with family members, beaming with pride. The joy transparent. Their energy, familiar. It felt like the United Nations—alive with language, culture, and aspiration.

Suddenly, I was transported back to my youth in Chicago, walking the streets of Hyde Park. Museums. Theaters. Academic buildings. Medical centers. And most importantly—the people. Some help paint this mosaic of intellectual vibrancy; others struggle to navigate it.

I stopped, took it all in, and gave thanks as I realized: I am home again.

On that May afternoon, it was clear to me that Rutgers is different, that Rutgers has an edge—a spirit of place that fuses the pursuit of truth, excellence with empathy, courageous conversations, and ambition with access. It’s what drew me here. A university grounded in transformative research, clinical distinction, cooperative extension, public service, and ready to lead in a new era of impact.

When I was named Rutgers’ 22nd president in May, I talked about the Rutgers Edge. For me, this is not to create a slogan, but to define a compact:

That our scholarship will confront the state’s challenges with courage and creativity.
That our students will be equipped not just to succeed, but to serve with empathy.
That our community will flourish because we commit—together—to opportunity and bold innovation.

Today, as I begin my Rutgers presidency, I wear Scarlet. Not just the color, but the compact to live the Rutgers Edge.

With gratitude and great anticipation,

William F. Tate IV
President, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey