Newswise — At its 65th Anniversary Gala in New York City, National Medical Fellowships (NMF) has presented its Distinguished Alumni Award to William F. Owen, Jr., MD, president of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ). NMF is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the quality of healthcare experienced by low-income and minority communities by increasing the number of underrepresented minority physicians and researchers in the United States.
Dr. Owen received financial assistance from NMF in the 1970’s when he studied medicine at Tufts University in Massachusetts. Since then, his distinguished career as a clinician and researcher specializing in nephrology has included a faculty appointment and postgraduate work at Harvard Medical School and a faculty appointment and directorship of a research institute at Duke. Dr. Owen also worked in private industry for several years as chief scientist at Baxter Corporation’s multi-billion dollar global renal business, before returning to academia as Chancellor of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, where he also was Senior Vice President for Health Affairs. In 2007, Dr. Owen became president of UMDNJ, the largest freestanding health sciences university in the United States.
Dr. Esther R. Dyer, President and CEO of National Medical Fellowships, says, “The Distinguished Alumni Award recognizes alumni who have achieved national prominence as physician leaders, innovators and thought-leaders. Since 2007, Dr. Owen has transformed UMDNJ from an institution whose future was in question to a top-tier university that boasts demonstrable excellence in education and service.” Dyer adds, “NMF is proud to have recognized Dr. Owen’s qualities early on in his career with an NMF award to medical school.”
Since its founding in 1946, National Medical Fellowships has awarded $40 million in financial support to more than 30,000 minority men and women. In addition to Dr. Owen, award recipients at the Gala were Michael J. Barber, Vice President, healthymagination, General Electric (NMF Corporate Innovation Award); Honorable C. Virginia Fields, President and CEO, National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS, Inc. (NMF Lifetime Achievement Award); and Lucinda Martinez-Desir, Vice President, Domestic Network Distribution and Multicultural Marketing, HBO (Diversity Leadership Award).
About UMDNJ:
The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) is the nation's largest free-standing public health sciences university with more than 6,000 students attending the state's three medical schools, its only dental school, a graduate school of biomedical sciences, a school of health related professions, a school of nursing and its only school of public health on five campuses. Annually, there are more than two million patient visits at UMDNJ facilities and faculty practices at campuses in Newark, New Brunswick/Piscataway, Scotch Plains, Camden and Stratford. UMDNJ operates University Hospital, a Level I Trauma Center in Newark, and University Behavioral HealthCare, which provides a continuum of healthcare services with multiple locations throughout the state.
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