Presidential Search Committee
aa
Members of the Committee were selected through a deliberative process in which key campus entities and governing bodies across Rutgers submitted nominations. These entities included each Chancellor-led unit, University Senate, the Boards of Governors and Trustees, Rutgers University Foundation, and the Rutgers Alumni Association Board of Directors, among others. The Committee co-chairs then selected the members from the pool of nominees to ensure the Committee’s composition is representative of Rutgers’ diverse community and includes faculty, staff, and students from a range of academic disciplines, administrative areas, and levels of experience and tenure, along with alumni and community partners.
Search Committee Leadership
Amy L. Towers, committee co-chair, is chair of the Rutgers Board of Governors. She is founder of The Nduna Foundation—which advances interventions in nutrition and public health, community redevelopment, and human rights including women’s roles in peace and security, and conservation, focused primarily in conflict countries—and a former chief operating officer of a capital management firm. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Towers has been recognized for her humanitarian efforts around the globe. She has served on several prominent nonprofit boards over the past 20 years, including UNICEF and the CDC Foundation, providing leadership on international issues and public health. She is the immediate past chair of the Rutgers Foundation Board of Directors, board chair of MANA Nutrition, and a board member of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Institute of International Education, International Peace Institute, Center for Civilians in Conflict, and President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition. She is also a founding member of the board of advisors to The Elders, created by Nelson Mandela and others, to work for peace, justice, human rights, and a sustainable planet.
Alberto Cuitiño, committee co-chair, is the dean of the Rutgers School of Engineering and a Distinguished Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. Appointed as dean in March 2023, Cuitiño previously served as interim dean and the chair of the school’s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, a position he held for 11 years with administrative, academic, and financial responsibilities. His expertise includes pharmaceutical manufacturing, computational material simulation, multiscale modeling, dislocation mechanics, fracture in single metal crystals, granular materials, mechanical behavior of solid foams, and folding patterns in thin films. Cuitiño’s research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, DARPA, Department of Energy, and USDA as well as industry including Johnson & Johnson, Duracell, and Bristol Myers Squibb, among others. He is a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and holds a master's degree in applied mathematics and a Ph.D. in solid mechanics from Brown University and a civil engineering diploma from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Search Committee Members
Matthew Colagiovanni
Matthew Colagiovanni is the deputy athletic director–facilities, capital projects, and internal operations. He provides sports administration oversight, capital project management, and facilities management and is in his 20th year with Rutgers Athletics at Rutgers University–New Brunswick.
Dan DiFilippo
Dan DiFilippo is the chair of the Rutgers University Foundation Board of Directors. He has served on the Foundation Board of Directors since 2016 and is a 1983 graduate of Rutgers University–Newark.
Monica Driscoll
Monica Driscoll is a Distinguished Professor of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry in the School of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers University–New Brunswick. She joined the faculty in 1991 and earned her bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Douglass College in 1979.
Marika Dunn
Marika Dunn is the executive director of research relationships in the Rutgers Office for Research and is responsible for facilitating universitywide strategic alliances between external partners and the Rutgers research community.
Lucille Foster
Lucille Foster is the chair of the Rutgers University Senate and a Rutgers University–Newark staff representative to the senate. She is an assistant dean of recruitment at Rutgers Business School–Newark and New Brunswick.
Parimal Garg
Parimal Garg is a partner at the law firm Lowenstein Sandler LLP.
Oscar Holmes
Oscar Holmes is an associate professor and the director of the Rutgers University Student Executive Program at the Rutgers School of Business–Camden. He served as a faculty representative from Camden on the University Senate during 2022–2023.
Frank Hundley
Frank Hundley is a trustee emeritus of the Rutgers Board of Trustees, a former member of the Rutgers Board of Governors, and a former chair of the Camden Board of Directors. He graduated from Rutgers College in 1986 with a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences.
Manuel Jimenez
Manuel Jimenez is an associate professor of pediatrics and family medicine and community health and the director of research at the Boggs Center on Disability and Human Development at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in Rutgers Health.
Kenneth Johnson
Kenneth Johnson is the vice chair of the Rutgers Board of Trustees and an alumnus trustee. He is a Class of 1966 graduate from the Rutgers School of Engineering at Rutgers University–New Brunswick.
Mark Manigan
Mark Manigan is a member of the Rutgers Board of Governors and a public governor appointee who joined the board in 2022.
Rebecca Mezei
Rebecca Mezei is a law student in Rutgers Law School at Rutgers University–Camden. She is also an inaugural Graduate School Ambassador at the campus who helped to shape the ambassador program through her initiatives in launching a social media program and spearheading a community project.
Jose Ramirez-Garofalo
Jose Ramirez-Garofalo is a doctoral candidate and a teaching assistant in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources in the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences and enrolled in the School of Graduate Studies at Rutgers University–New Brunswick.
Savayra Rao
Savayra Rao is a student majoring in applied mathematics and urban secondary education at the School of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers University–Newark. She is also the vice president of the Rutgers–Newark Student Governing Association.
Alejandro Ruiz
Alejandro “Alex” Ruiz is the university safety officer at Rutgers and the executive director of Rutgers Environmental Health and Safety, part of Institutional Planning and Operations.
Jaideep Vaidya
Jaideep Vaidya is a Distinguished Professor of Computer Information Systems at Rutgers Business School–Newark and New Brunswick and the director of the Rutgers Institute for Data Science, Learning, and Applications at Rutgers University–Newark.
Gloria Vanderham
Gloria Vanderham is the chair of the Rutgers University Alumni Association and graduated in 2000 with a double major in communication and journalism and mass media from Rutgers College and the School of Communication and Information at Rutgers University–New Brunswick.
Nyeema Watson
Nyeema Watson is the senior vice chancellor for Strategy, Diversity, and Community Engagement at Rutgers University–Camden, where she oversees efforts to build an inclusive campus community while connecting the resources of the university with communities in Camden and southern New Jersey. She received her bachelor’s degree in Afro-American studies and psychology and her doctorate in childhood studies from Rutgers University–Camden.
Strategic Advisors to the Committee
Ralph A. Gigliotti
Ralph Gigliotti serves as Assistant Vice President for Organizational Leadership in University Academic Affairs. In this role, he directs the Rutgers Office of Organizational Leadership and serves as an executive advisor for senior academic leaders across Rutgers.
Patrick Melillo
Patrick Melillo serves as the Associate Secretary of the University and supports the activities of Rutgers’ Board of Governors and Board of Trustees by managing the work of the boards and serving as the liaison between the boards and the university administration.