Denise Rodgers

Dr. Denise Rodgers is currently the Vice Chancellor for Interprofessional Programs at Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences. She is also a professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. Prior to her appointment as vice chancellor, Dr. Rodgers was the Executive Vice President for Academic and Clinical Affairs at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey from 2006 to 2013. She also served as the fifth and final president of UMDNJ from January 2012 to July 2013.

As vice-chancellor, Dr. Rodgers oversees the interprofessional educational activities that involve students from all of the schools of RBHS in addition to the Rutgers School of Social Work and the Rutgers Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology.

Dr. Rodgers has devoted much of her career to working with and caring for underserved patients and communities. She is currently chair of the Greater Newark Health Care Coalition, she chairs the steering committee for the Believe in a Healthy Newark Initiative, and in 2022, she ended her three year tenure as chair of the Newark Homelessness Commission. Dr. Rodgers is also the principal investigator for the four-year Rutgers Equity in Action for Community Health (REACH) grant funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in 2021. This project seeks to strengthen partnerships between community-based organizations and Rutgers faculty, staff and students to more effectively address social determinants of health.