Department of Communication & Public Affairs
NEWS RELEASE
Date: April 22, 2008
Contact: Jennifer Forbes
Phone: 732-235-6356
Email: jenn.forbes@umdnj.edu
Student at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School Receives
“Excellence in Medicine Award” from
the American Medical Association Foundation
New Brunswick, NJ – Joseph T. Nezgoda, MBA, a student in his final year of a combined MD/MBA program at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick, was presented the prestigious Leadership Award as part of the American Medical Association (AMA) Foundation Excellence in Medicine Awards at a ceremony held March 31, 2008 in Washington, DC . The Leadership Awards honor 56 outstanding medical students, residents/fellows, early career physicians and established physicians from across the country. These leaders display strong non-clinical leadership skills in advocacy, community service, public health or education.
“I am very proud to congratulate Mr. Nezgoda on this deserving award, as he has consistently exhibited outstanding leadership qualities throughout his medical school training,” said Peter S. Amenta, MD, PhD, interim dean of Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.
Mr. Nezgoda, who grew up in West Orange, N. J., has been actively involved in the AMA for the past five years. He started as a first-year representative while at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School working on community projects, food banks, fundraising and toy drives, before being chosen to chair the student section of the Northeast region of the AMA. During this time, he served two years on the board of trustees of the Medical Society of New Jersey, and three consecutive years as a delegate to the AMA House of Delegates, the principal policy-making body of the AMA.
“I feel incredibly privileged and honored to be involved in the AMA. This education and experience has been essential in understanding critical issues in healthcare,” says Mr. Nezgoda. “I wish to acknowledge the UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School’s Office of Student Affairs for its support and for providing me with the opportunity to pursue this activity.”
Among Mr. Nezgoda’s other achievements are conducting research at the Naval Research Laboratory and the National Institutes of Health in addition to winning an elected position in his town against an incumbent. Having a great interest in humanism in medicine, he created and directed Robert Wood Johnson Medical School’s medical humanities elective, and has been recently inducted into the Gold Humanism Honor Society. He is a graduate of Georgetown University with a degree in economics, and has studied abroad in both Florence, Italy and Antwerp, Belgium. He will begin his internship year at Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia, PA, and continue in ophthalmology at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary in New York, N.Y.
To interview or obtain a high-resolution photo of Mr. Nezgoda, please contact Jennifer Forbes at (732) 235-6356.
UMDNJ-ROBERT WOOD JOHNSON MEDICAL SCHOOL:
As one of the nation’s leading comprehensive medical schools, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey is dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in education, research, health care delivery, and the promotion of community health. In cooperation with Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, the medical school’s principal affiliate, they comprise New Jersey’s premier academic medical center. In addition, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School has 34 hospital affiliates and ambulatory care sites throughout the region.
As one of the eight schools of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey with 2,500 full-time and volunteer faculty, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School encompasses 22 basic science and clinical departments and hosts centers and institutes including The Cancer Institute of New Jersey, the Child Health Institute of New Jersey, the Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine, the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute, and the Stem Cell Institute of New Jersey. The medical school maintains educational programs at the undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate levels for more than 1,500 students on its campuses in New Brunswick, Piscataway, and Camden, and provides continuing education courses for health care professionals and community education programs.
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About the University of Medicine and Dentistry:
UMDNJ is the nation's largest free-standing public health sciences university with more than 5,500 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. Last year, there were more than two million patient visits to UMDNJ facilities and faculty 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, a mental health and addiction services network.
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