Press Release

March 21, 2006
Contact: Anna Farneski
Phone: (973) 972-3000
farnesam@umdnj.edu

UMDNJ BOARD APPROVES APPOINTMENT OF INTERIM DEAN OF
ROBERT WOOD JOHNSON MEDICAL SCHOOL

NEWARK—The Board of Trustees today approved the Interim President Dr. Bruce C. Vladeck’s appointment of Peter S. Amenta, M.D., Ph.D., as interim dean of the UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.

Earlier this month, Dr. Vladeck nominated Amenta to replace outgoing dean, Dr. Harold Paz, who has accepted the position of senior vice president of health affairs, dean of the College of Medicine, and chief executive officer of the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center at Penn State.

The board's vote was unanimous.

Amenta has been a member of the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School since 1989, and the residency program director and chief of the pathology service at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital since 1994. He has also served as chair of the Performance Improvement Committee at the hospital for the past eight years, and as senior vice president of Medical Affairs and chief of staff since 2002.

Dr. Amenta has been the chair of the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine since 1998, and overseen an expansion of the department and its clinical, research and educational programs.

In addition to RWJ University Hospital, the school’s primary teaching hospital, the UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine has clinical oversight responsibilities at Bayshore Community Hospital, Southern Ocean County Hospital and Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital at Hamilton, while being responsible for the state HIV rapid testing program.

Dr. Amenta, 53, is also director of the Cancer Institute of New Jersey's Immunohistochemistry Shared Resource and a member of the Institute’s Scientific Council and Internal Advisory Board.

Dr. Amenta received his bachelor's degree of science from Trinity College, and completed his pathology residency at Hahnemann University, where he received his medical degree and obtained a Ph.D. in anatomy.