Paul Katz, MD
Paul Katz, MD, has been selected as the Founding Dean of the Cooper Medical School of Rowan University. He currently is the Vice Dean of Faculty and Clinical Affairs at The Commonwealth Medical College in Scranton, Pa.
As leader of Cooper Medical School of Rowan University, Katz becomes the Founding Dean of the first, four-year allopathic medical school ever in South Jersey—and the first new medical school in the State of New Jersey in the past 30 years.
Katz will serve as the chief executive of the medical school. In the coming months, he will shepherd Cooper and Rowan through a rigorous accreditation process, oversee completion of the medical school’s new home in Camden, build a faculty and staff, and expand and solidify the relationship between the two institutions.
Governor Chris Christie said, “The appointment of Dr. Katz, as the Founding Dean of the Cooper Medical School of Rowan University, is a major milestone toward the first allopathic medical school in South Jersey, which will graduate hundreds of new physicians in the years ahead to address the impending shortage of physicians facing our State.”
“We are not interested in creating a generic medical school,” Rowan President Dr. Donald Farish said. “Dr. Katz’s experience in medical education and in the development of a medical school, coupled with his extraordinary vision, makes him the right person to put Cooper Medical School on a path to excellence—and national prominence.”
Since 2007, Katz has served as vice dean, interim associate dean for academic affairs, and professor of medicine at The Commonwealth Medical College. The college welcomed its inaugural class of 65 medical students last fall. Cooper Medical School will seat its first class of 40 to 50 medical students in 2012. Recruitment of the class is expected to begin in July 2011.
“Progress can only take place with the right individuals to carry forth the vision,” said George E. Norcross, III, chairman of the Board of Trustees for The Cooper Health System. “Dean Katz joins a partnership of two extraordinary South Jersey institutions to lead us into the next generation of medical education.”
[flashvideo file=http://assets.cooperhealth.org/media/medical_school/2010_06_dean_announcement.flv image=http://assets.cooperhealth.org/media/medical_school/2010_06_dean_announcement.jpg /]
Paul Katz, MD, is introduced as the Founding Dean of the Cooper Medical School of Rowan University
during an event held on Wednesday, June 9, 2010.
Katz, who earned his medical degree from Georgetown University in 1973, is the founding vice dean of The Commonwealth Medical College. He was instrumental in shepherding the college through the medical education accreditation process and enrolling its first class.
“We’re extremely impressed with Dr. Katz’s credentials and with his work at The Commonwealth Medical College,” added John P. Sheridan Jr., President and Chief Executive Officer of The Cooper Health System. “He will bring exemplary leadership, strong business expertise, knowledge of established and emerging medical school education and a keen devotion to patient care to his position as founding dean.”
Katz was chosen after a nationwide search by Witt/Kieffer, an Illinois-based executive search firm. The search attracted more than 60 candidates nationally and internationally.
A professor of medicine at the University of Miami School of Medicine for five years, Katz also was the Anton and Margaret Fuisz Professor and Chairman of the Department of Medicine at Georgetown from 1997-2001. From 1998-2000, he was chief operating officer at the Georgetown Medical Center.
For six years, Katz also was senior vice president and chief medical officer at Mount Sinai Medical Center & Miami Heart Institute in Miami Beach and Professor of Medicine at the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine.
A former clinical associate at the Laboratory of Immunoregulation at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD, he began his medical career as an assistant professor of medicine and immunology and medical microbiology at the University of Florida.
“I am honored to have been chosen as the founding Dean of the Cooper Medical School of Rowan University,” said Dr. Katz. “The rich tradition of commitment to excellence and to the community of both Cooper and Rowan make this an exciting opportunity and it is a privilege for me to be able to be a part of these prestigious institutions.”
The partnership between Rowan and Cooper, two long-standing South Jersey institutions, began in June of 2009 when then-Gov. Jon Corzine signed an executive reorganization order that established the framework for the new medical school. Governor Christie’s budget for FY 2010-2011, provides strong financial support for the new medical school.
Since then, committees from Rowan and Cooper have been working to establish a program and preparing for its eventual review by the Liaison Committee for Medical Education (LCME). The LCME must provide Cooper Medical School with preliminary accreditation before the school can begin recruiting students.
Additionally, the institutions are gearing up for construction of a state of the art medical school building at South Broadway and Benson Street in Camden. The 200,000-square-foot, six-story building will be the single largest construction project in Camden County in 2011.
Media Coverage of the Announcement
- Philadelphia Inquirer – “New medical dean named at Rowan University in Camden“
- Courier-Post – “Cooper Medical School gets dean“
- Philadelphia Business Journal – “Cooper Medical School of Rowan University names founding dean“
- Gloucester County Times – “Rowan University, Cooper appoint dean to lead medical school“
- NJBiz – “South Jersey medical school names founding dean“