Bestselling Author to Keynote 2025 Commencement
Physician-scientist and bestselling author Stephen Trzeciak, MD, MPH, will deliver the keynote address at RFU’s 111th Commencement Celebration on May 30, 2025. Dr. Trzeciak and Dr. Anthony Mazzarelli are the co-authors of Compassionomics: The Revolutionary Scientific Evidence That Caring Makes a Difference and Wonder Drug: 7 Scientifically Proven Ways That Serving Others is the Best Medicine for Yourself. Both books integrate decades of studies that show myriad ways in which compassion in health care promotes healing and how a life lived in service improves well-being.
Dr. Trzeciak is chair and chief of the Department of Medicine at New Jersey–based Cooper University Health Care. He also serves as medical director of the Adult Health Institute and as professor of medicine for Cooper Medical School of Rowan University in Camden, New Jersey.
Dr. Joseph DiMario Named Interim Vice President for Research
Dr. Joseph DiMario, the long-serving dean of the School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (SGPS), was named interim vice president for research, following the retirement of Dr. Ronald Kaplan in September.
Dr. DiMario, who joined the university in 1995 as an assistant professor in the Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy, was appointed dean of SGPS in 2011. He possesses strong knowledge of the university’s research functions, as well as administrative expertise at both the school and university levels. His longtime service on RFU’s Strategic Resources Allocation Committee has given him broad perspectives on the university’s strategies for growth. He has demonstrated a strong commitment to DEI, as well as student and trainee career development.
Interim Dean of College of Nursing Named
Lisa Hopp, PhD, RN, FAAN, became interim dean of the College of Nursing on July 1, 2024, following the retirement of Founding Dean Dr. Sandra Larson.
Previously the college’s vice dean and professor in the MSN for Entry into Nursing Practice program, Dr. Hopp brings a wealth of experience in higher education administration, faculty leadership development, synthesis research, curriculum design, and online teaching and learning.
Prior to joining RFU in 2023, Dr. Hopp served for nearly three decades at Purdue University in Indiana in various capacities as a nursing educator and administrator. Appointed interim dean of Purdue’s Calumet College of Nursing in 2014, she led the merger of two of the university’s regional nursing campuses and the launching of three new nursing programs. She was named dean of Purdue Northwest’s College of Nursing in 2016.
A fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, Dr. Hopp is also a Distinguished Alumna of the University of Illinois College of Nursing. She is a member and former chair of the National League for Nursing’s Center of Excellence in Nursing Education Review Panel.