Rutgers Names Dean for School of Health Related Professions
Gwendolyn Mahon brings strong background as research investigator and health professions administrator
Gwendolyn Mahon has been chosen as dean of the Rutgers School of Health Related Professions, effective March 11, 2015. Since 2011, she has served as the school’s associate dean for administration, while also fulfilling other roles within Rutgers.
Mahon, who is a principal or co-principal investigator on several federal grants, brings a strong background in research and academic administration. She concurrently holds Rutgers faculty appointments in the School of Health Related Professions (SHRP), Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences; the New Jersey Medical School (NJMS), Department of Medicine; and the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences (GSBS), where she also serves as alumni association president. She has been honored with the Gallo award for outstanding research five times from the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey.
“Gwen Mahon demonstrates exceptional skills both as a research investigator and as a health professions educator administrator at SHRP. SHRP is an excellent school strongly positioned to contribute even more to the nation, state, and students due to the changing health care environment,” said Brian L. Strom, chancellor of Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences. “In addition to this valuable combination, the search committee viewed Gwen's previous experience with Rutgers as an advantage for SHRP’s future.”
In 2005, Mahon, a native of Ireland, was appointed director of research programs at Newark’s then newly constructed NJMS-University Hospital Cancer Center. Her responsibilities there included research faculty recruitment, research program development, infrastructure development, assembly of campuswide, multi-disciplinary research teams, and development of cancer education and training programs. She wrote and obtained a National Institutes of Health construction grant for new research facilities in the cancer center, as well as National Cancer Institute T32 and R25 training grants to support graduate, post-doctoral, and medical student education programs.
In 2008, Mahon was named assistant dean for research administration at NJMS, responsible for oversight of the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs, the administration of NJMS research core facilities, the administration of a faculty mentoring program, and the oversight of research support and development programs. In addition, she wrote several successful NIH institutional grants that brought more than $20 million in extramural funds to the school.
In addition to an expertise in virtually all aspects of the academic administration of health professions education, Mahon has oversight of the research programs of the SHRP Institute for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. She also has developed an active research portfolio, currently serving as PI or co-PI on federal training grants from the National Cancer Institute and federal Health Resources and Services Administration. She serves as site co-PI for an NIH National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health-funded multisite clinical trial in collaboration with Duke and Yale universities, as well as a co-investigator on other integrative, health-related studies.
Mahon received her undergraduate degree at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada; her master of science degree in molecular immunology as a Howard Webster Fellow at the Terry Fox Laboratories, British Columbia Cancer Agency, Vancouver; and her Ph.D. in molecular oncology from Rutgers GSBS. She is nationally recognized in the field of oncogenic signal transduction and adult leukemias, and her research has been published in numerous leading cancer research journals.