Rutgers Board of Trustees Elects 2019-2020 Officers

James F. Dougherty named chair, Ronald J. Garutti and Jose A. Piazza co-vice chairs. Mary DiMartino to serve on Board of Governors.

James F. Dougherty has been elected to a one-year term as chair of the Rutgers University Board of Trustees. A veterinary internist from Collegeville, Pa., and co-owner of Metropolitan Veterinary Associates, he is a second-term alumnus trustee through 2024. He is currently co-vice chair of the Camden Board of Directors of Rutgers and has served as co-vice chair of the Board of Trustees for two years, as well as chair of the Board of Trustees’ nominating committee and ad hoc committee on diversity.

A graduate of Rutgers College, the Rutgers Graduate School-New Brunswick and the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, Dougherty is a member of the American Veterinary Medical Association, the American Animal Hospital Association and the Pennsylvania Veterinary Medical Association. He is on the Rutgers University Foundation Board of Overseers, the School of Arts and Sciences Advisory Council, the School of Public Health Dean’s Advisory Committee and the Tyler Clementi Center Advisory Board. Dougherty is the recipient of the 2016 Pennsylvania Veterinary Medical Association Lifetime Achievement Award.

Ronald J. Garutti, M.D., retired group vice president of global regulatory affairs at Schering-Plough Corp., will serve as co-vice chair for a second term. A Pottersville, N.J., resident and Rutgers College alumnus, his second term as a charter trustee runs through 2024. Garutti is a member of the Rutgers University Foundation Board of Overseers and has served on the Board of Trustees’ executive committee and nominating committee, as well as the Board of Governors’ committee on intercollegiate athletics.

Jose A. Piazza, vice president of business excellence finance at Verizon Communications, Inc., is the other Board of Trustees co-vice chair. A graduate of Washington University and the University of Rochester, Piazza’s second term as a charter trustee runs through 2023. He has served previously as co-vice chair of the Board of Trustees and as a member of the nominating committee, as well as chair of the task force on student aid and chair of the committee on diversity and inclusion.

The appointments take effect July 1, 2019, and run through June 30, 2020.

Mary I. DiMartino, executive director of J.P. Morgan Securities, LLC, will join the Board of Governors for the term running from July 1, 2019, to June 30, 2025. A Lawrenceville, N.J., resident and Douglass College alumna, DiMartino has served as chair of the Board of Trustees and on the trustees’ executive committee, nominating committee and task force on assessment. She also has served on the Board of Governors’ committees on audit, athletics and health affairs.

Historically, the Board of Trustees was the governing body of the university from the time of its founding as Queen’s College in 1766 until the university was reorganized under state law in 1956. The board acts in an advisory capacity to the Board of Governors and comprises 41 voting members: 20 charter members, 16 alumni members and five public members appointed by the governor of the state with confirmation by the New Jersey State Senate. Of the 20 charter seats, three are reserved for students with full voting rights.