REACH News

Colleagues and friends from Rutgers and the community gathered in Newark in the late afternoon of December 15, 2025 to bid a fond, if reluctant, farewell to Dr. Denise Rodgers, Vice Chancellor for Interprofessional Programs at Rutgers Health, professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (RWJMS), and principal investigator at Rutgers Equity Alliance for Community Health (REACH).  

“Denise set a high bar for REACH, and that is what has made everything possible—and continues to inspire our team to carry the work forward,” said Henry S. Turner, PhD, Vice President for Academic Initiatives, who provides leadership for the REACH project within the office of the Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs. 

Prior to Rodgers’ appointment as vice chancellor, she was Executive Vice President for Academic and Clinical Affairs at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) from 2006–2012, before being named fifth and final president of UMDNJ from January 2012–July 2013.  

We are pleased to welcome Rafael E. Pérez‑Figueroa, MD, MPH, as the new Principal Investigator of REACH. Dr. Pérez‑Figueroa brings extensive expertise in community‑engaged public health research and practice, focusing on the mechanisms that drive health inequities in under-resourced communities and the implementation of public health interventions to address those health inequities. He currently serves as Associate Dean for Community Engagement, Population Health, and Global Public Health and as Associate Professor in the Department of Urban‑Global Public Health at the Rutgers School of Public Health. 

After a distinguished career in medicine and community health, Denise Rodgers, MD, FAAFP, has retired, stepping down from her role as Principal Investigator of REACH. Dr. Rodgers’ career has been a testament to her unwavering commitment to health equity. REACH stands as a legacy of her advocacy, pairing community and academic expertise to create sustainable changes to ongoing, solvable problems. Under her visionary leadership, REACH was launched at Rutgers with significant funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in December 2021, and has expanded its impact, supporting community‑academic collaborations focused on education, employment, housing, food access, and population health in Camden, New Brunswick, and Newark.