Mary E. O’Dowd is the executive director of health systems and population health integration for Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences. O’Dowd leads and supports multidisciplinary population health-related programs and research projects by developing partnerships with health care and public health partners at state, local, and community levels.

Among the initiatives she is involved with is ScreenNJ, a statewide program whose focus is to implement and expand the reach of evidence-based cancer prevention and screening services, directly address barriers that prevent people from receiving timely cancer screenings, and reduce the cancer burden experienced by New Jerseyans. She serves on the University Hospital Board of Directors as the designee of the Rutgers president and is a member of the New Jersey Department of Health’s COVID-19 Professional Advisory Committee and the advisory boards for the Rutgers Institute for Women’s Leadership and the New Jersey Action Coalition.

In 2021, O’Dowd launched a podcast series at Rutgers, On the Pandemic, which engages university experts and New Jersey health leaders in conversations regarding the critical challenges in the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. She also published her first book, Junctures in Women’s Leadership Health Care and Public Health.

Prior to joining Rutgers, O’Dowd served as the commissioner for the New Jersey Department of Health, where she promoted population health initiatives during extraordinary transformation in the delivery system. She led the department’s response and recovery efforts during unprecedented emergent events including Hurricane Irene, Superstorm Sandy, Superbowl XLVIII, and the West African Ebola epidemic. O’Dowd also served as deputy commissioner and chief of staff and held positions in hospital finance at NYU Medical Center, health policy at the New Jersey Hospital Association, and the New Jersey General Assembly. She is a graduate of Douglass College and the Institute for Women’s Leadership Scholars Program, earned her master of public health degree from Columbia University, and completed a hospital finance fellowship at NYU Medical Center. She lives in New Jersey with her husband and three sons.

Related News

• On the Pandemic Podcast Features Institute Faculty — In episode 9 of On the Pandemic, which Mary Marchetta O’Dowd hosts, Richard Marlink and Nir Eyal share insights on various countries’ approaches to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as pandemic-related inequities both among and within countries.