UMDNJ Administrator Receives National Honor and Will Chair Prestigious Medical Education Council
Dr. Joel DeLisa, M.D., M.S., Professor and Chair Department of PM&R UMDNJ and President of Kessler Research Center
December 17, 2007 UMDNJ Press Release
NEWARK - An administrator from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-New Jersey Medical School recently received two national honors in recognition of his extensive knowledge and expertise in academic medicine.
Dr. Joel DeLisa, professor and chair of the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School, was elected by his peers to serve the one-year term as chair of the Association of American Medical College's Council of Academic Societies. In the 30-year history of the Council, Dr. DeLisa is the first chair from UMDNJ and the first representative of his discipline, physical medicine and rehabilitation, to ascend to this important academic medicine leadership position.
Additionally, Dr. DeLisa recently received the "Outstanding Medical Educator Award" from the Edward J. Ill Excellence in Medicine Association, Inc. This award is presented to an esteemed educator who has made significant contributions in the field of academic medicine in New Jersey. The association's Awards Committee, which is comprised of a group of independent physicians and health care leaders, evaluates each nomination and renders a decision.
The Council of Academic Societies (CAS), which serves as the faculty's voice in the AAMC's governing body, is one of three governing councils of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), along with the Council of Deans and the Council of Teaching Hospitals and Health Systems. The CAS comprises 94 leading academic societies devoted to biomedical and behavioral research, medical education, and patient care.
The collective membership of the CAS societies include essentially all faculty members and scientists in American medical schools engaged in life sciences research, research training, and medical education. The CAS is a powerful forum for discussing and exchanging information of common interest to medical school faculty and for evaluating and recommending policy initiatives to the AAMC.
Dr. DeLisa, a Chatham resident and president of Kessler Research Center in West Orange, also serves as a member of the AAMC Executive Council and the AAMC Executive Committee and is currently a member of the AAMC Governance Review Committee. He also serves on the CAS as representative of the Association of Academic Physiatrists, of which he is a former president.
The AAMC is a nonprofit association representing all 126 accredited U.S. and 17 accredited Canadian medical schools; nearly 400 major teaching hospitals and health systems, including 68 Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers; and 94 academic and scientific societies in the CAS. Through these institutions and organizations, the AAMC represents 109,000 faculty members, 67,000 medical students, and 104,000 resident physicians.
The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) is the nation's largest free-standing public health sciences university with more than 5,700 students attending the state's three medical schools, its only dental school, a graduate school of biomedical sciences, a school of health related professions, a school of nursing and a school of public health on five campuses. Annually, there are more than two million patient visits at UMDNJ facilities and faculty practices at campuses in Newark, New Brunswick/Piscataway, Scotch Plains, Camden and Stratford. UMDNJ operates University Hospital, a Level I Trauma Center in Newark, and University Behavioral HealthCare, a statewide mental health and addiction services network.
