Mary E. O'Dowd

Mary E. O’Dowd, MPH, is a public health and healthcare leader who served as the Commissioner for the New Jersey Department of Health from 2011-2015. She is currently the Executive Director of Health Systems and Population Health Integration for Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences where she leads and supports multi-disciplinary population health-related projects by developing partnerships at the state, local, and community level. In 2021, O’Dowd launched a podcast series, On the Pandemic, which engages Rutgers University experts and New Jersey health leaders in conversations regarding the critical challenges in the response and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Junctures in Women’s Leadership Health Care and Public Health, published in 2021, is her first book.

Prior to joining Rutgers, O’Dowd held various leadership roles in the New Jersey Department of Health including serving as Commissioner, Deputy Commissioner and Chief of Staff. At the Department she focused on promoting population health while supporting healthcare providers during extraordinary delivery system transformation. O’Dowd previously held positions in hospital finance at NYU Langone Medical Center and health policy at the New Jersey Hospital Association and the New Jersey General Assembly.

O’Dowd serves on the Board of Directors for University Hospital, in Newark, as the designee of the President of Rutgers University and is a member of several centers and advisory boards including the Rutgers Institute for Women’s Leadership, the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey and the New Jersey Action Coalition - Future of Nursing for the Health of Our State. She has previously served as a board member for Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey and the Association for State and Territorial Health Officers.

O’Dowd lives in NJ with her husband and three sons, is a graduate of Douglass College, Rutgers University, and the Institute for Women’s Leadership Scholars Program. She earned her MPH from Columbia University and completed a hospital finance fellowship at NYU Medical Center. The March of Dimes, AARP, Association for State and Territorial Health Officers, New Jersey Primary Care Association, Women’s Political Caucus of NJ, and NJ Biz have all recognized her leadership.