Stanton named to ROI-NJ ‘Influencers: Higher Education’ list

Dr, Bonita Stanton

NUTLEY, NJ — Dr. Bonita Stanton, the founding dean of the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine, was named to ROI-NJ’s “Influencers: Higher Education” list.

Stanton, who was the first leader of the school starting in 2016, was cited for helming the private and independent medical school — “one that aims to produce a generation of doctors whose vision is built around ensuring health outcomes regardless of race or socioeconomic status,” the list read.

“I see this as a great honor for our school and our mission,” Stanton said. “We are doing something special, and this recognition is a credit to our entire team and the hard work that has gone into realizing our vision.”

“We are very fortunate to have Dean Stanton leading the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine,” Hackensack Meridian Health CEO Robert Garrett said. “From the school’s founding, the dean and her team are doing a remarkable job in transforming medical education with development of our cutting-edge program to cultivate the best doctors possible for the state of New Jersey and beyond.”

Stanton received her doctorate from the Yale University School of Medicine, and is a pediatrician and infectious disease expert by training. She earned a reputation as a health investigator living and working in the poorest parts of Dhaka, Bangladesh, studying diarrheal diseases. Later, she earned accolades for research in global HIV prevention. Before coming to the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine, she served as chairperson of the Department of Pediatrics and ultimately as vice dean for research at Wayne State University in Detroit, Mich.

Stanton is also a researcher, having been continuously funded as a principal investigator on one or more grants from the National Institutes of Health since 1990. She has also authored more than 325 peer-reviewed papers, and has served as the editor of several textbooks, including the “Nelson Textbook of Pediatrics.”

The ROI-NJ Influencers list annually honors the influential personages across New Jersey, in various industries.