Professor Joel Cantor received the 2025 Lifetime Distinguished Achievement Award from Rutgers Health Office of the Chancellor. The award is given for a sustained and distinguished lifetime record of achievement in one or more of the Rutgers Health mission areas (clinical care, education, research, community engagement).
Associate Director of Data & Analytics Jose Nova, and Rutgers Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research colleagues Greta Bushnell and Karen Connaughton are also among this year’s honorees.
Introduced in 2020, the Chancellor Awards were established to recognize and highlight the extraordinary work of faculty and staff. Nominated by their peers, recipients of the awards are selected by the Chancellor Awards Committee, which reviews the contributions of the nominees.
Joel C. Cantor is a Distinguished Professor of Public Policy and the founding Director of the Center for State Health Policy at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Established 1999, the Center is a leader in health policy research and development nationally, with a special focus on informing policy in New Jersey. Dr. Cantor is published widely in the health services and policy literature on innovations in health service delivery and the regulation of private health insurance markets. He serves frequently as an advisor on health policy matters to New Jersey state government, and was the 2006 recipient of the Rutgers University President’s Award for Research in Service to New Jersey. Dr. Cantor also serves as a member of the executive committee of the Rutgers Institute for Health and co-leads the Community Health and Health Systems emerging signature area for Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences. Prior to joining Rutgers in 1999, Dr. Cantor served as director of research at the United Hospital Fund of New York and director of evaluation research at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. He received his doctorate in health policy and management from the Johns Hopkins University, School of Public Health in 1988, and was elected a Fellow of AcademyHealth in 1996.