Mary E. O’Dowd is the Executive Director of Health Systems and Population Health Integration for Rutgers Health. She leads and supports multi-disciplinary population health-related programs and research projects by developing partnerships with healthcare and public health partners at the state, local, and community level. In this role, O’Dowd led the development and launch of several key programs including ScreenNJ  the Population Health Fellowship program and a Rutgers podcast series, On the Pandemic, which engaged university experts and New Jersey health leaders in conversations regarding the critical challenges in the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. 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 the Rutgers Institute for Women’s Leadership advisory board. In 2021, her first book, Junctures in Women’s Leadership Health Care and Public Health, was published.

Prior to joining Rutgers, O’Dowd served as the Commissioner for the NJDOH where she promoted population health initiatives during extraordinary transformation in the healthcare 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 served as Deputy Commissioner and as Chief of Staff at the NJDOH, held positions in hospital finance at NYU Medical Center, and in health policy at the NJ Hospital Association and the NJ General Assembly. O’Dowd is a graduate of Rutgers University, Douglass College and the IWL Scholars Program, earned her MPH from Columbia University, completed a hospital finance fellowship at NYU Medical Center. She lives in NJ with her husband and three sons.