Yesterday, University Hospital announced the addition of two members to its Board of Directors. Heather Howard, a direct appointment by Governor Murphy, and Eric Pennington, the designated representative of Mayor Ras Baraka, now fill the two new seats created pursuant to P. L. 2019, c. 443, enacted by Governor Murphy in January.
Heather Howard is a healthcare policy expert and currently a lecturer at Princeton University. She is a faculty affiliate of the Center for Health & Wellbeing and Director of the State Health and Value Strategies program, an RWJ Foundation-funded program focused on supporting state efforts to enhance the value of health care by improving population health and reforming the delivery of services. Ms. Howard has a long history of dedicated public service – notably serving as New Jersey’s Commissioner of Health and Senior Services from 2008-2010. Additionally, she worked as Governor Corzine’s Chief Policy Counsel, as then Senator Corzine’s Chief of Staff, as Associate Director for the White House Domestic Policy Council, as Senior Policy Advisor for First Lady Hillary Clinton, and as an Honors Attorney in the United States Department of Justice. Ms. Howard was also recently appointed to Governor Murphy’s Restart & Recovery Advisory Council.
Eric Pennington is the Business Administrator for the City of Newark. He is responsible for the City’s $600 million budget and the administration of over 3,000 city employees. Mr. Pennington joined Mayor Baraka’s administration after an extensive legal career, serving as the Managing Partner of the Pennington Law Group; as an attorney at the prestigious law firms of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, and at Gibbons PC; as an Adjunct Professor at Seton Hall University School of Law, and as a clerk for the New Jersey Supreme Court and the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Mr. Pennington previously served on the Board of Trustees for the University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey, and was a former Commissioner of the New Jersey State Commission of Investigation.
“University Hospital is grateful to welcome these incredibly respected and esteemed professionals to our Board of Directors, and thanks them for their willingness to serve,” said Chairwoman Tanya Freeman. “Their expertise will be invaluable to the hospital as we continue our work to develop a ‘new normal’ while continuing our outsized role in New Jersey’s COVID-19 public health emergency,” said President & CEO Shereef Elnahal, MD, MBA.
