Professor Joel Cantor has been honored with the 2025 Lifetime Distinguished Achievement Award by the Rutgers Health Office of the Chancellor. The award recognizes individuals for a sustained and distinguished record in areas such as clinical care, education, research, or community engagement within Rutgers Health.
Other recipients this year include Associate Director of Data & Analytics Jose Nova and colleagues Greta Bushnell and Karen Connaughton from the Rutgers Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research.
The Chancellor Awards were created in 2020 to acknowledge outstanding contributions from faculty and staff. Nominations are made by peers, with final selections determined by the Chancellor Awards Committee after reviewing nominees’ achievements.
Joel C. Cantor is a Distinguished Professor of Public Policy at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, where he founded the Center for State Health Policy in 1999. The Center plays a significant role in health policy research nationally and focuses on influencing policy decisions in New Jersey. Dr. Cantor’s work is widely published on topics related to health service delivery innovations and private health insurance regulation. He often advises New Jersey state government on health policy issues and previously received the Rutgers University President’s Award for Research in Service to New Jersey in 2006.
Dr. Cantor also serves on the executive committee of the Rutgers Institute for Health and co-leads an emerging signature area focused on Community Health and Health Systems at Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences. Before joining Rutgers, he held leadership roles at United Hospital Fund of New York and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. He earned his doctorate from Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health in 1988 and became a Fellow of AcademyHealth in 1996.
