Hackensack Meridian Health announced Tuesday that Rosemarie Sorce will be the new chairman of its hospitals corporation board — becoming the first female to serve in that role — and that John Harmon will become a member of the board.
Sorce previously has served as vice chair of the board, a member of the board’s Executive Committee and on the Care Transformation Committee. She also is a member of the Hackensack University Medical Center Foundation board of trustees.
Harmon is the founder and CEO of the African American Chamber of Commerce of New Jersey and sits on a host of boards, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the N.J. Chamber of Commerce and Investors Bank. He also is a member of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia’s Economic Community Advisory Council.
Hackensack Meridian CEO Bob Garrett welcomed the announcement.
“We are delighted that Ro Sorce has assumed this new leadership role, after decades of dedicated service, and I am pleased to welcome John Harmon as a new member of our board of trustees,” he said. “We value their expertise and insight, and we are grateful for their leadership.”
Sorce has a long history with health care boards. She chairs the advisory board of the Joseph M. Sanzari Children’s Hospital and the K. Hovnanian Children’s Hospital, affiliates of Hackensack Meridian Health. And she previously served as first vice chair of the Hackensack University Medical Center board of governors and vice chair of the institutional review board.
She previously served as a housing commissioner in Hackensack, a contributor to Outreach Angels, which helped families of New Jersey residents with AIDS and HIV, and she was honored by the Herbert and Sylvia Woods Education Scholarship Benefit program in Harlem.
The Rosemarie J. Sorce Endowed Chair in Innovation at Hackensack Meridian Health honors lifetime achievements in medicine.
Harmon is a board member and former chairman of the board for the National Black Chamber of Commerce — and also is the founder and chairman of the New York State Black Chamber of Commerce.
Harmon also serves as a board member of the Digital Place Based Advertising Association, New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, Supplier Diversity Development Council, Opportunity New Jersey, and chairman of Crime Stoppers of Greater Trenton.
Prior to his 23-year career as a chamber executive, Harmon was employed at the Bowery Savings Bank in New York City, where he managed the Residential Real Estate Department overseeing major mortgage loan transactions; and at Chemical Bank, where he managed third-party loan originations for New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.
