The College of New Jersey‘s School of Science has found its new dean after a national search, according to a Tuesday announcement.
Effective July 1, Sunita Gupta Kramer will join the Ewing-based college with her extensive experience in connecting disciplines, creating new programs, cultivating research development and fostering diversity, equity and inclusion.
Kramer comes to TCNJ from Rutgers University, where she served 12 years on the faculty before taking on progressive leadership roles.
Additionally, Kramer is the creator and current director of Rutgers’ Innovation, Design, & Entrepreneurship Academy; IDEA is a four-year program integrating research, design and entrepreneurial thinking into the undergraduate experience. She is also a core faculty member of the Rutgers Global Health Institute, where she developed a new dual B.A./M.D. program in global health and helped create clinical experiences for students dedicated to improving health care for incarcerated and recently released individuals.
“Coming to TCNJ is a dream come true,” Kramer said. “All my foundations as a student come from attending a residential liberal arts college. I later bridged to public research universities, where my focus has been to leverage faculty research to foster student-centered learning. TCNJ has the best experiences of both. What a great tradition to build on.”
Previously, Kramer served as assistant vice provost and was the founding associate academic dean of the Honors College at Rutgers-New Brunswick, a unique living-learning community focused on tackling 21st-century challenges through interdisciplinary team-based projects and collaborations. Beyond her leadership at the Honors College, Kramer has developed and led design thinking workshops and recently contributed to teaching a course on music and the brain.
“I am thrilled to welcome Dr. Sunita Kramer as the new dean of the School of Science,” said Jeffrey Osborn, provost and vice president for academic affairs. “She is passionate about science education and a college culture where learners and educators can thrive as student-scholars and teacher-scholars.”
Among her national positions, Kramer served for six years as a standing member of a key committee at the National Institutes of Health. The NIH–National Institute of General Medical Sciences’ Committee on Training, Workforce Development and Diversity designs strategies to increase undergraduate and graduate sponsored research, especially in support of developing a diverse STEM workforce.
Prior to her leadership roles, Kramer served on the faculty at Rutgers-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, where she taught and mentored undergraduate, graduate and medical students and led a research program funded by grants from the NIH, NSF and American Heart Association.
