In February 2023, the university published the final issue of Rutgers Magazine, shifting its alumni communications to primarily digital outlets, ending the 110-year old print publication. For the past 16 years, I was the editor of Rutgers Magazine, and I am proud of the numerous professional awards recognizing the quality of the magazine, which for many years reached close to 500,000 alumni around the world. Over the course of 42 issues, I had a front row seat as Rutgers solidified its reputation as one of the best public research universities in the nation. The university entered the Big Ten; became a biomedical and health sciences powerhouse; pursued extensive capital improvements of its campuses; and continued to attract and graduate ambitious students taught by a top-notch faculty.
There certainly is never a shortage of good stories about Rutgers and its alumni. Thankfully over the years, I had a team of very talented colleagues to help me bring hundreds of them to our readers. Art director John VanCleaf was responsible for the look and design of the magazine; photographer Nick Romanenko shot so many of the images that were the hallmark of the publication; designers Michelle Cody, Gerry Meccia, and Sean McCloskey did a superb job working with images and designs and preparing files for the printer; Lisa Elwood DC’86 and Karen Imperiale RC'79, SCILS'81 were indispensable copy editors who did remarkable work editing stories and accounting for the accuracy of the magazine’s content; and many others over the years made significant contributions.
Take a look at Causes for Celebration, A Few of Our Favorite Things, and The Urgent Need to Teach—recollections of some of my favorite stories and the interesting backstories leading up to them. Now that it is all done, I can say that it was always an honor and deeply rewarding, issue after issue, to bring the vast universe of Rutgers to hundreds of thousands of readers.