Complete the short form below to add your name to the list of signers. 

Dear Chancellor Brian Strom and Dean Amy Murtha,

We, the undersigned Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and University Hospital (RWJMS/RWJUH) faculty, urge you to immediately reclassify physicians and other clinicians who are currently classified as RWJBarnabas Health (RWJBH) employees into 100% Rutgers unionized faculty appointments and to negotiate fair and equitable salary bonus structures or "Fully Variable Supplement" (FVS) payments for all RWJMS/RWJUH clinical faculty.

As you know, from 2020 to 2024, RWJMS, in conjunction with RWJBH, created the faculty position of Clinically-Focused University Practitioners (CFUPs). These clinicians are appointed in RWJMS departments and work with Rutgers-employed clinicians caring for patients, doing research, and educating medical students, residents, and fellows. No matter who currently signs our paychecks, we work side by side in our clinical and educational roles.  

However, we have grave concerns concerning the inequity that exists between CFUPs, “voluntary faculty,” 100% Barnabas employees, and those who are fully Rutgers faculty. Among these inequities are uneven work expectations, dissimilar compensation and benefits, and differing opportunities for promotional career tracks. There is no rational reason to have faculty members who are governed by an entirely different set of rules and who cannot benefit from their work in a similar fashion to their Rutgers colleagues. 

Considering that under our collective negotiations agreement, no further CFUPs will be hired at RWJMS; and given that many CFUPs are in the process of converting to 100% Rutgers faculty appointments (or already have converted); we do not see the need to maintain the objectionable CFUP structure any longer.

Even more concerning, there has been a recent move toward illegitimate appointments of “voluntary faculty” in our departments. Good reasons may exist for some of these appointments, but not when our colleagues are essentially performing the same teaching, research, and clinical academic work as regular RWJMS faculty.

We believe in furthering our excellence in academic medicine, and we ask you to convert all our CFUP and wrongly appointed voluntary faculty colleagues to 100% Rutgers faculty no later than March 15, 2025.

Finally, although contractual negotiations over Fully Variable Supplement payments were supposed to finish over a year ago, they remain stonewalled. We are coming together in one union to call on the university to come to the table and negotiate fair and equitable compensation, bonus, and incentive structures for all RWJMS clinicians.

Sincerely,

Dr. Jonathan H. Sherman, Professor, Neurosurgery
Dr. Ke Nie, Professor, Radiation Oncology
Dr. Susan E. Boruchoff, Professor, Medicine
Dr. Ning J Yue, Professor, Radiation Oncology
Dr. Rajeev Mehta, Professor, Pediatrics
Dr. Sammy Elsamra, Associate Professor, Surgery
Dr. Xiangbing Wang, Professor, Medicine
Dr. Frederick E. Lepore, Professor, Neurology and Ophthalmology
Dr. Emily Van Kouwenberg, Assistant Professor, Surgery
Dr. Jeremy Sinkin, Associate Professor, Surgery
Dr. Sabiha Hussain, Professor, Medicine
Dr. Jeanne Ferrante, Professor, Family Medicine
Dr. Deepak Jain, Professor, Pediatrics
Dr. David F. Howarth, Professor, Family Medicine
Dr. Paul Manowitz, Professor, Psychiatry
Dr. Catherine Monteleone, Professor, Medicine
Dr. Donald A. Winkelmann, Professor, Pathology
Dr. Richard Drachtman, Professor, Pediatrics
Dr. Manan Shah, Assistant Professor, Neurosurgery
Dr. Gengo Sunagawa, Assistant Professor, Surgery
Dr. Kristen Donohue, Assistant Professor, Surgery
Dr. Theodore Maglione, Associate Professor, Cardiology
Dr. Mafudia Suaray, Associate Professor, Family Medicine
Dr. Arunachalam Thenappan, Assistant Professor, Surgery
Dr. Joshua Bucher, Associate Professor, Emergency Medicine
Dr. Ankit Shah, Assistant Professor, Medicine
Dr. Sara Lubitz, Associate Professor, Medicine
Dr. Daniel Morrison, Associate Professor, Emergency Medicine
Dr. Sugeet Jagpal, Associate Professor, Medicine
Dr. Kimberly Pham, Assistant Professor, Oncology
Dr. Sarah Yavelberg, Assistant Professor, Pediatrics
Dr. Brad Kamitaki, Assistant Professor, Neurology
Dr. Deborah Kim, Assistant Professor, Medicine
Dr. Mary O’Connor, Assistant Professor, Medicine
Dr. Sasha East, Assistant Professor, Medicine
PA Courtney Lieberman, Assistant Professor, Emergency Medicine
Dr. Anupam Ohri, Associate Professor, Medicine
Dr. Jammie Law, Assistant Professor, Rheumatology
Dr. Jamie Mathew Cherian, Instructor, Family Medicine
Dr. Catherine Yu, Assistant Professor, Emergency Medicine
Dr. Danielle Velez Leitner, Assistant Professor, Surgery
Dr. Nalini P. Lam, Assistant Professor, Family Medicine
Dr. Ora Domovich, Assistant Professor, Family Medicine
Dr. Alex Plamm, Assistant Professor, Medicine
Dr. Mina Gaballa, Assistant Professor, Anesthesiology
Dr. Michael Song, Assistant Professor, Family Medicine
Dr. Juyeon Park, Assistant Professor, Family Medicine
Dr. Karthik Kota, Assistant Professor, Medicine
Dr. Renukamba Gubbi, Physician Specialist, Family Medicine
Dr. Alisa Reznikov, Assistant Professor, Family Medicine
Dr. Lakshmi P. Uppaluri, Associate Professor, Pediatrics
Dr. Raahi Upadhyay, Associate Professor, Family Medicine
Dr. Bhavani Vietla, Physician Specialist, Family Medicine
Dr. Venkat Narra, Professor, Radiation Oncology
Dr. Suruchi Desai, Physician Specialist, Family Medicine
Dr. Keerthi Shah, Assistant Professor, Medicine
Dr. Meena Azeem, Assistant Professor, Medicine
Dr. Tanaya Bhowmick, Associate Professor, Medicine
Dr. Sidrah Rafiq, Assistant Professor, Medicine
Dr. Steve Khalil, Associate Professor, Medicine
Dr. Sadia Ali, Physician Specialist, Family Medicine
Dr. Pinki Bhatt, Assistant Professor, Medicine
Dr. Jeffrey P. Levine, Professor, Family Medicine
Dr. Shawen Ilaria, Assistant Professor, Psychiatry
Dr. Yin Zhang, Associate Professor, Radiation Oncology
Dr. Josh Kilian-Meneghin, Assistant Professor, Radiation Oncology
Dr. Taoran Cui, Associate Professor, Radiation Oncology
Dr. Zhenyu Xiong, Assistant Professor, Radiation Oncology
Dr. Denise Fernandez, Assistant Professor, Emergency Medicine
Dr. Carmen Shulman, Assistant Professor, Medicine
Dr. Xinxin Zhang, Assistant Professor, Radiation Oncology
Dr. Jay Naik, Assistant Professor, Medicine
Dr. John Collins, Associate Professor, Emergency Medicine
Dr. Vamsee Chaguturu, Assistant Professor, Psychiatry
Dr. Jared Radbel, Assistant Professor, Medicine
Dr. Komal Bhatt, Assistant Professor, Family Medicine
Dr. Haris Ahmed, Assistant Professor, Surgery
Dr. Chaoliang John Fan, Assistant Professor, Radiation Oncology
Dr. Yizhi Shan, Assistant Professor, Surgery
Dr. Toshitaka Hoppo, Associate Professor, Surgery
Dr. Chirag Shah, Associate Professor, Emergency Medicine
Dr. Suzana Morgan, Assistant Professor, Medicine
Dr. Monica Roth, Professor, Pharmacology
Dr. Auriel A. Willette, Associate Professor, Neurology
Dr. Patricia Martin, Assistant Professor, Family Medicine
Dr. Catherine Chen, Associate Professor, Internal Medicine
PA Carol Harnett, Assistant Professor, Emergency Medicine
Dr. Rhina Acevedo, Assistant Professor, Family Medicine
Dr. Sharan Kapoor, Instructor, Internal Medicine
Dr. Rohail Asrar, Assistant Professor, Family Medicine
Dr. Chirag Shah, Associate Professor, Emergency Medicine
Dr. Zachary Englert, Associate Professor, Surgery
Dr. Shalini Solanki, Assistant Professor, Family Medicine
Dr. Aaron Bernotas, Assistant Professor, Anesthesiology
Dr. Ogechukwu Egini, Assistant Professor, Medicine
Dr. Lenord T. Burwell, Assistant Professor, Family Medicine
Dr. Tori D. Gartmond, Assistant Professor, Internal Medicine
Dr. Patrick Rizzuto, Assistant Professor, Pediatrics
Dr. Dorjan Pantic, Assistant Professor, Emergency Medicine
Dr. Helen Han, Assistant Professor, Neurology
Dr. Christina Amaro, Instructor, Pediatrics
Dr. Chonyang Albert, Assistant Professor, Cardiology
Dr. Colleen Donovan, Associate Professor, Emergency Medicine
Dr. Anjali Majumdar, Assistant Professor, Medicine
Dr. Amisha Malhotra, Associate, Professor, Pediatrics
Dr. Aviva Cohn, Assistant Professor, Medicine
Dr. Janos Jeges, Associate Professor, Emergency Medicine
Dr. Estherline Thoby, Assistant Professor, Pediatrics
Dr. Yen Chen, Assistant Professor, Pediatrics
Dr. Ashok Chaudhary, Associate Professor, Cardiology
Dr. Fred Nichols, Assistant Professor, OB/GYN
Dr. Annie Truss, Assistant Professor, Family Medicine
Dr. Julie Goswami, Assistant Professor, Surgery
Dr. Justin McCormick, Assistant Professor, Otolaryngology
Dr. Phillip Purnell, Assistant Professor, Otolaryngology
Dr. Taha Mur, Assistant Professor, Otolaryngology
Dr. Lilun Li, Assistant Professor, Otolaryngology
Dr. Binoy Chandy, Assistant Professor, Otolaryngology
Dr. Scott Shapiro, Assistant Professor, Otolaryngology
Dr. Kenneth Dulnuan, Assistant Professor, Cardiology
Dr. Eunice DeFilippo, Assistant Professor, Internal Medicine
Dr. Marie-Claire Maroun, Associate Professor, Rheumatology
Dr. Katrina Foo, Assistant Professor, Pediatrics
Dr. Christopher Simotas, Assistant Professor, Pediatrics
Dr. Shelly Rishty, Assistant Professor, Neurology
Dr. John P. Mills, Associate Professor, Medicine
Dr. Fred Kobylarz, Professor, Family Medicine
Dr. Afnan Husain, Physician Specialist, Internal Medicine
Dr. Rory Ulloque, Associate Professor, Family Medicine
Dr. Chrystal Chang, Assistant Professor, Surgery
Dr. Janak Bhatt. Assistant Professor, Anesthesiology
Dr. Shoshana Zitter, Assistant Professor, Pediatrics
Dr. Maria Espinar Ho, Assistant Professor, Family Medicine
Dr. Temitope Okuwa, Assistant Professor, Anesthesiology
Dr. Daniel Polvino, Assistant Professor, Emergency Medicine
Dr. Fred Silverberg, Assistant Professor, OB/GYN
Dr. Raul Virginio Rodriguez, Assistant Professor, Pathology
Dr. Bhoomika Kamath, Assistant Professor, Family Medicine
Dr. Anna Sliwowska, Assistant Professor, Family Medicine
Dr. Deviyani Mehta, Associate Professor, Neurology
Dr. Leticia Velivis, Assistant Professor, Psychiatry
Dr. Ting Yu Jih, Assistant Professor, Family Medicine
Dr. Ankit Shah, Assistant Professor, Medicine & Hematology/Oncology
Dr. Cindy Wassef, Assistant Professor, Pathology & Center for Dermatology
Dr. Meigra Myers Chin, Associate Professor, Emergency Medicine
Dr. Sonali Patankar, Assistant Professor, OB/GYN & Gynecologic Oncology
Dr. Aliza Leiser, Associate Professor, Surgery
Dr. Archana Sharma, Assistant Professor, Pediatrics
Dr. Payal Sojitra, Associate Professor, Pathology
Dr. Rashika Bansal, Assistant Professor, Endocrinology
Dr. Susan Murphy, Assistant Professor, Pediatrics & Hematology Oncology
Dr. Aesha Jobanputra, Associate Professor, Medicine
Dr. Aditi Kanth, Assistant Professor, Surgery
Dr. Daniel Bobo, Instructor, Family Medicine
Dr. Bahar Firoz, Associate Professor, Pathology & Dermatology
Dr. Mayoor Bhatt, Assistant Professor, Pediatrics
Dr. Anna Shengelia, Associate Professor, Pulmonary
Dr. Natalie Millet, Associate Professor, Medicine
Dr. Mark Versella, Assistant Professor, Family Medicine
Dr. Xiao Wang, Associate Professor, Radiation Oncology
Dr. Elena Ashkinadze, Associate Professor, OB/GYN
Dr. Surasak Puvabanditsin, Associate Professor, Pediatrics
Dr. Joseph Napolitano, Assistant Professor, Surgery / Pediatric Ophthalmology
Dr. Sarah Komline, Assistant Professor, Pediatrics
Dr. Kiley Trott, Assistant Professor, Otolaryngology
Dr. Neha Bhagat, Assistant Professor, OB/GYN
Dr. Firas Eladoumikdachi, Associate Professor, Surgery
Dr. Valeriya Feygina, Associate Professor, Pediatrics
Dr. Nowair Hussain, Associate Professor, Internal Medicine
Dr. Kant Matsuda, Assistant Professor, Pathology
Dr. Igor Rybinnik, Associate Professor, Neurology
Dr. Irina Vergalasova, Associate Professor, Radiation Oncology
Dr. Brian Wengerter, Assistant Professor, Surgery
PA Jaclyn Trotta, Assistant Professor, Surgery
Dr. Sarah Brislin, Assistant Professor, Psychiatry
Dr. Biren Saraiya, Associate Professor, Medicine
Dr. Andrew Mendoza, Assistant Professor, Medicine
Dr. Jennifer Amico, Associate Professor, Family Medicine
Dr. Martha Soto, Professor, Pathology
Dr. Amy Pappert, Associate Professor, Pathology
Dr. Shirin Hastings, Associate Professor, Internal Medicine
Dr. David Golombos, Associate Professor, Surgery
Dr. Brett Gelino, Instructor, Psychiatry
Dr. Nathaniel S. Thomas, Instructor, Psychiatry
Dr. Saum Ghodoussipour, Assistant Professor, Surgery
Dr. Kunal Shah, Assistant Professor, Endocrinology
Dr. Susanne Ajao, Assistant Professor, Medicine
Dr. Elizabeth Clark, Associate Professor, Family Medicine
Dr. Altaf Rasool, Assistant Professor, Family Medicine
Dr. Ryan Stephenson, Assistant Professor, Medicine
Brett Eckroate, MS, Instructor, Radiation Oncology
Dr. Andrew Parrott, Assistant Professor, Pathology
Dr. Carmen Shulman, Assistant Professor, Internal Medicine
Dr. William Meng, Assistant Professor, Pulmonary
Dr. Michael Jong, Assistant Professor, Emergency Medicine
Dr. Wayland Wu, Assistant Professor, Surgery
Dr. Robyn Schafer, Assistant Professor, OB/GYN
Dr. Lena Merjanian, Assistant Professor, OB/GYN
Dr. Ahmed Abdul Azim, Assistant Professor, Medicine
Dr. Michael Mirza, Assistant Professor, Emergency Medicine
Dr. Barbara Jo McGarry, Associate Professor, Family Medicine
Dr. Grant Wei, Associate Professor, Emergency Medicine
Dr. Diandra Nesbitt, Assistant Professor, Medicine
Dr. Shan Chen, Associate Professor, Neurology
Dr. Roger Cheng, Assistant Professor, Neurology
Dr. Dan Rice, Assistant Professor, Emergency Medicine
Dr. Hyon Kim, Assistant Professor, Medicine
Dr. Sara Khalil, Assistant Professor, Family Medicine
Dr. Ryan Fields, Assistant Professor, Anesthesiology
Dr. Aixa Navia, Assistant Professor, Family Medicine
Dr. Paul Peng, Assistant Professor, Emergency Medicine
Dr. Karlyndsay Sitterley, Assistant Professor, Neurology
PA Yara Hourieh, Assistant Professor, Emergency Medicine
Dr. Yvonne Ye, Instructor, Family Medicine
Dr. Shalini Gupta, Assistant Professor, OB/GYN
Dr. David Cohen, Associate Professor, Medicine
Dr. Keerthi Kesavarapu, Assistant Professor, Internal Medicine
APN Nancy Simoes, Assistant Professor, Emergency Medicine
Dr. Jonathan McCoy, Associate Professor, Emergency Medicine