Two Hackensack Meridian Health Leaders To Be Honored by American Academy of Pediatrics for Improving the Lives of Children and Families

EDISON, N.J., MAY 1, 2024 – Two leaders from Hackensack Meridian Health will be honored by the New Jersey Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics (NJAAP) at an upcoming event.  

Jeffrey Boscamp, M.D., the president and dean of the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine (HMSOM), will be named the “Pediatrician of the Year,” and Judy Aschner, M.D., a physician-scientist at the Hackensack Meridian Center for Discovery and Innovation (CDI) who is also a professor of pediatrics at HMSOM will receive the Champion for Children Award at the NJAAP’s 14th annual New Jersey Children’s Ball, to be held next week. 

“Dr. Boscamp and Dr. Aschner are excellent leaders who have contributed in the clinical setting, and beyond,” said Robert C. Garrett, FACHE, the chief executive officer of Hackensack Meridian Health. “We are thrilled to see them honored by the NJAAP for their ongoing work.”

Boscamp, who is a pediatric infectious diseases specialist, was most recently named dean of the medical school in December 2022, and oversaw its final full accreditation in 2023. A longstanding and highly-regarded leader at Hackensack University Medical Center, he also served as a member of the Hackensack University Medical Center Medical Executive Committee and continues to serve on the Hackensack Meridian Health Board of Trustees Academics Committee. He founded the Section of Pediatric Infectious Diseases and the Steven Bader Immunologic Institute and provided essential pediatric infectious diseases support to the Tomorrow’s Children’s Institute, the largest pediatric hematology-oncology program in the state of New Jersey. Dr. Boscamp was the chairman of the Joseph M. Sanzari Children’s Hospital and held the Marvin I. Gottlieb, M.D., Ph.D., Endowed Chair of Pediatrics for 14 years. During his tenure the Children’s Hospital achieved meteoric growth and achieved full voting membership in the National Association of Children’s Hospitals (NACHRI). Dr. Boscamp helped lead the design and building of a free standing Children’s Hospital on the campus of Hackensack University Medical Center and developed and recruited a faculty practice of pediatric subspecialists. Under Dr. Boscamp, the Joseph M. Sanzari Children’s Hospital achieved a national top-50 ranking in US News and World Report; the first Hackensack Meridian program to achieve this as well as the first children’s hospital in New Jersey to be ranked in the top 50 nationally. 

Aschner, a neonatologist, is the past physician-in-chief of Hackensack Meridian Children’s Health, and also served as the Marvin I. Gottlieb, M.D., Ph.D., Endowed Chair of Pediatrics at the Joseph M. Sanzari Children’s Hospital. She is receiving the award for her work to improve the lives of children and families through the HealthySteps program at Hackensack Meridian Children’s Health, a grant-funded, evidence-based, interdisciplinary pediatric primary care program that promotes positive parenting and healthy development for babies and toddlers under age four, with an emphasis on culturally diverse families living in low-income communities. In addition to her work with the Healthy Steps program, Dr. Aschner’s research projects include a major nationwide initiative of the National Institutes of Health focused on the impact of environmental factors, broadly defined, on children’s health and development: the Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) program. Dr. Aschner, who is also a professor of pediatrics at the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine, has been a longtime contributor to the massive national cohort started seven years ago. Dr. Aschner had also previously been a clinician, researcher, and administrator at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and Wake Forest University Health Sciences, among other institutions. 

“I am humbled to receive this award,” said Dr. Boscamp. “But I accept it on behalf of all the great partners, past and present, who have helped me achieve better outcomes for our young patients.”

“It is an honor to receive the NJAAP award,” said Dr. Aschner. “However, I am even more honored to serve children and families in Bergen, Monmouth and surrounding counties — with the goal of enhancing access to high-quality pediatric services for every family in every community.”

“Jeffrey Boscamp is a terrific physician and a trusted colleague of many years,” said Ihor Sawczuk, M.D., FACS, president of Academics, Research, and Innovation at HMH, and also founding chair of the Hackensack Meridian Health Research Institute, and also associate dean of Clinical Integration and professor and chair emeritus of Urology at the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine. “Dr. Aschner is a compassionate and accomplished clinician-scientist – and we are proud to be the home of her research benefiting children of the past, present, and future.”

“The work of the Aschner Lab is top-notch, and it is the kind of scientific impact for patients in the here and now which the CDI always aims for,” added David Perlin, Ph.D., chief scientific officer and executive vice president of the CDI. 

The awards will be presented to Dr. Boscamp and Dr. Aschner during the NJAAP’s 14th Annual Children’s Ball, which will be held on May 8, 2024 at The Palace at Somerset Park, in Somerset, NJ.