Decades in health care uniquely prepared recent Rutgers Hall of Distinguished Alumni inductee Judith Persichilli to guide New Jersey through a once-in-a-lifetime public health crisis.
As the world descended into the darkness of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, state Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli held aloft the light of hope for the people of New Jersey. Standing alongside Gov. Phil Murphy at televised briefings, she became the “woman who needs no introduction,” calmly recounting the staggering numbers of new cases and deaths and reiterating safety precautions. Her steely resolve set the tone for the tens of thousands of health care workers on the front lines of the crisis.
Persichilli NUR’76 had been on the job four months when her office started hearing about a viral outbreak in China. “By March, we had the biggest surge of cases in our hospitals and infections in our long-term care facilities that we’d ever experienced,” Persichilli says. In the months that followed, she worked tirelessly to develop strategies for mitigating the risks of COVID. “I came to work every day and said, ‘What have I learned over time in my education and my practice that’s going to help me through this?’”
Fortunately, Persichilli has a wealth of experience to draw upon, having started nursing school at 17, shortly after graduating from high school. She worked as an intensive care nurse for five years before earning a bachelor’s degree from the Rutgers College of Nursing and a health administration master’s from Rider University—both with summa cum laude honors. “The first thing I learned at Rutgers is that nursing is more than a practice—it’s a profession that you always carry with you,” Persichilli says. “Whether you’re a school nurse, an acute care nurse, or long-term care nurse, you always enter your day thinking of how to make things better for the people you serve.”
