NJIT Leaders Featured on NJBIZ Business Influencer List 'The Power 100'

Joel S. Bloom, president of NJIT, and Donald H. Sebastian, president and chief innovation officer of New Jersey Innovation Institute, have again each earned a spot on The Power 100, NJBIZ’s annual ranking of the most powerful people in New Jersey business.

NJBIZ praised Bloom for leading NJIT’s efforts on impactful STEM programs that serve underrepresented groups, including the Rising Scholars mentoring program introduced in fall 2019. The program, which enrolls eligible Newark students first before inviting other qualified freshman, provides both guidance in navigating the college experience and paid employment through federal work study.

“The Rising Scholars program is the most recent effort to build upon NJIT’s deep and close relationship with the city of Newark while serving its students,” said Bloom. “Collaborations between NJIT and the city also include the Mayor’s Honors Scholars Program, the NJIT/Newark Math Success Initiative, an expansive pre-college program, 60,000+ hours of community service annually, a Smart City program, teacher training, curriculum development and many more educational as well as economic and community development efforts.

“The relationship between NJIT and Newark is one that should be a model for universities and the communities in which they reside,” he added.

Sebastian’s inclusion on The Power 100 touts the economic impacts NJII has had on New Jersey business, including an independent assessment that credits the organization as having a $1.3 billion economic impact in New Jersey, in addition to NJII’s own top-line revenue to nearly $90 million per year.

NJII’s Healthcare division was also mentioned in the list, which completed a $49 million, four-year practice transformation grant with a demonstrated impact of $180 million per year in cost savings to Medicaid and Medicare. “The program was designed to help physicians change to outcomes-based reimbursement models,” Sebastian said. “NJII is now operating the New Jersey Healthcare Information Network and has successfully recruited all of the state’s hospitals to interconnect with live exchange of healthcare records.”

To read more about The Power 100 click Learn More below.