New York City Health Commissioner Credits His Success to Rutgers

The commissioner of the nation's oldest and largest public health department believes he might not be working to protect the wellbeing of more than 8 million New Yorkers if it weren't for the time he spent as a student at Rutgers.

Alister Martin, a physician and 2010 Rutgers graduate, was recently tapped by Mayor Zohran Mamdani to lead the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, overseeing the agency's $2.5 billion budget and more than 7,000 employees. He is working to launch a public health agenda focused on affordability, addressing the root causes of illness and making sure services reach the people who need them.

Martin took on the latest in a string of high-profile positions-which have included working in the White House and teaching at Harvard-more than two decades after he was expelled from high school when he got into a fight with members of a street gang in his Neptune neighborhood. At that moment, he thought he might never go to college.

"It is not an understatement to say that Rutgers saved my life," Martin said.

Between high school and college, Martin played competitive tennis and was recruited to Rutgers in 2006 by an assistant coach, Bob Stanicki, who encouraged him to take the GED and get his education back on track.

He found his path to medicine after meeting Kamal Khan, the director of the Office for Development and Academic Success (ODASIS) , a program that supports students in their quest to excel in sciences and mathematics, which lead to professional healthcare careers and graduate programs.

Martin wanted to be a doctor like the ones who treated and saved his mother, a biology teacher who raised him on her own and survived metastatic breast cancer.

"For the first time in my life, I had seen real heroes, people who brought my mom back," he said.

Rutgers showed him how to fulfill that dream. He heard Khan speak about students in ODASIS who were together, studying and pushing each other. He realized his love of competition as an athlete could translate to his academics.

"Dr. Allister Martin was a very unique person who, instead of just sitting down with a book and reading, truly visualized and internalized everything he studied,'' Kahn said. "He used to study with a friend, he said, not leaving their study room until they had completely drawn, mapped out, and quizzed each other on all the material several times. He had a vision and it is coming to fruition."

Martin got involved with the program, which is now celebrating its 40th anniversary, and graduated Summa Cum Laude from the School of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers-New Brunswick.