Robert Wood Johnson Medical Group Physician Named Family Physician of the Year

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ – Somerset resident Dr. Maria F. Ciminelli, assistant professor of family medicine and community health and program director of the medical school’s Family Medicine Residency Program at CentraState Medical Center, has been named New Jersey Family Physician of the Year by the New Jersey Academy of Family Physicians.

Dr. Ciminelli was recognized at a special event June 11 at NJAFP’s 2016 Scientific Assembly in Atlantic City.

Among other criteria, NJAFP’s Family Physician of the Year Award is granted to a physician who provides his or her community with compassionate, comprehensive and caring medical service, and who emulates the family physician as a healer and human being to the community, and as a professional in the service and art of medicine.

This marks the second consecutive year that a member of the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School faculty has been selected for this honor. Last year’s recipient was Dr. Martha Lansing, associate professor and vice chair of family medicine and community health at the medical school.

“We are extremely proud of Dr. Ciminelli,” said Dr. Alfred F. Tallia, professor and chair of the Department of Medicine at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. “She is one of our leading faculty, who our students find to be an extraordinary role model exemplifying what is special about family medicine. Following on the footsteps of Dr. Lansing’s receipt of this statewide competitive award last year, it confirms to me that we have remarkable faculty here at Rutgers.”

A 1996 graduate of Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, Dr. Ciminelli completed her residency training in family medicine at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, where she served as chief resident. She joined the medical school faculty in September 1999.

A board-certified specialist in family medicine, Dr. Ciminelli is a fellow in the American Academy of Family Physicians and has been a member of the New Jersey Academy of Family Physicians House of Delegates since 2009. Her interests include curriculum development, evidence-based medicine, adolescent medicine, pediatrics, chronic disease management and practice management.

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