Dr. Mark V. Sauer: A Career Built on Building Families

By Jodi McCaffrey

Mark V. Sauer, MD, MS, didn’t become a doctor because of a dramatic childhood moment, but because of a movie.

As a boy in the 1960s, the former chair of the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences  watched Dr. Zhivago and felt something spark: “It was more the romantic notion of what I saw in Dr. Zhivago that intrigued me, and I just never thought about being anything other than that.”

That early sense of calling—part idealism, part curiosity—would carry him from the Midwest to California, New York City, San Francisco, and finally to Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, where he spent eight years reshaping the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences.

A Vision for Rutgers—and the State of New Jersey

When Dr. Sauer arrived at Rutgers in late 2017 at age 62, he was already a nationally recognized leader in reproductive endocrinology, known for pioneering work in egg and embryo donation, fertility care for HIV‑positive patients, and reproductive bioethics. But he wasn’t looking for another long-term chair role. He was looking for impact.

What drew him in was the chance to build something lasting for New Jersey. He remembers a conversation with Barry Ostrowsky, then CEO of RWJBarnabas Health, who told him the system wanted to keep patients in New Jersey rather than losing them to New York or Philadelphia. Dr. Sauer agreed wholeheartedly.

His mission became clear:

• Strengthen the residency and medical student teaching programs
• Recruit high-caliber faculty
• Build fellowships
• Elevate research
• Create a regional—and eventually national—presence for the medical school

The timing wasn’t easy. Within his first two years, the medical school completed a major merger, rolled out the Epic electronic medical record (EMR) platform, and then faced the COVID‑19 pandemic. Still, he pushed forward.

Today, Dr. Sauer, who also served as senior associate dean for Women’s Health and a professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences, points to several accomplishments with pride:

• A dramatically strengthened residency program
• A curriculum and teaching platform rebuilt “from the ground up”
• Nationally recognized Grand Rounds with weekly speakers from across the country
• Robust journal clubs that teach residents how to analyze research
• Successful fellowship matches in maternal–fetal medicine, gynecologic oncology, and other subspecialties

Breaking New Ground

Before Rutgers, Dr. Sauer spent 21 years at Columbia University, where he helped shape the modern field of reproductive medicine. His work often pushed boundaries ethically, scientifically, and socially.

He helped develop early egg and embryo donation programs, oversaw some of the first menopausal pregnancies, and led groundbreaking fertility care for HIV‑positive patients at a time when many clinics refused to treat them. He also helped pioneer medical treatment for ectopic pregnancy.

“Those kinds of projects were a lot of fun to test the boundary in a responsible, academic, grounded, clinically sound, ethical way. And if it worked, we just might change the paradigm,” he explained.

Throughout his career, he was drawn to ethically complex questions. He eventually earned a master’s degree in bioethics from Columbia and continues to teach the subject today.

From the Midwest to Medicine

Dr. Sauer’s path to medicine began far from the coasts. He was born in Iowa and raised across the Midwest. While his father was an attorney, he grew up in a family of farmers. He originally imagined becoming a small‑town doctor, delivering babies and fixing broken arms, until a friend convinced him to try OB‑GYN. He fell in love with it almost immediately.

Residency led to a fellowship at UCLA just as in vitro fertilization (IVF) was emerging in the United States. The field was new, exciting, and full of unanswered questions. He stayed in academic medicine for the next four decades.

Looking Ahead

As he steps down from his leadership role, Dr. Sauer is looking forward to something he hasn’t had in decades: time. He plans to continue caring for fertility patients through RMA New Jersey and teaching at Columbia. But he’s also rediscovering long‑paused joys—travel, hobbies, and family time. Every Thursday, he teaches his 10‑year‑old grandson guitar.

He wants to slow down and savor the moments he once rushed past: “The older I get, the more I wonder where the time went.”

At Rutgers, his legacy is clear: a stronger department, a richer academic environment, and a generation of physicians shaped by his belief that medicine is, at its core, still a calling.

“My advice is to try to keep in the forefront of your mind what it is you went into medicine for, that romanticized image,” he said. “You’re here for reasons beyond billing and RVUs and keeping on schedule. Don’t forget your patients. And when you are off, be off. Focus on your kids. Focus on your personal life.”