Carol A. Terregino: A Lifelong Teacher Transforming Medical Education

Carol A. Terregino has spent her medical career redefining what it means to prepare the next generation of physicians. 
As Senior Associate Dean for Education and Academic Affairs at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (RWJMS), Terregino has focused on blending her deep respect for tradition with her appetite for innovation.

Dr. Terregino’s path from Latin teacher-in-training to award-winning medical education leader is marked by intellectual curiosity and a commitment to shaping both the minds and the humanity of future doctors.

Growing up in Cranford, Dr. Terregino’s early academic life centered on language, following in the footsteps of her father who spent his life as an educator before retiring as a superintendent of schools. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Latin from Douglass College in 1979 where she graduated summa cum laude.

“I had a facility with languages,” Dr. Terregino said, crediting her inspirational Latin teacher for shaping her disciplined approach to thinking and problem-solving.

While Dr. Terregino thought she would teach high school Latin and Spanish, a path that was encouraged by her traditional parents, she realized during her time student teaching that she wanted something “different.”

“I did my student teaching and thought, ‘I think that there is another path for me.’”  

John Emerson

Still, although she had a deep interest in health sciences, it was an era when women made up only about 30 percent of medical school students. But, after weighing family pressures and professional possibilities, Dr. Terregino decided to follow her heart and take the leap.

That realization changed her life’s trajectory. She began taking post-baccalaureate premedical courses at Rutgers while working at Middlesex General Hospital (now Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital) as a unit secretary, EKG technician, and stress-test assistant.

Dr. Terregino knew then that medicine was her calling.

“It was such an exciting time,” she said. “By the time I started medical school, I had so much patient experience that the approach to the patient came easily.”

Graduating Alpha Omega Alpha from Rutgers Medical School (renamed Robert Wood Johnson Medical School during her senior year) in 1986, Dr.Terregino trained in internal medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, followed by a fellowship in general internal medicine and emergency medicine. Her clinical career included faculty roles at Cooper University Hospital (then a regional campus of RWJMS) while she rose steadily through the medical school’s academic ranks, ultimately becoming professor of medicine in 2016. Along the way, she founded the school’s Clinical Skills Center, the Patient-Centered Medicine course and the Institute for Excellence in Education.

Terregino’s approach to medical education reflects both the rigor of traditional medical training and the introduction of contemporary, student-centered methods.

“When I was in school, the first two years were lecture-heavy, the last two were clinical. Now, we integrate clinical skills from day one,” she said.

For medical students today, Dr, Terregino says skills that define a physician’s humanity—empathy, compassion, professionalism, and the ability to work across disciplines—are just as important.

“We’re developing physicians in a holistic fashion,” she said. “It’s not just academics; it’s who they are as people, their ability to function in systems, and their understanding of the social drivers of health.”

Dr. Terregino’s leadership has brought national recognition to RWJMS. In September 2025, she received the AMA’s ChangeMedEd Innovation Award. Some of her innovations have included transforming admissions, integrating humanistic skills into the curriculum, and developing novel interprofessional learning. Her honors include the Edward J. I  Outstanding Medical Educator Award (2013) and the RWJMS Distinguished Alumnus Award (2019).

Despite her administrative responsibilities, Dr. Terregino continues to teach, using “medical improv” to help students communicate with empathy and clarity, devising techniques to enhance their clinical reasoning skills, and inspiring students to become leaders in academic health care.

“I have come full circle,” she said. “I started as a teacher, and I’m still a teacher just with a bigger classroom and a different subject.”

She states her greatest accomplishment is the team she has built. 

“You can’t innovate without people to believe in your vision and to help you implement change,” she said. “Everything we do as medical educators is ultimately for patients, and I’m incredibly grateful to work with faculty and staff who care that deeply about medical education.”