Meet Rutgers-New Brunswick’s New Deans

Three newly appointed leaders at three schools share what brought them to their roles – and what they see ahead

Three new deans took the helm of schools at Rutgers University-New Brunswick on July 1, bringing backgrounds that span federal research, international arts leadership and behavioral health.

The three administrators share what brought them to Rutgers, what they see ahead for their schools and a little about themselves.

Michael Kim, Mason Gross School of the Arts

For Michael Kim, coming to Rutgers is something of a homecoming.

Thirty years ago, Kim earned his doctorate from the Juilliard School after spending seven years living and studying in Manhattan. His career would take him across the United States and eventually to Canada, but he always hoped he might someday return to the region.

This summer, he did as dean of the Mason Gross School of the Arts.

“Coming back here 30 years later is truly like a homecoming,” Kim said. “I always hoped to return one day, but you never know what’s going to happen with your life.”

Kim comes to Rutgers from Western University in Canada, where he was dean of the Don Wright Faculty of Music. An internationally recognized concert pianist, he has built a career that combines performance, teaching and academic leadership.

Over more than two decades in leadership roles at universities in the U.S. and Canada, his work has included fundraising and advancement, enrollment, interdisciplinary initiatives and partnerships with arts and cultural organizations. At Western, applications and enrollment surpassed pre-pandemic levels and philanthropic support included the largest individual gift in the faculty’s history.

Rutgers appealed to him for reasons that extend beyond his familiarity with the region.

Kim said he sees Mason Gross as occupying a distinctive place as a leading public arts school within one of the nation’s major public research universities. Students receive intensive professional and artistic training in their chosen fields while having access to the breadth of academic and research opportunities across Rutgers. The school’s location between New York and Philadelphia, in what Kim calls one of the world’s great cultural corridors, was another draw.

He said those advantages give Mason Gross an opportunity to build on its national and international reputation, reach new audiences and create opportunities for students and faculty while remaining grounded in its strengths in art and design, dance, filmmaking, music and theater.

Kim also said he is thinking about how changes in technology are reshaping the creative professions and what that means for the artists Mason Gross is preparing for their careers. He wants students to understand emerging technologies and the ways they are changing creative fields, even if they don’t use them in their own work.

But for Kim, those changes have also reinforced the importance of experiencing art in person.

After the COVID-19 pandemic, he worried audiences would be reluctant to return to live performances. Instead, he saw record attendance as people sought out experiences they had missed.

“When I attend a live theater performance or a dance performance or go to an art exhibition or a live music performance, I’m experiencing what it is to be human,” Kim said.

As dean, Kim wants Mason Gross to continue building on its tradition of teaching and research while reaching more people in New Brunswick, throughout New Jersey and beyond. He also wants students to graduate prepared for a changing professional landscape, with a strong creative identity and an understanding of how to build careers around their work.

Kim brings ideas and ambitions to the role but said his first priority is listening and learning rather than arriving with a predetermined blueprint. He sees the breadth of artistic and scholarly expertise across Mason Gross as one of the school’s great strengths.

A musician by training, he also sees the opportunity to learn from artists and scholars working in disciplines beyond his own as one of the most exciting aspects of his new role.

“Ideally, when you’re doing this job, you’re always learning,” Kim said. “I also think it’ll make me a better creative artist.”

William “Bill” Klein, School of Communication and Information

William “Bill” Klein has spent much of his career moving between disciplines and bringing people together, from studying mathematics and psychology as an undergraduate to leading one of the nation’s largest behavioral science research programs at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Now, after 16 years at NIH, Klein is returning to higher education as dean of the School of Communication and Information, where the mix of communication, journalism and media studies and library and information science immediately appealed to him. 

“The school is filled with internationally renowned scholars from many different disciplines who often think about some of the same problems, but from different perspectives,” said Klein. “That’s really exciting to me.”

His arrival at Rutgers also marks something of a return to New Jersey. Klein earned his doctorate in psychology from Princeton University in 1991 and, aside from a yearlong sabbatical at Rutgers in the mid-1990s, is returning to the state nearly 35 years later.

A social psychologist whose research focuses on risk perception, risk communication and decision-making, Klein spent 11 years at Colby College in Maine, where he was a psychology professor and department chair, before joining the University of Pittsburgh. 

His rising interest in the intersection of psychology, decision science, health communication and behavior change eventually led him to the National Cancer Institute, part of NIH. There, Klein led a behavioral science program supporting hundreds of millions of dollars in research on health behavior, psychological processes related to cancer prevention, and health communication. He also mentored early-career scientists.

For students, Klein places particular value on an education that prepares them for more than their first job. He points to writing, critical thinking, communication, analyzing information and working with others as skills that can help graduates adapt as careers and industries change. 

Klein has placed a high value on teaching throughout his career, winning several teaching and mentoring awards, including the Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award at the University of Pittsburgh.

His connection to Rutgers dates to a sabbatical in 1994, when, as a young faculty member at Colby, he worked with a Rutgers researcher on the Cook campus. Later, he regularly encountered scholars from the School of Communication and Information,at national conferences. 

Klein said he remembers being impressed by Rutgers faculty giving presentations, winning awards and taking leadership roles in the field.

“I think of the university as having so many different jewels,” Klein said, pointing to the range of expertise across the university and the opportunities for people from different areas to work together on common problems.

Outside of work, Klein has spent decades pursuing another passion: jazz. He plays saxophone, clarinet and flute and performed with several bands and smaller ensembles while living in the Washington, D.C., area.

Now living near campus, Klein already has brought his bicycle to New Jersey. His instruments are here, too. Next on the list is finding some musicians to play with. New faculty had a chance to see him play at a reception during New Faculty Orientation, and he also sat in with a trio at Pino’s in Highland Park last month.

Joshua Langberg, Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology

Joshua Langberg has spent his career looking for ways to turn research into something people can use, whether helping a child with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder succeed in school or building programs at Rutgers to support the well-being of students and communities throughout New Jersey.

Now, as dean of the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology (GSAPP), Langberg has an opportunity to bring those parts of his career together.

“The GSAPP mission really feels like a perfect fit with my research, clinical and leadership trajectories,” Langberg said.

A clinical psychologist and internationally recognized researcher on attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, Langberg joined Rutgers as a professor in 2022 and founded the Center for Youth Social Emotional Wellness, which works in partnership with the New Jersey community to develop better connected, holistic systems of behavioral health care. 

He later became Rutgers-New Brunswick’s inaugural chief wellness officer and helped develop ScarletWell, Chancellor Francine Conway’s initiative focused on developing programs and systems that promote wellness in students, faculty and staff.

Having been part of the school’s faculty, Langberg comes to the dean’s role with a familiarity with the school and a strong belief in its mission. What particularly excites him is the direct connection between its classrooms, research and the communities its graduates will serve.

The school prepares mental and behavioral health providers who go on to work in schools, hospitals, clinics, organizations and communities. Members of its faculty also conduct applied research aimed at improving the services and practices used in those settings.

That combination gives the school an opportunity to have an impact well beyond Rutgers.

“Every person we train will have an impact on thousands of lives over the course of their career,” Langberg said. “That’s the nature of the work we do.”

As dean, Langberg wants to build on the school’s longstanding connections throughout New Jersey, working with state agencies, schools, health providers and community organizations to understand where behavioral health needs are greatest and how the school’s research and training can help address them.

That approach reflects how Langberg views Rutgers’ role as a public university.

“At the core of our job, through research, training, and clinical service, is to serve the diverse state of New Jersey, ensuring that everyone has access to high quality, affordable behavioral health care,” Langberg said.

It is an approach he already has put into practice. Langberg built the Center for Youth Social Emotional Wellness from the ground up, developing partnerships throughout the state. Its most recent youth mental health summit brought together more than 300 behavioral health and school professionals representing nearly every New Jersey county.

Langberg also sees providing students with social mobility and high return on investment as central to the school’s mission, saying he wants all graduates to have well-paying meaningful careers that make a difference in the lives of the people and communities they serve. 

For Langberg, the importance of the work GSAPP does is more relevant than ever. 

“Mental health crosses all boundaries. It doesn’t matter what your beliefs or political party are. We all go through difficult and stressful periods, and everyone deserves access to high-quality support and care,” he said. “Our job is to make sure that is available.”