Harry V. Swayne III (LC’90) enjoyed a brilliant career as a defensive tackle for Rutgers’ Scarlet Knights football team from 1983 to 1986.

In 1990, four years after the end of his Rutgers football career, Swayne earned a bachelor of science degree in sports management from Livingston College at Rutgers University.

In 2004, the Livingston Alumni Association honored Swayne as a Distinguished Alumnus.

Swayne’s best football season at Rutgers came as a senior in 1986, when he registered 51 tackles, five sacks, nine tackles for loss and three fumble recoveries. He distinguished himself as a defensive lineman and received the Bender Award in 1986, and was named to the ECAC All-East first team as a defensive lineman.

In his 15-year career as a player in the National Football League (NFL), Swayne captured three Super Bowl rings (two with the Denver Broncos, one with the Baltimore Ravens) and also won an AFC Championship with the San Diego Chargers. 

Swayne began his professional career when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers picked him in the seventh round of the NFL draft in 1987.

In 1991, Swayne signed with the San Diego Chargers, with whom he started as left tackle in Super Bowl XXIX. Swayne then signed with the Denver Broncos in 1997, where he won two Super Bowls.

Swayne played for the Baltimore Ravens in 1999 to 2000 and won another Super Bowl. He retired from the playing field after one year with the Miami Dolphins (2001). 

Swayne later served as the Team Chaplain for the Chicago Bears.

Since 2008, Swayne has overseen the day-to-day responsibilities of the player engagement department for the Ravens, including assisting players with career transition into, during and after their time in the NFL.

He rejoined the Ravens in 2008 as the Assistant Director of Player Programs, then was promoted to Director of Player Engagement in 2009. He is also a missionary for Athletics in Action, which is affiliated with Campus Crusades for Christ.

In 2003 Swayne was inducted into the Rutgers Football Hall of Fame.

The LAA also presented a special Alumni Achievement Award to Swayne on November 2, 2002, at Rutgers Stadium, during halftime of the Rutgers vs. Miami football game.

Swayne and his wife, Dawn, have three daughters and two sons.

Photos: (Top right) Courtesy of the Baltimore Ravens; (Center right) An official photo from Swayne’s Rutgers career; (Left) Swayne (#74) with the Denver Broncos.

Steven D. Plofker, a 1978 graduate of Livingston College at Rutgers University, is a real estate developer and attorney who has enjoyed success in multiple business ventures

In 2002, the Livingston Alumni Association honored Plofker as a Distinguished Alumnus. Plofker earned a Master’s Degree in urban planning and policy analysis from Harvard University in 1980, and a J.D. (law) degree from Rutgers’ School of Law in Newark in 1993.

As of 2016, Plofker is a Commissioner of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority. He is a past board member of the New Jersey Economic Development Authority and also served with the Montclair Economic Development Corporation.

Among Plofker’s many community activities, he has served as a member of the Livingston College Dean’s Advisory Board, co-chair of the Mountainside Hospital Campaign in Montclair, New Jersey, and a founding board member for the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center. He has served as a board member or trustee of Montclair Art Museum, the Board of Overseers and Governance Committee at Rutgers, the Overseers Committee on University Resources at Harvard, and the American Red Cross Northern New Jersey.

Plofker is a real estate developer who specializes in historic renovations, readaptive uses of commercial and industrial structures, and sensitive solutions to community projects. He is also a practicing attorney in Montclair and is a member of the bar in New Jersey, New York, Illinois, and the U.S. District Court.

In 1991, Plofker was a co-founder, with his wife, and Senior Director of Bobbi Brown Cosmetics, a company that grew from a collection of 10 lipsticks into a full-line global competitor with products distributed in more than 300 stores. Plofker later negotiated the sale of the company to Estee Lauder, Inc.

His business interests include ownership in multiple tennis clubs and indoor sports field facilities. He also owns a film and photography studio, a boutique hotel, a parking company and a licensing company.

David A. Laskow, a 1977 graduate of Livingston College at Rutgers University, has been Chairman of the Surgery Department at St. Peter’s Medical Center in New Brunswick, New Jersey, since 2017.

In 2002, the Livingston Alumni Association of Rutgers University honored Dr. Laskow as a Distinguished Alumnus. He is also a 1981 graduate of Rutgers Medical School, now known as Rutgers’ Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (RWJMS).

He previously was Chief of the Kidney and Pancreas Transplant Service at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RWJUH) and Associate Professor of Surgery at RWJMS. 

Dr. Laskow arrived at RWJUH in New Brunswick, New Jersey, to established a kidney and pancreas transplant program there. In 2007 Dr. Laskow spoke with The Star-Ledger about his career and his own heart transplant after he suffered a heart attack in 2005.

Prior to joining RWJUH, Dr. Laskow was the Director of the Division of Transplantation at Allegheny University Hospital-Hahnemann Division. His experience also includes appointments at the University of Alabama School of Medicine, Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, and Beth Israel Medical Center.

Dr. Laskow is a member of numerous professional organizations, including the American College of Surgeons, American Society of Transplant Physicians, and the Association for Academic Surgery. He has conducted 14 innovative clinical trials advancing the art and science of kidney transplantation, and has been published in more than 40 peer-reviewed journals and books.

Dr. Laskow resides with his wife, Mary, in Middlesex County, New Jersey. They have two adult daughters.

Journalist Susan Kille, a 1974 graduate of Livingston College at Rutgers University, was drawn to the college because it promised a diverse student body and a social vision that didn’t exist at the South Jersey shore where she grew up.

In 2002, the Livingston Alumni Association honored Kille as a Distinguished Alumna.

Kille has worked for more than 30 years for The New York Times Company in print, online and mobile news, and has served as the editor of the in-house wire service connecting the Times’ 14 regional newspapers at the time. In recent years she has blogged about journalism, travel and her battles with lung cancer, among other topics.

Kille graduated from Livingston College with a major in Human Communications. While in college, she was an intern at the Rutgers News Service and also worked at the Targum. She began working for newspapers when she landed a summer job in 1970 at her hometown newspaper, the Ocean City Sentinel-Ledger. She has also worked for The Press of Atlantic City and The Morning Star in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Kille had been away from the campus for more than 25 years when Arnold G. Hyndman, then Dean of Livingston College, invited her to join his alumni advisory committee.

“I like to arrive early for meetings and walk through Tillett Hall, which was one of the first buildings on campus and where just about everything happened during my college days,” she says. “I see pieces of the past, but also the activity of the present. Then I walk into Quad 1 and look up at my old window and think — in words that resonated around those walls in the ’70s — ‘what a long, strange trip it’s been’.” Kille is married to Tom Sawyer (yes, that’s his real name) and they live in Park Slope, Brooklyn, New York. They have two adult daughters, Lucy and Eva.

Pictured: Kille at the Brooklyn Bridge.

Victor A. Mensah (pictured at right) has been honored as the recipient of the 2016 Riki Jacobs Livingston Pride Award, given by the Livingston Alumni Association (LAA) of Rutgers University.

Mensah, a first-generation college student, is a May 2016 graduate of the School of Arts and Sciences-New Brunswick at Rutgers University, where he has majored in Biological Sciences with a concentration in Urban Health. He’s continuing his studies at Rutgers in fall 2016, entering Robert Wood Johnson Medical School’s Class of 2020, seeking a Medical Doctorate degree.

During his first year at Rutgers, Mensah’s path was not so certain, as he was struggling and at risk of losing his scholarship. A friend took Mensah under his wings and helped him manage his time better and build relationships with professors and student clubs. Soon thereafter, Mensah was on the Dean’s List.

Mensah’s work with a mentor gave him the idea to create a peer-mentoring program to pair first-year, first-generation college students with upperclass students. In three years, the Student Support Services Peer Mentoring program has grown from 13 students to 120 students projected for fall of 2016.

Mensah also has volunteered as a mentor to high school students interested in a career in medicine, as a high school track and field coach, and a math and science tutor at New Brunswick High School.

Mensah wrote in his award application essay: “As a tutor of all grades from high school freshmen to seniors, one thing is apparent, the older the students get, the less interested they become in the sciences.” He feels strongly that there is a lack of minority representation in the STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics) fields. This drove Mensah to seek propose and seek grants for a summer math and science camp to show inner-city youths that science and engineering can be fun and interactive.

Mensah’s previous awards include:

• 2015 National Conference on Race and Ethnicity scholarship award winner
• 2015 Mozelle Henry Fordham Legacy of Love Scholarship
• 2014 Spirit of New Brunswick Award for community involvement
• 2012 James Dickson Carr Scholar at Rutgers

The LAA presented the Pride Award to Mensah at a Theater Night reception on Sunday, April 24, 2016.

Since 1990, the LAA has given the Riki Jacobs Livingston Pride Award to the Rutgers-New Brunswick graduating senior who most embodies the spirit of Livingston College and its attributes of leadership and social action. The award is named after Riki Jacobs (1957-2009), a guiding light in the fight against HIV/AIDS in New Jersey for more than 25 years. At the time of her passing, New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine called Jacobs “an articulate and compassionate voice who was highly respected for her efforts to ensure health care access for those living with, infected with, and affected by HIV.”

Center photo: LAA’s Vice President/Secretary Jeffrey Armus (left) and President Eric Schwarz (right) present the Pride Award to Mensah. Bottom: Mensah (holding award certificate) celebrates his achievement with family and friends. Photos taken on April 24, 2016.

John S. Lipori, a retired bank executive, was one of the first four Livingston College Distinguished Alumni, honored in 2000.

Lipori, a 1977 graduate of Livingston College at Rutgers University, served as National Director of Portfolio Management at BNY Mellon from 2010 until his retirement in 2015.

Lipori had previously served as Executive Vice President (EVP) and Chief Trust Officer of BNY Mellon Wealth Management and EVP at The Bank of New York, after joining the Bank in 1979.

He has served as a Trustee of the Variety Preschooler’s Workshop in Syossett, NY, a nonprofit organization that works with handicapped preschool children and their families.

He has also served as the Chair of Livingston College’s Dean’s Advisory Council and as a member of the Rockefeller University’s Committee on Trusts and Estate Gift Plans. 

Photos: Top, courtesy of John Lipori. Bottom: Lipori as pictured in the 1977 Livingston College yearbook, The Rock, Volume II.

Clifton R. Lacy (MD, FACC, FACP), honored in 2000 as one of the first four Livingston College Distinguished Alumni, is the Director of Rutgers’ Institute for Emergency Preparedness and Homeland Security (IEPHS).

He also has directed the University Center for Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Response (UCDPER). In 2004 he was inducted into the Rutgers University Hall of Distinguished Alumni.

Dr. Lacy, a 1975 graduate of Livingston College at Rutgers University and a 1979 graduate of Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (now part of Rutgers), has a long and distinguished career in medical leadership.

He previously served as president of Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RWJUH), and also as Senior Vice President for Medical Affairs and Chief of Staff at RWJUH. He also is a former New Jersey state Health Commissioner.

At the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ), he served as Senior Vice President and earlier as Chief of Cardiovascular Diseases and Hypertension. He is widely published in the field of cardiovascular diseases and is an active research investigator in national and international clinical trials. Lacy has served on several national, regional, and local clinical and scientific committees and advisory boards, including the National Institutes of Health, the American College of Cardiology, and the American Heart Association.

Photos: Top, courtesy of the Rutgers Institute for Emergency Preparedness and Homeland Security. Bottom: Lacy as pictured in the Livingston College yearbook, We the People.

Alfred E. Ramey, Jr. was honored in 2000 as one of the first four Livingston College Distinguished Alumni. As of 2016, Ramey is the University Counsel for New Jersey City University in Jersey City.

Ramey, a 1973 graduate of Livingston College at Rutgers University,  previously served as Counsel to the Executive Commission on Ethical Standards and as Assistant Attorney General in the Office of the Attorney General of New Jersey.

During his nearly 25 years of service to New Jersey, he has served as Counsel to the Department of Education, and is one of the state’s leading authorities on school funding. He has served on Rutgers University’s Board of Trustees and as a member of the Trustees of the Mercer County Bar Association. He earned his law degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

Riki E. Jacobs, a 1980 graduate of Livingston College at Rutgers University, served as executive director of Hyacinth AIDS Foundation from 1993 until her death in 2009.

In 2000, Jacobs was named one of the first four Distinguished Alumni by the Livingston Alumni Association of Rutgers University (LAA).

In 2010, the LAA renamed its award for an outstanding graduating undergraduate senior, to the Riki Jacobs Livingston Pride Award.

Hyacinth AIDS Foundation was a “mess” and “about ready to go under” when Jacobs joined, said Jerry McCathern, Hyacinth’s senior director of development at the time of Jacobs’ death. “Riki could have been a hero or the agency could have failed,” McCathern said. “It would have failed under most people, but she took it from there to present, in that we have become the ‘premier AIDS service agency in the state.’”

Under Jacobs’ direction, Hyacinth became the only organization in New Jersey with a public policy and community organizing staff dedicated to protecting the rights and benefits of people living with HIV/AIDS in New Jersey. During her tenure at Hyacinth, Jacobs served as a fellow of Leadership New Jersey 1995.

At the time of Jacobs’ death, New Jersey Governor Jon S. Corzine called her “a guiding light in the fight against HIV/AIDS in New Jersey for more than 25 years. She was an articulate and compassionate voice who was highly respected for her efforts to ensure health care access for those living with, infected with, and affected by HIV. Riki’s vision and unwavering commitment will be greatly missed.”

Prior to her service with Hyacinth, Jacobs served as a staff attorney and the assistant director for New Jersey’s Commission on Sex Discrimination in the Statutes, where she advocated for laws impacting victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. From 1982 to 1992 Jacobs was the director of development at the New Jersey Association on Correction (NJAC) where, among other responsibilities, she provided AIDS education to inmates in county jails. In the late 1980s she realized the devastating impact of HIV/AIDS on the association’s clients. As a result, she developed one of the first pre-release programs in the country targeting offenders living with HIV/AIDS and also created an HIV/AIDS prevention and education program at the Mercer and Middlesex County correctional facilities.

She had been involved since 1986 with organizing local and statewide coalitions. She co-founded the New Jersey Women & AIDS Network (NJWAN), an organization devoted to address the impact of AIDS on women in New Jersey. She was also responsible for the development of NJAC’s first domestic violence shelter in Passaic County. 

Jacobs was strongly committed to the work of the non-profit community. She served on the boards of the Center for Non-Profits and the New Jersey chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). She also served on the advisory board of the New Jersey AIDS Partnership. Since the administration of Governor Jim Florio, Jacobs had served as a member of the Governor’s Advisory Council on HIV and other blood-borne pathogens. 

Jacobs received numerous awards and recognition for her work, including: honors in 1998 from NJWAN, the AIDS Benefit Committee of NJ (Humanitarian Award) and the Middlesex County Commission on the Status of Women (Women of Excellence Award for her work in the AIDS field); the Public Policy Leadership Award from the New Jersey Public Policy Research Institute in 2003; and the Humanitarian Award from the Health Care Foundation of New Jersey in 2007.

Jacobs, born on November 12, 1957, and raised in Union, New Jersey, earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Livingston College in 1980, and a Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D.) degree from Rutgers University School of Law (Newark) in 1989.

Jacobs, who died March 14, 2009, was survived by her husband of 22 years, Angel M. Perez; children, William, Eli and Kara; her sister, Ellen; her brother, Robert; and her parents, Harold and Betty.

Bottom photo: New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine with Riki Jacobs in 2007.

Thomas F. Daley, honored in 2002 as a Livingston College Distinguished Alumnus, was a district attorney, district judge and appellate judge who served in St. John the Baptist Parish in Louisiana for more than 30 years. He died January 31, 2015, at age 61.

Daley, a 1975 graduate of Livingston College at Rutgers University, had served as the St. John the Baptist District Attorney from 2009 to early 2015. He bowed out of a December 2014 runoff election, citing ill health.

On February 24, 2015, the St. John the Baptist Council renamed U.S. 51 Park as Thomas F. Daley Memorial Park in his honor.

Before serving as District Attorney, Daley was an Appellate Judge in the 5th Circuit Court of Appeal in Louisiana, a position he had held since 1996.

Daley, a native of South Seaville and Neptune, New Jersey, earned his master of laws degree at the University of Virginia and his Juris Doctor (JD) degree from Loyola University. After graduating from Loyola, he remained in the New Orleans area the rest of his life.

Daley served as an Assistant District Attorney for St. John the Baptist Parish, in private practice, and then as State District Court Judge and Chief Judge. Daley was also an adjunct professor at Louisiana State University School of Law, and served on the Louisiana Supreme Court Committees on Judicial Ethics and Legal Internships. 

In 2007 the Louisiana Bar Foundation honored Daley as a Distinguished Jurist.

His additional service to the community included cleanup efforts throughout St. John the Baptist Parish, developing a program to offer job skills training to inmates and after-school tutoring, as well as leadership within his local 4-H Foundation and church.

Daley’s survivors included his wife,  Margaret Mary (Versaggi) Daley; two daughters, Bernadette Daley of LaPlace and Monique Daley of Baton Rouge; five brothers, Steve Daley of Qatar; Joe Daley of Tuckahoe, N.J., Anthony Daley of South Seaville, N.J., John Daley of Amite and Matt Daley of Woodbine, N.J.; five sisters, Terry Budd of Seaville, N.J.; Mary Anne Azzato of Southport, N.C., Chrissie Ternosky of Sea Isle City, N.J., Rosie Daley of Encinitas, Calif., and Kathleen “Tootsie” Daley of Ramsey, N.J.

Daley had lived in LaPlace, Louisiana, at the time of his death. He is buried at St. Elizabeth’s Cemetery in Goshen, New Jersey.

Jazz legend and bassist extraordinaire Larry Ridley in 2013 celebrated his 75th birthday year with a two-part interview on the New Jersey jazz radio station, WBGO 88.3 FM.

Ridley was chairman of the Livingston College music department from 1972 to 1980 and a Rutgers music professor from 1971 to 1999.

Ed Berger’s interview with Ridley aired on consecutive Sundays, March 31 and April 7, 2013, on the program Jazz From the Archives.

Ridley’s stellar career includes associations with jazz luminaries Thelonious Monk, Dexter Gordon, Benny Carter, Lee Morgan, Freddie Hubbard, Horace Silver, Sonny Rollins, Dizzy Gillespie, Jackie McLean, Philly Joe Jones, Roy Haynes, Max Roach, Wes Montgomery, Dinah Washington, Carmen McRae, and many others.

The Livingston Alumni Association honored Ridley in 2011 with the Livingston Legacy Award. The award recognizes faculty and staff who played a key role in the establishment and growth of Livingston College and its mission, and contributions to the overall Rutgers and global communities.  

The 2013 Livingston Legacy Award honoring Roger Cohen, a professor emeritus of journalism at Rutgers University, was presented Wednesday, October 9, 2013, by the Livingston Alumni Association (LAA) of Rutgers University. View his award video on this page or open in a new window.

Cohen joined seven other Livingston College faculty and staff honored since 2009 for their exemplary roles in the establishment and growth of Livingston College and its mission.

Cohen, a professor emeritus of Rutgers’ School of Communication and Information (SC&I),  graduated from Rutgers College in 1965. He was a radio news and sports journalist before joining the Rutgers Radio/Television Center in 1970. He began teaching in Livingston College’s Department of Journalism and Urban Communication on a volunteer basis in 1975. He became a full-time faculty member in 1980.

From 1981 to about 2000, he chaired the Livingston College Faculty Admissions Committee, which reviewed applications from potential students referred by the university’s admissions office.

Cohen was hired to teach radio production and broadcast news writing courses, but taught many others, including the TV/radio survey course and advanced television production. When Rutgers was implementing a campus-wide cable television system, he designed a course that not only examined how TV executives develop and schedule content, but also produced student programming for the RUTV channel.

He ran the department’s internship program for 18 years. This brought him into contact with every student major because the internship was required at the time. As an administrator, he was SC&I’s acting associate dean in 1985. He also served as department chair for seven years, where he oversaw faculty, student, and curriculum growth.

In 2012 Cohen received SC&I’s first annual Journalism and Media Studies Lifetime Achievement Award.

Cohen passed away in 2022 at age 78. Read a remembrance posted on the SC&I website.

A Livingston Alumni Association board member for more than five years, Eric C. Schwarz (LC’92, SCILS ’92,’07) serves as an advocate for Rutgers’ Livingston College and its alumni. 

For his efforts, the Rutgers University Alumni Association (RUAA) honored Schwarz with its Block R Award, part of the Rutgers Excellence in Alumni Leadership Awards presented October 25, 2013, as part of the Alumni Leaders Conference and Homecoming weekend.

Schwarz is 2016-17 president of the LAA and a former secretary and vice president of the organization. He is responsible for maintaining the LAA online presence. Schwarz has maintained the LAA news feeds, website, and Facebook page; manages meeting logistics and communications; and works closely with the executive team to set the group’s direction. Additionally, Schwarz volunteers his time at virtually every LAA event as well as RUAA Homecoming, Reunion, and community service projects.

The Block R Award recognizes service to the alumni body through volunteer involvement in charter organizations, working with university partners in support of Rutgers’ community initiatives, and through other specific volunteer roles.

The other 2013 Block R Award honorees are: Brian Greczyn (SBC’97, ‘00), Cheryl Machleder (RC’02, SMLR’02) and Anik Roy (RBS’01).

Fellow Livingston College graduate Katty Rivera (LC’04, GSE’09) received the Scarlet Oak Meritorious Service Award at the same ceremony.

Read more about all the honorees.

Pictured (top): Eric C. Schwarz (LC’92, SCILS’92,’07), second from left, accepts a 2013 Block R Award at the Rutgers Excellence in Alumni Leadership Awards event, held October 25, 2013. Presenting the award are Donna K. Thornton, Rutgers University Vice President for Alumni Relations; University President Robert L. Barchi; and Maurice Griffin (NLAW’94), chair of the Rutgers University Alumni Association. (RUAA) (Bottom): The 2013 REAL honorees gather for a group photo. Photos courtesy of RUAA.

Originally posted November 22, 2013
Revised January 3, 2021

Harvey M. Schwartz, Chief Executive Officer and member of the board of directors at Carlyle as of 2023, graduated from Rutgers’ Livingston College in 1987. It was an inauspicious time.

Schwartz “learned early in his career about tough times on Wall Street,” Bloomberg News wrote in a 2012 profile of Schwartz. He began his career in 1987 on the trading floor of J.B. Hanauer & Co. shortly before the “Black Monday” stock market crash on October 19, 1987, according to the same profile.

In 2014, Rutgers University named Schwartz, a native of Morris Township, New Jersey, to its Hall of Distinguished Alumni (HDA) in honor of his business successes and generosity to Rutgers.

In 2023, Rutgers Business School bestowed upon Schwartz its Honorary Business Excellence Award. Also as of 2023, he is serving as a member of Rutgers University’s Board of Governors, through 2028.

Schwartz went on to work at First Interregional Equity Corp., Citicorp Securities and Summit Equities before joining the multinational financial services company Goldman Sachs, according to a Business Insider biography. He earned his executive master of business administration degree from Columbia University in 1996.

In 1997 Schwartz joined J. Aron, Goldman Sachs’ currency and commodity trading unit, as a vice president. He rose to Chief Financial Officer (CFO) in 2013, and continued in that role until April 2017.

Starting in 2017, Schwartz and David Solomon both served as President and Co-COO at Goldman Sachs. They succeeded Gary Cohn, who left Goldman Sachs for a position in the first administration of President Donald Trump.

Before assuming the CFO role in 2013, Schwartz was Goldman Sachs’ Global Co-Head of the Securities Division since 2008. From 2007 to early 2008, he was Global Head of Securities Division Sales, from 2005 to 2007 he was Head of North America Sales, and from 2004 to late 2005 he was Co-Head of the Americas Financing Group within Investment Banking. He was named Managing Director in 1999 and Partner in 2002. He is a member of the Goldman Sachs Management Committee and serves as Co-Chair of the firm’s Risk Committee and Finance Committee.

Schwartz received financial aid from Rutgers to complete his bachelor’s degree and dedicates his time and financial support to help support current students in their academic endeavors, according to his Rutgers HDA profile.  Among his many philanthropic efforts, he endowed a $1 million scholarship through Goldman Gives to annually pay tuition and fees for four full-time School of Arts and Sciences undergraduate students.

Schwartz has served on the Rutgers University Foundation’s Board of Overseers and the School of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Advisory Council. He also has served as chair of Rutgers’ Wall Street Leadership Committee, in which he has been a vigorous advocate of student mentoring and recruiting efforts through the Rutgers on Wall Street Initiative. He has championed an effort to provide financial support to students pursuing a career in the finance sector and helps to connect students with alumni executives.

He told Rutgers Magazine in 2014 that he was an indifferent student in high school, but that Rutgers “dramatically changed” him. “Mathematics, with the overlay of social and behavioral dynamics, immediately hooked me,” he said. “It’s where I learned to love learning.” He worked multiple jobs to put himself through college, and as a junior and senior, he served as a resident assistant at Rutgers.

On Saturday, May 3, 2014, the Rutgers University Alumni Association inducted Schwartz and four other alumni into the HDA:

• Joseph G. DiPietro, RC’84, two-time Tony Award-winning playwright and lyricist.
• Sheri McCoy, RBS’88, chief executive officer and director of Avon Products, Inc.
• Daniel C. Reda, Ph.D., ENG’65, GSNB’67, ’69, mechanical engineer and recipient of the NASA Distinguished Service Medal.
• Rosemarie T. Truglio, DC’83, senior vice president of curriculum and content at Sesame Workshop.

Induction into the Rutgers HDA is the highest award Rutgers bestows upon its alumni. The award recognizes alumni who, through their remarkable achievements in professional and civic life, have brought honor to themselves and the university.

Rutgers previously inducted four other Livingston College alumni into the HDA: Avery F. Brooks in 1993, Edward M. Jordan and Clifton R. Lacy in 2004, and Gregory Q. Brown in 2010.

Amy Albert (pictured) has been selected as the recipient of the 2015 Riki Jacobs Livingston Pride Award, given by the Livingston Alumni Association (LAA) of Rutgers University.

Shortly after arriving at Rutgers as a transfer student in 2012, Albert began a journey of community service. Albert, a 2015 graduate of the School of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers University-New Brunswick, set out to effect change, which she has accomplished in many roles including those of student leader, tutor, counselor, and legal services intern.

Among many examples of her service, Albert has worked as a counselor with a hotline for suicidal youth.

Through the Rutgers University Alternative Breaks program, Albert has volunteered an animal refuge in Florida and a no-kill animal sanctuary in Virginia. At the Virginia sanctuary, named Paris Barns, Albert led eight participants “on a life-changing trip … [where] they learned the value of service, organic eating, and that animals aren’t on this earth solely to benefit humans.”

Closer to home, Albert worked with 20 incoming first-year students throughout New Brunswick working with the community at a farmer’s market and gardens.

At Rutgers, Albert has served as a tutor for student athletes and served on the Scarlet Honor Council’s appeals committee for academic integrity cases.

In the legal services community, Albert has tutored women prisoners and also worked on programs related to documentation of domestic violence weapons and to client services.

In her award application essay, Albert wrote: “While I worked to create change here, words cannot describe how Rutgers created change in me. Because of this university, I learned so much about myself and was given opportunities others will never have.”

A theme throughout Albert’s community service has been dispelling stereotypes — about the relationship of humans to animals, about students’ relationship with their community, and about prisons and inmates.

Albert, a resident of Waldwick, New Jersey, maintained a grade-point average at Rutgers and majored in psychology and criminal justice. Among other academic honors, she was named to the dean’s list at both Rutgers and the University of New Haven in Connecticut through her four years of college. In fall 2015 she will enter the University of Virginia Law School.

Albert was honored at the Rutgers Student Life awards, called “The Scarlets,” on Tuesday, May 5, 2015.

The Riki Jacobs Livingston Pride Award is given annually to the Rutgers-New Brunswick graduating senior who most embodies the spirit of Livingston College and its attributes of leadership and social action.

The award is named after Riki Jacobs (1957-2009), a guiding light in the fight against HIV/AIDS in New Jersey for more than 25 years. At the time of her passing, New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine called Jacobs “an articulate and compassionate voice who was highly respected for her efforts to ensure health care access for those living with, infected with, and affected by HIV.”

Photo: Amy Albert accepts the Riki Jacobs Livingston Pride Award from LAA Past President Marty Siederer (left) and LAA President Jason Goldstein, on May 5, 2015.