Joel S. Bloom, an alumnus and former research director and instructor at Teachers College, has been named president of the New Jersey Institute of Technology after serving for two months as its interim leader. He will head the 9,500-student university in Newark through June, 2014, after serving as interim president following the September 28 resignation announcement of former president Robert A. Altenkirch.

A statement from the university said Bloom, 64, is “ideally suited to take on this leadership role” during the university’s upcoming $150 million “NJ Next” fundraising campaign, calling him “passionate about the university and its students as their education in the sciences, engineering, technology, design and management transforms their future and that of their families.”

Bloom has had a significant impact in more than 20 years of service at NJIT. He served as vice president for academic and student services as well as the founding dean of the Albert Dorman Honors College, where he led a successful effort to raise $23 million for honors scholarships and leads the development of a residential honors program. During his tenure, University enrollment rose by 25 percent and by 70 percent at the Honors College.

Bloom has built multiple joint programs with regional medical, dental and law schools, and with the Newark Public Schools. The university has signed agreements with New Jersey’s high-tech high schools and 19 county colleges; and accelerated joint admission agreements exist with UMDNJ Medical and Dental Schools, St. George’s Medical School, the State University of New York School of Optometry and Seton Hall Law School.

In Newark, Bloom helped develop Science Park High School and built multiple programs in the Newark Public Schools system, most recently with the city’s new Central High School. “My leadership style is inclusive," Bloom told the Star-Ledger of Newark. "It’s transparent. It’s accountable.”

Bloom holds master’s and doctoral degrees in Educational Administration from TC, conferred in 1975 and 1978, respectively. He also earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Hunter College, City University of New York and served as a teacher and a school administrator in New York City Public Schools.

From 1984 through 1990, Bloom served as assistant commissioner in the New Jersey Department of Education for the Division of General Academic Education , where he managed the department's initiatives on competency testing, curriculum content standards, pre-school programs and establishment of 17 model effective schools. On the national front, Bloom served as vice chair of the board for Community and Schools, a national dropout prevention program serving Newark and other urban school districts and managed state and federally funded curriculum development and training centers.

Published Thursday, Jan. 12, 2012