RVCC graduates more than 1,200 for 2022, celebrates past classes of 2020 and 2021

BRANCHBURG - Raritan Valley Community College (RVCC) awarded associate degrees and certificates to more than 1,200 graduates at its commencement, held Saturday on the soccer field at the College’s Branchburg campus.

The event also honored 84 graduates from the classes of 2020 and 2021. The two previous classes of graduates were invited to attend because their commencement ceremonies had been held virtually due of the pandemic.

DeAnna Minus-Vincent, executive vice president and chief social justice and accountability officer at RWJBarnabas Health, and Robert P. Wise, who served as chair of RVCC’s Board of Trustees from 2015-2021, both received honorary degrees during the ceremony.

The program featured Rebecca Purnell of Hightstown as the student commencement speaker. Purnell is graduating from RVCC Summa Cum Laude with a degree in liberal arts. She has been an active member of the college community, serving as vice president of the American Sign Language Club and a member of both the Hope Club —where she has helped challenge stigmas surrounding drug addiction — and the Philosophy Club.

Her other activities include conducting advocacy work for students with disabilities at RVCC, volunteering for a California-based human rights organization that supports incarcerated and re-entering citizens and mentoring marginalized youth at Princeton High School. Purnell’s future plans include a career in athletic training.

Carolyn Kinebrew-Bosa of Jersey City, an assistant professor of communication and film studies, delivered the faculty commencement address. A Brooklyn native, Kinebrew-Bosa received a bachelor’s degree from Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Florida and a master’s degree from Boston University. On hiatus as a doctoral student in the cultural anthropology program at CUNY’s Graduate School and University Center in New York, she recently received a screenwriting certificate from The New School.

Drawing from a broad range of lived and learned experiences, Minus-Vincent has tackled the toughest issues plaguing our country today including equity, poverty, housing, health and education. Minus-Vincent has created programs that move individuals along their pathway, but believes that the most sustainable change happens when we work across sectors to re-engineer fractured systems; in so doing we can exponentially impact the lives of many … in so doing we can create change.

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In her role at RWJBarnabas Health, Minus-Vincent works across the system with internal and external stakeholders to co-design strategies that improve health outcomes, promote health equity and eliminate health disparities. Her portfolio includes the system’s housing and community development initiatives as she seeks to fully integrate social factor into the clinical setting through the development and implementation of a system-wide universal social determinants of health (SDOH) screening process, identifies ways to use data and technology to track progress and enhance health outcomes, and serves as the departmental liaison to the departments of communications and development.

Before coming to RWJBarnabas Health, Minus-Vincent served for more than seven years as the chief engagement officer at Benefits Data Trust (BDT), a national social change organization, where she facilitated cross-sector partnerships, diversified the organization’s revenue streams and oversaw the organization’s strategic positioning. Additionally, she has served as the assistant commissioner for the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs, the director of the Office of Institutional Advancement at Stuart Country Day School in Princeton and Director of Planning and Development for the Central Jersey Family Health Consortium in North Brunswick.

Born and raised in Trenton, Minus-Vincent is a native New Jerseyan and lives in Lumberton with her husband Daryl and daughter Darynn. Minus-Vincent received a master of public administration from Rutgers University and a bachelor of arts in sociology from Morgan State University.

A former member of the RVCC Board of Trustees, Wise also served as a vice chair (Hunterdon County) of the Board from 2011 to 2015. A resident of Clinton Township, Wise served as president and CEO of Hunterdon Medical Center from 1990 to 2018. He also served as president of Hunterdon Healthcare System, Hunterdon Healthcare Foundation, Hunterdon Regional Community Health and Midjersey Health Corporation.

Prior to coming to the Medical Center, Wise held administrative positions at Rancocas Hospital (executive director), Albert Einstein Medical Center (vice president), and Kennedy Memorial Hospital (administrator).

A member of the State Employment and Training Commission, Wise is the recipient of the NJHA 2014 Distinguished Service Award and the American College of Healthcare Executives Senior Leader Regent’s Award (2005). He is a former director of the Center for Health Affairs and the Health Research and Education Trust.

He previously served on the Board of Trustees of the New Jersey Hospital Association and is a past chairman of that organization. He was a director on the Board of NJHA HealthPAC, and a member of the NJHA Chairman’s Advisory Committee on Industry Direction and the NJHA Committee on Nominations. He also served on the Board of Directors of VHA Mid-Atlantic, and served as chairman of VHA, East Coast.

Locally, Wise was board chairman of the Hunterdon County Chamber of Commerce. He served as a Board Director of the Rotary Club of Flemington and was a former Director of United Way of Hunterdon County. Wise received the Hunterdon County Business Leader of the Year Award in 2000 and the Distinguished Citizen Award from the Boy Scouts of America in 2001. He received the Elks Distinguished Citizenship Award in 2010. Wise is a founding director of the Hunterdon County Partnership for Health.

Wise has been married to his wife Victoria for 51 years and has three daughters and three grandchildren. He received his undergraduate degree from Boston College and a Master’s of Public Health from the University of Pittsburgh.

RVCC is located at 118 Lamington Road. For more information, go to www.raritanval.edu.

This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: Raritan Valley Community College NJ graduation classes