Hackensack Meridian Health Announces Two New Board Positions
January 28, 2021-Hackensack Meridian Health, New Jersey’s largest and most comprehensive health network, is pleased to announce two new board positions. Rosemarie J. Sorce is the first female chair of the Hackensack Meridian Health Hospitals Corporation Board and John E. Harmon, Sr., IOM is a member of the Hackensack Meridian Health Board of Trustees.
“We are delighted that Ro Sorce has assumed this new leadership role, after decades of dedicated service, and I am pleased to welcome John Harmon as a new member of our Board of Trustees,” said Robert C. Garrett, FACHE, CEO of Hackensack Meridian Health. “We value their expertise and insight and we are grateful for their leadership.”
Rosemarie J. Sorce has served as vice chair of the Hackensack Meridian Health Hospitals Corporation Board, as a member of the board’s Executive Committee, and the Hackensack Meridian Health Board of Trustees Care Transformation Committee. She is a member of the Hackensack University Medical Center Foundation Board of Trustees and its Special Events Committee. She chairs the advisory board of the Joseph M. Sanzari Children’s Hospital and the K. Hovnanian Children’s Hospital, affiliates of Hackensack Meridian Health. She previously served as first vice chair of the Hackensack University Medical Center Board of Governors, vice chair of the Institutional Review Board, a member of the Hackensack University Medical Center’s ACO Board of Managers, and she chaired the Pastoral Care Department. Mrs. Sorce is an Auxilian at Hackensack University Medical Center and was honored by the Auxiliary’s Ways and Means Branch. The Rosemarie J. Sorce Endowed Chair in Innovation at Hackensack Meridian Health honors lifetime achievements in medicine.
Mrs. Sorce previously served as a housing commissioner in Hackensack, NJ, a contributor to Outreach Angels, which helped families of New Jersey residents with AIDS and HIV, and she was honored by the Herbert and Sylvia Woods Education Scholarship Benefit program in Harlem. She has worked as a counselor for the Hackensack Police and Fire Departments’ Youth Academy Week and served as a Confirmation teacher at two churches. She has donated her time to the Special Olympics and the Theatre Development Fund’s night on Broadway for underserved children. Mrs. Sorce has been honored for leadership and service with a United Hospital Fund Distinguished Trustee Award, an NJBIZ Healthcare Heroes Volunteer of the Year Award, the President’s Call to Service Award for Lifetime Achievement, and the NJ Fifth Congressional District Hometown Hero Award. She received the Hackensack Chamber of Commerce Distinguished Citizen Award and the Friends for Life Humanitarian of the Year for her charitable contributions to people with AIDS. In 2020, she marked 20 years as a volunteer for Hackensack University Medical Center, logging more than 19,000 volunteer hours.
John E. Harmon, Sr., IOM is a board member and former chairman of the board for the National Black Chamber of Commerce, with 150 affiliate chapters and more than 15 international affiliates. Mr. Harmon was recently appointed to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors and the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia’s Economic Community Advisory Council. He is a board member of the Digital Place Based Advertising Association and a member of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Committee of 100. He is also the founder and chairman of the New York State Black Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Harmon is a board member of the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce, New Jersey BPU, Supplier Diversity Development Council, Opportunity New Jersey, chairman of Crime Stoppers of Greater Trenton, and a former board member of the American Chamber of Commerce Executives, First Book, Minding Our Business, a youth entrepreneurial initiative in affiliation with Rider University.
Prior to his 23-year career as a chamber executive, Mr. Harmon was previously employed at the Bowery Savings Bank in New York City where he managed the Residential Real Estate Department overseeing major mortgage loan transactions; and at Chemical Bank where he managed third party loan originations for New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. While at Chemical Bank, Mr. Harmon established The Affordable Housing Loan Program. After his banking career, Mr. Harmon founded a transportation company, Harmon Transfer, Corp., which transported dry goods, perishable commodities, and produce throughout the northeastern United States and Canada. Mr. Harmon was recently recognized by Return on Information-New Jersey (ROI-NJ), as the Number 1 Person of Color in New Jersey and was recognized in South Jersey Journal’s list of the Twenty-five Most Influential African Americans in New Jersey for the third consecutive year. He was chosen among the ROI-NJ 2018 Power List of Influencers, the NJBIZ 2018 Power 100 list, recognized as a Center of Influence for the U.S. Army, and recently selected as a participant in the Joint Civilian Orientation Conference hosted by the Secretary of Defense.
