, MD

Sara Cuccurullo MD, Professor and Chairman, Residency Program Director, Rutgers-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine, Medical Director and VP, JFK Johnson Rehabilitation Institute, Physician-in-Chief Rehabilitation Services HMH 

Dr. Cuccurullo received her medical degree from SUNY Downstate in 1987 and completed her residency in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R) at Rutgers-RWJ/JFK Johnson Rehabilitation Institute (JRI). She was board certified in 1992.

She joined the staff of JFK Johnson Rehabilitation Institute in 1991 and served as the Residency Program Director (PD) since 1998. She has taught the PM&R Board Review Course since 1991. Dr. Cuccurullo is Editor-in-Chief and published the fourth edition of The PM&R Board Review Textbook in 2019. The royalties are donated to the JFK Johnson PM&R Residency-Education-Fund. She has received the Teacher-of-the-Year Award six times and the RWJ Faculty Award multiple times. In addition, she received multiple awards including: the Distinguished Alumni Award, the 2018 AAP Outstanding Service Award, the 2019 AAPM&R Distinguished Member Award and in October 2019 was named as a NJ Top Health Care Influencer.

She has served as Past President of the National Residency and Fellowship Program Director Council and is currently President of the National Chair Council. She serves as a Board member of the AAP (Association of Academic Physiatrists) and was appointed AAP Co-Chair of the Women in Academic Physiatry Task Force. She authored 40 book chapters, 30 peer reviewed articles and over 130 abstracts. She developed a residency competency model and published seven peer reviewed papers on this model. She was appointed Chair of Rutgers-RWJ Medical School and the Medical Director/VP for JFK Johnson Rehabilitation Institute in February 2014. Her clinical research is focused on Rehabilitation of Stroke patients utilizing cardiovascular conditioning at the JFK Johnson Stroke Recovery Program. The research includes the Stroke-HEARTTM Trials and the upcoming Stroke Recovery Program CROSS (Cardiac Rehabilitation of Stroke Survivors) trials. Dr. Cuccurullo is a principle investigator on these projects and has been invited both nationally and internationally to present this published research. She is also a member of the NY NJ Covid Consortium and conducts research on the best practices utilized during the Covid Pandemic and Clinical Outcomes. She worked to initiate the Covid Rehabilitation Program both Inpatient and Outpatient in 2020 to care for the rehabilitation needs of patients with Covid 19. She has shared these Best practices with multiple National Rehabilitation Organizations through Grand rounds and other National Conferences.

In March 2018 Dr. Cuccurullo was appointed Chair at Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine and Physician-in-Chief of Rehabilitation Care Transformation Services of Hackensack Meridian Health Network.