Current Position and Past Experience
Since 2013, Richard Novak has served as the Vice President for Continuing Studies and Distance Learning at Rutgers University. Novak held the post of Associate Vice President for Continuing Studies and Distance Learning at Rutgers since 1991. He has also served as an adjunct graduate faculty member for the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations as well as in the university’s Graduate School of Education. Novak has also held the role of Director of Special Projects in Rutgers Office of Academic Affairs since 2009. He established and directs the Center for Online & Hybrid Learning and Instructional Technologies (COHLIT) at Rutgers.

Novak was the President of the University Professional Continuing Education Association (UPCEA) in 2007-2008. He served as the Regional Chair for the Mid-Atlantic Region of UPCEA in 2002-2003. He served as a member of the Board of Directors for UPCEA from 2003-2009.

Education, Honors and Achievements
Novak was the 2011 recipient of Pearson Education’s Excellence in Online Administration award.

Novak was the 2004 recipient of the UPCEA’s Walton S. Bittner Award for Imaginative Leadership in the Advancement of Continuing Education and Distinguished Service to the Association. He received the Outstanding Leadership Award from the Mid-Atlantic Region of UPCEA in 2003. He was a member of Leadership New Jersey’s Class of 1999.

Novak earned his B.A. from the Rutgers University. He has earned two M.A.’s, the first in Christian Education from Princeton Theological Seminary and the second from the Maryknoll School of Theology. In 1992, Novak earned his Ed. D from Rutgers University in Adult and Continuing Education, and received the Excellence in Dissertation Award for this work from the Graduate School of Education Alumni Association.

Personal Details and Community Involvement
Novak serves a member of the Board of Trustees for Lutheran HealthCare system, a unique and comprehensive $4B network of medical and social services centered in Brooklyn, NY but extending through all 5 boroughs of New York. He has also served on several accreditation evaluation teams for the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, and 12 years as an elected Board of Education member for a medium-sized public education school district in NJ. Novak lives with his wife, Ann, in their own “slice of heaven” just outside of Princeton, NJ.

Connect
Visit the Rutgers Center for Online & Hybrid Learning and Instructional Technologies.