WEST LONG BRANCH – Monmouth University announced that former New Jersey Gov. James J. Florio will be the 2014-2015 Public Servant-in-Residence.
Florio will give select lectures on U.S. health care policy and U.S. energy policy and participate in public events on campus during the fall and spring semesters.
Former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman served in the role last year, and former New Jersey Gov. Brendan T. Byrne served in the position in 2011-2012.
“Gov. Florio’s expertise in public policy and the law is remarkable and his commitment to public service is admired nationally,” Monmouth University President Paul R. Brown said. “Our students and faculty will benefit tremendously from his role on campus throughout the academic year.”
Florio served as New Jersey’s 49th governor from 1990 through 1994. During his term he signed into law the Clean Water Enforcement Act (1990), the nation’s strongest assault weapons ban, and helped to enact cutting edge law in the areas of education, health care, and welfare reform.
He also served in the House of Representatives from 1974 through 1990. As a member of Congress, he drafted the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, better known as the “Superfund Program” that is responsible for cleaning up some of the nation’s most hazardous waste sites, many in New Jersey.
Florio attended Erasmus High School in Brooklyn before earning an undergraduate degree from The College of New Jersey (then Trenton State College) and a law degree from Rutgers School of Law-Camden. He also served in the U.S. Navy from 1955 through 1958 and later rose to the rank of lieutenant commander as a reservist.
He was also an amateur boxer and brought that fighting spirit to battle for the public good and against political corruption. Florio’s work helped to earn him the prestigious Profiles in Courage Award from the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation in 1993. He will be inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame in November 2014, and now serves as founding partner of the law firm of Florio, Perrucci, Steinhardt & Fader, L.L.C. with corporate offices in Phillipsburg.
The Public Servant-in-Residence program, coordinated by the Office of Global Initiatives and the Department of Political Science and Sociology, was created in 2000 to provide a venue for public officials to share their expertise with students and the campus community at Monmouth University.
Florio was the featured Constitution Day speaker on Wednesday, Sept.17 at the university.
