2025 Alumni of Distinction Honoree

Rosemary Tiernan, CNR SAS '75
Internist and Infectious Diseases Physician

Rosemary Tiernan graduated from the College of New Rochelle (CNR) in 1975 with a bachelor’s degree in biology and later from Georgetown University School of Medicine and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

She joined the Navy after marrying a medical school classmate who was also a career Naval Officer.  She did her internship, residency, fellowship and practiced medicine in the U.S. Navy Medical Corps for 11 years.  After Naval Service, Rosemary was an assistant professor of Medicine and liaison to the Solid Organ Transplant Teams at Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston and later at University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore. She then combined her interest in Infectious Diseases and Public Health while working at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) focusing on drugs for transplantation, antifungals, global vaccines, streamlining clinical trials and facilitating development of products to address antimicrobial resistance. She represented FDA and participated in international meetings convened by the World Health Organization (WHO) to help build regulatory capacity in developing world countries in Africa, South America and Asia. While at the FDA, she also volunteered in the outpatient HIV clinic at Medstar Washington Hospital Center in DC.

Currently, Rosemary is retired from FDA. She enjoys working as a volunteer physician at Mercy Health Clinic in Gaithersburg, Maryland which primarily serves an uninsured patient population. This is a true reflection of Rosemary’s embodiment of CNR’s motto Serviam or ‘I will serve.’ She also volunteers at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History and Smithsonian American Art Museum/National Portrait Gallery.

Rosemary was the first in her family to attend college, but she is happy to report that her mother, Frances Tiernan, was able to fulfill a lifelong dream of attaining a college degree. Frances graduated from the CNR School of New Resources in 1986.