Maria Peralta, MBA

Chief Financial Officer

Newark

ACK 350

(973) 353-5397

  • Finance

Leveraging her long career of financial management expertise in academic settings, Maria Peralta currently serves as the Chief Financial Officer at the Rutgers School of Nursing.

Ms. Peralta led the critical and complex integration of financial operations when, in 2014, the Rutgers College of Nursing merged with most units of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and she became CFO for the combined institution designated as the Rutgers School of Nursing. Ms. Peralta had been the Business Administrator for the UMDNJ School of Nursing since 1999.

The integration of the two institutions posed tremendous challenges as it involved multiple labor unions, two separate payroll, finance and student billing system, and different business processes for budgeting, financial reporting, and grant management. Ms. Peralta successfully led the two institutions’ staffs as they crafted new, integrated systems and processes that would provide efficient and effective financial services to support academic, research, and clinical missions. The merged systems served approximately 1,700 students, along with 200 faculty and 400 staff members.

In 2016, when Rutgers University rolled out its new cloud-based finance system for budget planning, human resources/payroll, expense management, procurement and grant and contract accounting, Ms. Peralta represented the School of Nursing on the system advisory board.  She successfully led the School of Nursing Finance Department through system implementation that resulted in smooth transition of finance operations and assured that finance and administrative staff received adequate training to use the new system. 

In her current role, Ms. Peralta is charged with leading the Finance Office to provide financial guidance on University policy and procedures while managing the School’s financial resources.  She has built a strong finance team overseeing financial planning and operations, monitoring revenues and expenses to ensure financial health, working with department heads to develop budgets, attesting to the accuracy of financial statements and consulting with senior administration on financial strategies for short term or long-term plans for program expansion.

Prior to the 2014 merger, Ms. Peralta had been with UMDNJ since 1982 in several financial management positions, rising to become Accounting Manager in the Controller’s Office before being named Business Administrator at the School of Nursing in 1999.

Ms. Peralta holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from National Chengchi University in Taiwan, Republic of China, and a master’s degree in business administration from Seton Hall University in New Jersey.

Duties of the Chief Financial Officer (CFO):

  1. Leads the Finance Office to provide financial support services for effective and efficient operations of the School’s financial affairs and business related activities.
  2. Plans, implements and oversees financial activities in areas of budget development and submission, internal control and approval, accounting and financial reporting, financial analysis and auditing, student billing and tuition forecast and other business related activities.
  3. Directs and oversees the monthly financial statement review and quarterly financial projections.  Provides analysis and commentary explanations on budgetary variance to ensure financial solvency of the School.
  4. Oversees the post award management and administration of grants and contracts, gifts, endowments, restricted and unrestricted projects relating to research and other sponsored programs.
  5. Liaison with the University Central EOF Office and the SON EOF program administrator provides oversight of financial review and reporting functions to ensure proper spending of EOF fund adhering to funding agency guidelines and proper mandatory matching support from the School.