Meredith Stewart named interim vice president for human resources

Meredith Stewart, who joined Johns Hopkins in 2016 as executive director of Total Rewards, has taken on the role of vice president for human resources on an interim basis, Senior Vice President for Finance and Administration Laurent Heller announced in a message to university leadership last week.

Stewart succeeds Jane Schlegel, who had filled the role on an interim basis following Heidi Conway's departure in July. Schlegel, the university's vice president and chief administrative officer since April 2020, retired earlier this month. A search for the university's next vice president for human resources is ongoing.

"I am deeply grateful to Meredith for stepping into this crucial role and being willing to bring her expertise, leadership, and customer-service orientation to bear as we continue to advance the great work happening within the Office of Human Resources," Heller wrote.

In her current role, Stewart is responsible for leading the design, development, and implementation of compensation, benefits, and worklife policies and programs to help ensure that the institution attracts and retains top talent.

Prior to coming to Hopkins, she served as vice president, total rewards, at Algeco Scotsman, a global business services company. In addition, she spent 10 years at T. Rowe Price in compensation and benefits roles of increasing responsibility and was vice president, global compensation and benefits, at the time of her departure.

Stewart began her career as a compensation consultant with Mercer Human Resources Consulting. She earned both a BA and an MBA from the College of William and Mary.

"I am so grateful to Laurent Heller and the leaders of this university for giving me the opportunity to take on the interim vice president for human resources role," Stewart said. "Since I have been at Hopkins, we have been building our capabilities, and we have a very strong team in place today. This made me feel very good about stepping up to lead our organization during this time of transition. The support from colleagues in Human Resources as well as across the university has been amazing, and I look forward to working collaboratively to help move our initiatives forward."