Vincent Guilamo-Ramos named director of new policy institute at Johns Hopkins School of Nursing

Vincent Guilamo-Ramos, one of contemporary nursing's most respected thought leaders, change agents, and scientists, has been selected as director of The Institute for Policy Solutions at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, a new health policy, research, and practice institute that will be based in Washington, D.C.

"Vincent has a unique mix of clinical and scientific nursing expertise, success engaging policy, media and community stakeholders, and research credibility. He will advance nursing's role in achieving health equity through transformation," says School of Nursing Dean Sarah Szanton. "His transformative vision and passion for changemaking is exactly the kind of leadership we need to ensure the school's new policy institute delivers on its aim to reimagine the U.S. healthcare system."

Guilamo-Ramos was previously dean of the Duke University School of Nursing, where he also served as Bessie Baker Distinguished Professor and Vice Chancellor for Nursing Affairs. There, he realigned the school's mission and strategic plan to advance health equity and social justice. During his tenure at Duke, he infused a mission-driven approach to ending health inequities through consolidation and improvements to the nursing school's research infrastructure, curriculum development, recruitment of new faculty and leadership, and expansion of partnerships with organizations and funders that share his vision for health equity. In his own work as a health equity expert, Guilamo-Ramos founded the Center for Latino Adolescent and Family Health (CLAFH) at Duke. He led the development of the CLAFH Framework for Harmful Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) Mitigation, an innovative roadmap for educators, practitioners, researchers, policymakers, and other stakeholders designing programs to mitigate harmful SDOH. The framework has been described in peer-reviewed articles published in The Milbank Quarterly, Nature Medicine, Nursing Outlook, and The Lancet HIV, and can be interactively explored by visiting www.DUSONtrailblazer.com.

"Increasingly, I have felt compelled to expand my role in our nation's quest for health equity and social justice by more intensely focusing on developing policy and broader programmatic evidence that can achieve meaningful improvements in health care access, outcomes, and costs," Guilamo-Ramos says. "Given the urgent need to reimagine how and by whom health care is delivered, I believe a shift to policymaking in our nation's capital is the optimal progression of my career and where I can have the greatest impact."

Prior to his appointment at the Duke University School of Nursing, Guilamo-Ramos held numerous faculty and administrative appointments at both New York University and Columbia University. While at NYU, Guilamo-Ramos served as Pilot Projects and Mentoring Core director of a NIDA-funded P30 center and as associate vice provost for Mentoring and Outreach Programs, a role in which he developed a universitywide mentoring infrastructure for the advancement of early career faculty with particular emphasis on underrepresented faculty.

Guilamo-Ramos is a nurse practitioner dually licensed in adult health and psychiatric-mental health nursing. His research examines the role of families in promoting adolescent and young adult health with a focus on mitigating the mechanisms through which harmful SDOH shape health inequities. Guilamo-Ramos' research has been federally funded for over two decades by the National Institutes of Health and various other extramural agencies. He has published over 100 manuscripts in leading peer-reviewed scientific and health journals including The Lancet Infectious Diseases, JAMA Pediatrics, Pediatrics, and the American Journal of Public Health. His work has been featured by national media outlets including CNN, NPR, The New York Times, Newsweek, and The Guardian.

Guilamo-Ramos serves as a member of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, the HHS Panel on Antiretroviral Guidelines for Adults and Adolescents, the CDC/HRSA Advisory Committee on HIV, Viral Hepatitis and STD Prevention and Treatment, and on the boards of the Power to Decide, Latino Commission on AIDS, and HIV Medicine Association. Guilamo-Ramos was most recently appointed to the UnidosUS Board of Directors, and he currently serves on the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) Committee on Unequal Treatment Revisited: The Current State of Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Healthcare. Previously, he served on the NASEM committee on Prevention and Control of Sexually Transmitted Infections in the United States. Guilamo-Ramos is a fellow of both the American Academy of Nursing and the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare, an Aspen Health Innovators Fellow, and a Presidential Leadership Scholar.

"I am ecstatic to welcome the leadership of Dr. Guilamo-Ramos. We have a big vision to transform the way the world sees nursing. He will lead this vision. Nurses will be seen as the thought leaders we are. Nursing will no longer be a necessary 'cost' but a valued asset and thought partner across health systems and communities," says Szanton. "Dr. Guilamo-Ramos will further our influence among the nation's top policymakers and problem solvers, while positioning nurses as strategic experts and change agents of health."

Guilamo-Ramos' appointment takes effect Jan. 2.