Seven Johns Hopkins University scholars have been elected to the National Academy of Medicine—four from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and three from the School of Medicine.
Included among this year's 100-member class are biostatistician Karen Bandeen-Roche, health equity expert Deidra Crews, ophthalmologist Justin Hanes, public health preparedness specialist Tom Inglesby, health equity expert Keshia Pollack Porter, trauma surgeon Joseph Sakran, and gun policy expert Daniel Webster.
Membership in the National Academy of Medicine, considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine, recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievements and commitment to service. The announcement was made during the NAM's annual meeting in Washington, D.C., on Monday, Oct. 9.
Since the NAM's founding in 1970, the work and recommendations of its members have shaped health research, practice, and policies that improve health and health outcomes worldwide.
New members are elected by current members through a selective process that recognizes people who have made major contributions to the advancement of the medical sciences, health care, and public health. The NAM currently has more than 2,000 members.
More on this year's National Academy of Medicine electees from Johns Hopkins:
Karen Bandeen-Roche is a professor in the Bloomberg School's Department of Biostatistics, which she chaired from December 2008 to June 2023. She deploys statistical reasoning to find ways to lengthen healthy life and increase independence for older adults. She also serves as director of the Johns Hopkins Alzheimer's Disease Research Center Data Management and Statistics Core and the Epidemiology and Biostatistics of Aging Training Program; co-director of the Johns Hopkins Older Americans Independence Center; and a deputy director of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Clinical and Translational Research. Her current research projects include determining causes and treatments for frailty—and its converse, resilience to stressors—in older adults; developing measures of structural racism; and quantifying associations of community determinants with health. Bandeen-Roche has joint appointments at the Johns Hopkins University schools of Medicine and Nursing.
Deidra Candice Crews is a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Nephrology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She holds faculty appointments with the School of Nursing, the Welch Center for Prevention, Epidemiology and Clinical Research, the Center on Aging and Health, and the Center for Health Equity, where she is Deputy Director. Her research program aims to advance equity in kidney disease and hypertension outcomes by focusing on social drivers of health inequities. She was recognized by the National Academy of Medicine for her work in advancing equity and the social epidemiology of kidney disease. She has elucidated root causes of the disproportionate kidney disease burden among socially marginalized populations; used interventions to address social and behavioral risk factors for adverse outcomes; and informed guidelines for optimizing care for people with kidney failure. Crews joined the Johns Hopkins faculty in 2009.
Justin Hanes is the the Lewis J. Ort Professor, and Director of the Center for Nanomedicine, at the Wilmer Eye Institute of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, with joint appointments as professor of biomedical engineering, chemical & biomolecular engineering, neurosurgery, oncology, and pharmacology & molecular sciences. Hanes's research focuses on the convergence of science, engineering and medicine to catalyze the discovery of new technologies that make drug and gene therapies more effective and less toxic. He was recognized by the National Academy of Medicine for his pioneering work in the creation of effective new drug delivery technologies, especially those for diseases that affect the eyes, brain and mucosal tissues like those of the lungs; his discoveries have resulted in FDA-approved drugs expected to help millions of people. Hanes joined the Johns Hopkins faculty in 1998.
Tom Inglesby is the director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and a professor in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering, which spans the Bloomberg School and Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering. His work focuses on public health preparedness, pandemics, emerging infectious diseases, and biological threat prevention and response. Inglesby was senior policy adviser for the White House (2021–2022), where he was the national coordinator for COVID testing. Previously he worked as senior advisor on COVID for the Office of Health and Human Services Secretary (2020–2021). Inglesby is the current chair of the Technical Advisory Group for the Health Security Interface program at the World Health Organization. He was the chair of the Board of Scientific Counselors, Center for Preparedness and Response at Center for Disease Control and Prevention (2010–19) and has testified before the U.S. Congress. He has authored or co-authored more than 170 peer-reviewed publications on health security and epidemic preparedness.
Keshia Pollack Porter is a Bloomberg Centennial Professor and the Bloomberg Centennial Chair in the Bloomberg School's Department of Health Policy and Management. Her work advances health equity and policy change that promotes safe and healthy environments. Pollack Porter is an advocate for evidence-informed policies that address structural drivers of health using tools such as health impact assessments that help decision makers and practitioners evaluate the potential health effects of a plan, project, or policy, before being adopted or implemented. Collaborating across sectors, including urban planning, housing, education, transportation, and criminal justice, is central to her work. She has published widely on policies and practices that promote inclusive and safe built environments to expand opportunities for outdoor play, walking and bicycling, and other physical activity.
Joseph Sakran is a trauma surgeon and associate professor of surgery and nursing at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He is also currently executive vice chair of Surgery and director of Clinical Operations at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. Sakran is recognized by the National Academy of Medicine For being a nationally recognized trauma surgeon whose innovative work and exceptional leadership in firearm injury prevention has been most instrumental in establishing the urgency and intellectual foundation to drive research and evidence-based policy change at the local, state, and federal level.
Daniel Webster is Bloomberg Professor of American Health in the Bloomberg School's Department of Health Policy and Management and Distinguished Research Scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions. Webster has published widely on the impacts of gun policies on firearm-related homicides, suicides, and gun trafficking, and has led studies of community violence intervention programs and intimate partner violence. He is the lead editor and a contributor to Reducing Gun Violence in America: Informing Policy with Evidence and Analysis (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013) and a member of the Council on Criminal Justice's Working Group on Violent Crime. He developed and teaches what is thought to be the first course on violence prevention in a school of public health. Webster's research has informed policies to reduce gun violence at the local, state, and federal level.
