Five Johns Hopkins faculty members elected to National Academy of Medicine

Five Johns Hopkins University faculty members have been elected to the National Academy of Medicine, an independent organization of leading professionals in health-related disciplines. It serves alongside the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering as a nonpartisan advisor for policymakers and the public.

Founded in 1970, NAM addresses critical health and medicine issues both domestically and abroad. Membership is considered one of the highest honors in health and medicine.

The announcement of the 100 new members was made today as part of the academy's annual meeting. The five elected from Johns Hopkins are mental health expert Pamela Collins, biostatistician Elizabeth A. Stuart, neurologist Charlotte J. Sumner, cancer researcher Victor E. Velculescu, and Indigenous health researcher Donald Warne.

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.

More on the new members from Johns Hopkins:

Pamela Collins is chair of the Department of Mental Health and director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Global Mental Health at the School of Public Health. She works at the intersections of global mental health, HIV care, and urban health for adolescents and adults. Her current projects integrate psychosocial interventions into routine HIV care for adolescents living with HIV and into community-based care with faith-based providers in sub-Saharan Africa, and she explores urban responses to youth mental health needs in the U.S. Through leadership at the National Institute of Mental Health, she launched research initiatives to build the evidence base for integration of mental health interventions into HIV care, primary care, maternal health services, and chronic disease care in low- and middle-income countries. Collins is a scientific adviser to PEPFAR, the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief program, and has served on the National Advisory Mental Health Council. She is a co-director of the Johns Hopkins-Emory University Center for HIV and Mental Health Stigma Elimination Strategies. She has a joint appointment at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

Elizabeth A. Stuart is chair of the Bloomberg School's Department of Biostatistics. She develops and uses statistical methods to help learn about the effects of public health programs and policies, with applications across public health, including mental health, substance use, and violence prevention. Her current research projects include developing approaches for personalized public health using multiple data sources, designing methods for assessing and enhancing the generalizability of randomized trial results to target populations, and partnering in collaborations estimating the effects of state policies. Since 2021, Stuart has been recognized on the annual Clarivate Highly Cited Researchers lists of scholars whose papers rank in the top 1% for citations in their field, and she was part of the team that won the 2025 Outstanding Statistical Application Award from the American Statistical Association for work estimating the effects of abortion restrictions in the U.S. Stuart has joint appointments at the Bloomberg School's departments of Health Policy and Management and Mental Health. She previously served as executive vice dean for education at the Bloomberg School.

Charlotte J. Sumner is a professor in the departments of Neurology, Neuroscience, and Genetic Medicine at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. She has made seminal discoveries in genetic causes, pathophysiology, and drug targets for neuromuscular diseases, leading to three approved DNA and RNA therapeutics for spinal muscular atrophy and emerging treatment for TRPV4 channelopathies. Her advocacy for these neglected diseases has transformed the lives of affected children and their families. She co-directs the Johns Hopkins Muscular Dystrophy Association Care Center, the Spinal Muscular Atrophy, and the Charcot-Marie-Tooth clinics, which deliver multidisciplinary clinical care, engage in international natural history studies, and provide cutting edge therapeutics. She also serves as an adviser to multiple nonprofit foundations, government, and private companies for spinal muscular atrophy, Charcot-Marie-Tooth, and peripheral neuropathy.

Victor E. Velculescu is a professor of oncology, pathology, medicine, and genetic medicine at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins. He also serves as the co-director of Cancer Genetics and Epigenetics Program at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center. He has made pioneering contributions to cancer research involving the discovery of genomic alterations in cancer and for developing non-invasive cancer detection technologies, including the first genome-wide sequence analysis in human cancer, which have contributed to the identification of cancer-related genes and pathways involved in tumorigenesis and individualized approaches for early cancer detection and diagnosis. He has served as a member of the board of directors of the American Association of Cancer Research, as a co-leader of the Stand Up to Cancer Early Detection of Colorectal Cancer Dream Team, and as a member of scientific advisory boards of Dana Farber / Harvard Cancer Center, Cancer Research UK, Tisch Cancer Center at Mount Sinai, Ludwig Cancer Research, the Mark Foundation for Cancer Research, and the White House Cancer Moonshot effort.

Donald Warne, (Oglala Lakota), serves as co-director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Indigenous Health and is a professor at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, where he also served as Provost Fellow for Indigenous Health Policy. A leading physician and one of the world's foremost scholars in Indigenous health, education, policy, and equity, Warne recently led the development of new Doctor of Public Health and Master of Public Health Indigenous Health concentrations at the Bloomberg School, both launching in the 2026-2027 academic year. His current research includes chronic disease prevention, and advancing health equity through community-driven, culturally grounded approaches. An enrolled member of the Oglala Lakota Tribe from Pine Ridge, South Dakota, Warne comes from a long line of traditional healers and medicine men. He also serves as senior policy adviser to the Great Plains Tribal Leaders Health Board. Warne's career spans clinical care, policy, and academia; highlights include his roles as founding chair of the departments of Public Health and Indigenous Health at North Dakota State University and University of North Dakota.