Lainie Rutkow named interim provost at Johns Hopkins University

Lainie Rutkow—executive vice provost at Johns Hopkins University since 2024, longtime senior administrative leader, and a professor at the university's Bloomberg School of Public Health and School of Advanced International Studies—has been appointed interim provost.

Image caption: Lainie Rutkow

She will assume the position following the departure of Provost Ray Jayawardhana, recently named president of the California Institute of Technology. Jayawardhana will conclude his service as provost mid-February as he begins the transition to his new position.

"A faculty member who brings cross-disciplinary training in law, policy, and public health to her research on a range of national health issues, Lainie has also served in successive leadership roles at our university, and contributed to several major universitywide initiatives, from the Coronavirus Resource Center to the strategic and academic planning for the Hopkins Bloomberg Center," JHU President Ron Daniels wrote in a message to faculty, staff, and students today. "I am deeply appreciative of Lainie's willingness to serve as interim provost during this critical period for Johns Hopkins, and I look forward to working with her and all of you as we continue to advance our mission."

In her current role as executive vice provost, Rutkow has overseen a broad portfolio that includes faculty affairs, student affairs, admissions and financial aid, diversity and inclusion, institutional equity, and student health and well-being. She partnered with Jayawardhana to support a range of shared governance functions at the university, including the Johns Hopkins University Council (JHUC) and the Tenure Advisory Committee (TAC), which strengthened tenure and promotion standards and processes across the university.

Previously, Rutkow served as JHU's vice provost for interdisciplinary initiatives (2022-2023) and led the strategic and academic planning for all aspects of the university's expansion in Washington, D.C., including formation of the operational, financial, and organizational models associated with the development of the Hopkins Bloomberg Center, which opened in the fall of 2023. Alongside these efforts, she played an integral role in the creation of the Johns Hopkins School of Government and Policy, the university's first new academic division since 2007.

Other initiatives launched under her leadership include the Nexus Awards, a $15 million program to support faculty-led research, convening, and teaching at the Hopkins Bloomberg Center; Hopkins Semester D.C., an immersive, semester-long program in which undergraduates live, study, and work in Washington, D.C.; and the Irene and Richard Frary Library, the newest and only D.C.-based branch of the university's Sheridan Libraries network.

From 2019 to 2021, Rutkow served as senior advisor to the president of Johns Hopkins University. An expert in the translation and dissemination of research for policymakers and other audiences, she developed and led the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, an interdisciplinary global resource that TIME recognized as the "go-to data source" for COVID-19 and named one of the Top 100 Inventions of 2020. She also helped lead a university initiative designed to support junior faculty and address some of the specific challenges they faced during the pandemic as they sought to launch their academic careers.