Cheers: January 2016

Cheers is a monthly listing of appointments, promotions, and honors and awards received by faculty and staff. Submissions can be emailed to hubatwork@jhu.edu.

Bloomberg School of Public Health

Adnan Hyder, a professor of international health and director of the Health Systems Program and of the International Injury Research Unit, is one of 23 commissioners serving on the NCDI Poverty Commission, newly established by The Lancet. The commission "aims to rethink global policies, to mend a great disparity in health, and to broaden the current noncommunicable disease agenda in the interest of equity." The commissioners' summary report will be submitted for peer review and publication in The Lancet in 2017.

Mindi Levin, founder and director of the Student Outreach Resource Center, received the Michael A. Jenkins Humanitarian Award for service to the community from Operation P.U.L.S.E., C.U.R.E., and Zion Baptist Church in East Baltimore. SOURCE is the community engagement and service-learning center for the schools of Medicine, Nursing, and Public Health.

Johns Hopkins Medicine

Lisa Cooper, a professor of general internal medicine and director of the Johns Hopkins Center to Eliminate Cardiovascular Health Disparities, has been named vice president for health care equity for Johns Hopkins Medicine. Read more about Cooper's appointment.

Susan Lehmann, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, has been named clinical director for the Division of Geriatric Psychiatry and Neuropsychiatry, responsible for overseeing all the geriatric psychiatry and neuropsychiatry clinical services at both Johns Hopkins Hospital and Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center.

Redonda Miller, an associate professor of medicine, has been appointed to the new position of senior vice president of medical affairs for the Johns Hopkins Health System. In her former position as vice president of medical affairs for Johns Hopkins Hospital, she worked to enhance coordination across the Johns Hopkins Health System, and her new appointment formally recognizes those efforts. She will continue to work with the vice presidents of medical affairs, clinical directors, and medical staff of Hopkins-affiliated medical centers to strengthen their efforts to provide safe, efficient, and cost-effective health care. She also will develop new integration opportunities in areas such as health information management.

Johns Hopkins Medicine International

Kathy DeRuggiero, a 32-year Johns Hopkins Nursing veteran and leader, has been named vice president of patient services for Johns Hopkins Medicine International, after serving for five months as interim vice president. Before this appointment, she was director of nursing for emergency medicine and critical care transport, with responsibility for oversight of emergency services, the adult emergency department, urgent care, and the emergency acute inpatient service. She holds a joint appointment in the School of Nursing.

Cross-disciplinary

In its selections for 100 Notable Books of 2015, The New York Times Book Review included $2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America, co-authored by sociologist and Bloomberg Distinguished Professor Kathryn Edin, of the schools of Arts and Sciences and Public Health.

Multidisciplinary

Four JHU researchers are among 347 new fellows from around the world elected to the American Association for the Advancement of Science. They are Kevin Hemker, a professor of mechanical engineering in the Whiting School of Engineering; Michael Matunis, a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology in the Bloomberg School of Public Health; Alan Scott, a professor of molecular microbiology and immunology in the Bloomberg School; and Beverly Wendland, a professor of biology and dean of the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences. Read more about the four new AAAS fellows.

Karl Alexander, the John Dewey Professor Emeritus of Sociology in the Krieger School; Doris Entwisle, a research professor of sociology who died in 2013; and Linda Olson, a retired associate research scientist in the School of Education's Center for Social Organization of Schools, were honored with the Grawemeyer Award in Education for the book they co-authored, The Long Shadow: Family Background, Disadvantaged Urban Youth, and the Transition to Adulthood. Read more about the researchers, the book, and the Grawemeyer Award in Education.

Peabody Institute

Faculty artist Joe Burgstaller performed in December as host and lead trumpet for the Malaysian Philharmonic's Principal Brass Quintet and as guest principal trumpet for the orchestra itself. He also performed several solo concerts in China with the Qingdao Symphony Orchestra for its New Year's Series. In January, Burgstaller returns to the Water Island Music Festival, curated by pianist and Peabody graduate Julian Gargiulo, and then co-headlines the Trumpet Festival of the Southeast, along with trumpeter Sean Jones, at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Freshman Junhong Kuang, a guitar student of Manuel Barrueco, held a recital in December at Symphony Space in New York. In his first full-length New York concert, the 15-year-old played works by Sanz, Bach, Sor, Giuliani, Castelnuovo-Tedesco, and Albéniz. Kuang won first prize in the Thailand International Guitar Competition in November 2011 and has since given the opening concert at the 23rd International Guitar Symposium in Iserlohn, Germany.

Faculty artist Amit Peled was named one of 30 Professionals of the Year in Musical America's December 2015 Special Report. This year, Musical America asked its readers to nominate "key influencers" who made a difference through criteria such as virtue of position, creativity, and dedication. Read more about Amit Peled.

School of Medicine

Sara Cosgrove, an associate professor in the School of Medicine's Division of Infectious Diseases and in the Bloomberg School of Public Health's Department of Epidemiology and also director of the Antimicrobial Stewardship Program at Johns Hopkins Hospital, has been appointed to the Presidential Advisory Council on Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria. This 15-member group of experts will work together to ensure the continued effectiveness of antibiotics and slow the threat of resistant germs for the future.

Karen Horton, executive vice chair of the Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, will assume the role of interim director of that department when Jonathan Lewin, the Martin Donner Professor and current director, leaves Hopkins to become executive vice president for health affairs at Emory University. The appointment takes effect Feb. 1.

Kenneth Kinzler, Se-Jin Lee, and Bert Vogelstein have been elected to NAI Fellow status in the National Academy of Inventors. Kinzler, a professor of oncology, focuses on the genetics of human cancer, and he and his laboratory have identified a variety of genetic mutations that underlie the disease, including mutations of the APC pathway that appear to initiate the majority of colorectal cancers and IDH1/2 mutations that underlie many gliomas. In addition, they have developed a variety of powerful tools for analysis of expression and genetic alterations in cancer. Lee is a professor of molecular biology and genetics and the Michael and Ann Hankin and Partners of Brown Advisory Professor in Scientific Innovation. He is credited with discovering myostatin, a protein that inhibits muscle growth. The primary interest of Lee's laboratory is to understand the role of signaling molecules in regulating embryonic development and adult tissue homeostasis. Vogelstein is the Clayton Professor of Oncology and Pathology and director of the Ludwig Center for Cancer Genetics and Therapeutics at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center of the School of Medicine. He is interested in identifying and characterizing the genes that cause cancer and the application of this knowledge to the management of patients.

School of Nursing

Diana Baptiste has been promoted to assistant professor on the practice-education track in the Acute and Chronic Care Department. Baptiste has had a 15-year nursing career providing adult care for diverse populations in community, public health, and acute-care settings.

Jacquelyn Campbell, the Anna D. Wolf Professor in the Department of Community-Public Health, is featured in "Confronting Violence, Improving Women's Lives," a display, traveling banner, and online exhibition by the National Library of Medicine. The display will crisscross the United States over the next four years.

Laura Gitlin, director of the Center for Innovative Care in Aging, co-authored the book Behavioral Intervention Research: Designing, Evaluating, and Implementing, released in December. Written with Sara Czaja, of the University of Miami, the book sets out examples of a wide range of interventions affecting individuals across the life span and in diverse communities and health systems. Numerous case examples illustrate the theories behind successful behavioral intervention trials.

Scott Greatorex has been named associate dean for development and alumni relations. He will be responsible for the school's fundraising, alumni relations, and overall development strategy. Greatorex joined the university in 2008 as a major gift officer on the Office of Development and Alumni Relations' Regional and International Programs team and in 2011 was appointed director of development for the Regional Major Gifts Program.

Whiting School of Engineering

Two faculty members in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering have been elected to the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering's College of Fellows. They are Jeffrey Gray, a professor, and Sharon Gerecht, the Kent Gordon Croft Investment Management Faculty Scholar and an associate professor. AIMBE Fellows are nominated by their peers and are considered the most accomplished and distinguished leaders in medical and biological engineering.