Deborah J. Baker, D.N.P., AG-ACNP, NEA-BC, F.A.A.N.
Senior Vice President for Nursing and Chief Nurse Executive, Johns Hopkins Health System
Dr. Deborah Baker is the senior vice president for nursing and chief nurse executive for the Johns Hopkins Health System (JHHS). As the health system’s first senior vice president for nursing, Dr. Baker partners with chief nursing officers and leaders at JHHS hospitals and outpatient care settings to ensure integration of services and alignment with the health system’s strategic goals and objectives.
She is responsible for enhancing a clinical practice environment that is patient centered, with unsurpassed clinical quality and patient safety, while also supporting nursing’s contributions to education and research and ensuring nursing practice at the highest scope of licensure. In partnership with JHHS nursing leaders, Dr. Baker has helped develop a systemwide Nursing Professional Practice Governance Model, strengthening alignment in nursing practice and professional governance across JHHS, where all six hospitals have achieved Magnet designation.
She joined the staff of The Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1992 as a clinical nurse in the Department of Surgery. Prior to assuming nursing leadership roles, Dr. Baker practiced as an acute care nurse practitioner in the divisions of trauma and surgical oncology in the Department of Surgery. She later held a number of nursing leadership positions at Johns Hopkins Medicine, including director of nursing for the Department of Surgery. In 2016, she was appointed senior vice president for nursing for the Johns Hopkins Health System and vice president of nursing and patient care services and chief nursing officer for The Johns Hopkins Hospital. She served in these dual roles until 2025, when she transitioned to focus solely on her health system leadership role.
Dr. Baker serves as associate dean for Health Systems Partnership and Innovation and as D.N.P. faculty at the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing, where she earned her bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in nursing. She is also a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing.