Special Advisor to the President of Johns Hopkins Health System (JHHS)

Richard G. Bennett, M.D., came to Johns Hopkins in 1978, arriving on campus as a medical student. After graduating from medical school, he began an internship at what was then Baltimore City Hospitals (now Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center). Dr. Bennett served as president of Johns Hopkins Bayview from 2009-2022. His career at Johns Hopkins has included work as a clinician, researcher and educator in Geriatric Medicine.

A Baltimore native, Dr. Bennett received his bachelor’s degree in chemistry and economics from Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. Influenced by his family’s ownership of a small nursing home business, after completing his residency at the hospital, he pursued a fellowship in geriatric medicine and gerontology at Hopkins. With the National Institute on Aging located on Johns Hopkins Bayview’s campus, he had ready access to world-class experts and resources to support his pursuits in the field. With a focus on the research leg of our tripartite mission, from 1990–2002, he served as a guest researcher at the National Institute on Aging’s Laboratory of Clinical Immunology.

With experience gained as the executive medical director of the Johns Hopkins Geriatrics Center, in 1994, he was named Johns Hopkins Bayview’s director for long-term care. Thus, he began his rise through the leadership ranks at Johns Hopkins Bayview. In tandem, he also continued to teach, and served as the principal investigator for the geriatrics NIH T-32 training grant. Through the years, he would work his way up the ladder from instructor to being named the Raymond and Anna Lublin Professor in Geriatric Medicine in the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. As his career evolved, he took on many roles, including several with Johns Hopkins HealthCare. He first served as associate medical director before becoming medical director and then chief medical officer. These experiences positioned him to return to Johns Hopkins Bayview in 2003 as the vice president of medical affairs. There, he became senior vice president before taking on the post of executive vice president and chief operating officer. Then, in 2009, he was appointed president.

Dr. Bennett has been a part of the leadership team on the campus for almost 30 years. Since the mid-1990s, he has worked with hospital and faculty leaders to transform Johns Hopkins Bayview’s physical and academic environment.