Peg Cooper holding her award.

It was a full house last week as hundreds gathered for the annual Johns Hopkins Employee Appreciation Service Awards at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. The event honors outstanding team members and recognizes service milestones for staff at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, the Johns Hopkins Health System Corporation, Johns Hopkins Community Physicians and Johns Hopkins Health Plans.

One of the event’s top honorees was Peg Cooper, radiology operations administrator and director of Johns Hopkins Medical Imaging, who was honored with the prestigious Ronald R. Peterson Achievement Award.

The award, named after Johns Hopkins Health System President Emeritus Ronald Peterson, recognizes an exceptional leader at The Johns Hopkins Hospital who has demonstrated extraordinary dedication to the organization and made significant contributions throughout their career.

The awards ceremony opened with remarks from Redonda Miller, president of The Johns Hopkins Hospital, and Kevin Sowers, president of Johns Hopkins Health System and executive vice president of Johns Hopkins Medicine, followed by the presentation of awards. 

Honoree (center) Peg Cooper with (from left) Ronald R. Peterson, Kevin Sowers and Dr. Redonda Miller

Ronald Peterson himself was on hand to bestow the award named in his honor. In his remarks, he noted that this year’s honoree, Peg Cooper, was “widely recognized for her extraordinary leadership, compassion and mentorship.”

Peg started her career as a technologist at Johns Hopkins in 1982 and assumed her first management role in 1998 when she was appointed cardiovascular technologist manager. Rising through the ranks, today she serves as administrator of radiology operations and director of Johns Hopkins Medical Imaging

In his remarks, Ronald lauded Peg not just for her expertise and commitment, but for her work inspiring the next generation of leaders at Johns Hopkins.

“She is a truly treasured mentor who has developed hundreds of leaders,” he said.

As evidence, he pointed to her initiatives like the Future Leaders program, which has offered leadership training to staff for nearly 20 years, and the Golden Egg Award, a recognition program that has honored outstanding department leaders since 2011.

Peg was nominated for the award by Danielle Karavedas, chief administrative officer of radiology. In her nominating letter, Danielle noted Peg’s commitment not only to her staff, but to patients as well.

“Peg is equally invested in our patients,” she said, noting, “she believes that the promise of medicine should be accessible to more patients.”

“For more than 30 years, Peg has demonstrated what it means to live with purpose and demonstrated Johns Hopkins values of excellence every day,” Danielle continued, concluding, “Peg, your commitment to making Johns Hopkins better is remarkable.”

Among those celebrating milestone anniversaries was Cheryl Shoats, director of radiology clinical operations, who marked 25 years.

The ceremony also included the presentation of other employee awards, including the recognition of staff celebrating milestone anniversaries of 10 years or more. Among those recognized from the Department of Radiology were Rosemary Pegg, patient service coordinator, with 52 years of service; Diane Novak, chief MRI imaging tech, with 48 years; and Cheryl Shoats, director of Radiology clinical operations, with 25 years.

Congratulations and kudos to Peg for your exceptional dedication and to all those celebrating milestone service anniversaries this year. Thank you for all your commitment to Johns Hopkins, the Department of Radiology, and to the patients we serve!