Who/What

Date: June 5, 2014

Associate Dean Appointment

Cynthia Rand, Ph.D., professor of medicine and psychiatry, has been appointed associate dean for faculty of Johns Hopkins Medicine. A member of the faculty since 1985, Rand will assist Janice Clements, Ph.D., vice dean for faculty, in addressing overall faculty issues throughout Johns Hopkins Medicine, will develop initiatives and monitor progress on the Strategic Plan’s people priority, and will continue her oversight of faculty affairs at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. She will work with the Office of Faculty Development, the Office of Women in Science and Medicine, the Office of Diversity and Cultural Competence, and the Office of Part-Time Faculty to enable faculty to achieve excellence in teaching, clinical care, research and innovation.

New Director for Department of Medicine

Mark Anderson, M.D., Ph.D., chair and department executive officer of internal medicine at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine and a renowned researcher on heart failure and sudden cardiac death, will become the William Osler Professor of Medicine, director of the Department of Medicine in the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and physician-in-chief of The Johns Hopkins Hospital. Anderson succeeds Myron (Mike) Weisfeldt, M.D. Anderson received his Ph.D. in physiology and his M.D. from the University of Minnesota. He then completed internal medicine residency and fellowships in cardiology and clinical cardiac electrophysiology at Stanford before joining the faculty at Vanderbilt. In October 2005, he moved to the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, where he was later named chairman and department executive officer of internal medicine, as well as director of the Cardiovascular Research Center.

Human Resources Honors

Yariela Kerr-Donovan, director of the The Johns Hopkins Hospital and Health System’s Department of Human Resources’ Project REACH and community education programs, has been named a 2014 Champion of Mentoring by Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Greater Chesapeake. The honor recognizes HR’s youth programs, which provide career development and mentoring support to students attending Baltimore-area high schools by exposing them to health care careers via internships throughout The Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Project REACH (Resources and Education for the Advancement of Careers at Hopkins), the decade-old initiative by The Johns Hopkins Hospital and Health System to retain and enable employees to develop the skills and knowledge needed to fill vacant health care jobs, has been named a 2014 Frontline Healthcare Worker Champion by CareerSTAT.

East Baltimore

Rebecca Aslakson, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine, received the American Society of Anesthesiologists’ 2014 Presidential Scholar Award. It recognizes a clinician-researcher who is within seven years of having completed training and shows potential for becoming a research leader in anesthesiology. Aslakson joined the faculty in 2008 and in 2013 was appointed a core faculty member at the Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality.

The Rev. Christopher Brown, M.Div., has been appointed manager of clinical pastoral education. An ordained Baptist minister, he served as trauma chaplain at the Atlanta Medical Center before coming to Johns Hopkins. He also serves as the international chairman and national director of Sigma Cares, a wellness and spiritual growth program offered by the Phi Beta Sigma fraternity.

Darren Brownlee, M.H.A., a clinical operations project manager in the Department of Surgery, has received recognition from both The Daily Record newspaper and WKYS radio station as one of the top young professionals in the area due to his achievements and civic involvement.

Mark Donowitz, M.D., professor of medicine and director of both the Johns Hopkins Center for Epithelial Disorders and the Hopkins Digestive Diseases Basic and Translational Research Core Center, has received a $100,000 Grand Challenges in Global Health grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Donowitz’s co-principal investigators are Nicholas Zachos, Ph.D., assistant professor of medicine, and Olga Kovbasnjuk, Ph.D., associate professor of medicine, both in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology. They will use the 18-month grant to fund their project, Human Enteroids as a Novel Model of Acute Diarrhea, in hopes of developing a drug therapy for treating diarrheal diseases.

Dung Le, M.D., assistant professor of oncology, has received a three-year, $1 million grant from the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network and the American Association for Cancer Research to support her research on pancreatic cancer. Her co-principal investigator on the project is Todd Crocenzi, M.D., from the Providence Portland Medical Center in Oregon.

Jonathan Powell, M.D., Ph.D., professor of oncology, G. William Wong, Ph.D., associate professor of physiology, and Elias Zambidis, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of pediatric oncology, were three of four successful recipients out of 110 applicants for two-year grants for diabetes research awarded by the Novo Nordisk Diabetes and Obesity Biologics Mid-Atlantic Science Forum. Powell will use his $500,000 grant to conduct studies in mice on the effects of a protein designed to increase insulin sensitivity. Wong will apply his $500,000 grant to conduct experiments on the workings of a hormone he discovered that helps regulate how the body uses sugars and fats. Zambidis will use his $250,000 grant to test the use of stem cells to treat diabetes-induced damage to blood vessels in the eye.

Marketing and Communications

Johns Hopkins Medicine’s Marketing and Communications’ “Be a Hero” blood drive campaign received an honorable mention for employee communications in this year’s Ragan Communications competition for corporate social responsibility initiatives.  

Ronna Borenstein-Levy, previously senior director of marketing and communications at Suburban Hospital, has been appointed the new senior director of marketing and communications for Johns Hopkins Medicine’s National Capital Region community division. She will collaborate with Sheliah Roy, the marketing and communications director at Sibley Memorial Hospital, to create and implement marketing and communications programs with the existing teams at both hospitals. 

Debra Scheinberg, who previously served as marketing and communications manager at Suburban Hospital, has returned as communications manager.

Gary Stephenson, former head of media relations for Johns Hopkins Medicine’s Office of Marketing and Communications, has been named director of public relations for the marketing and communications offices of both Suburban and Sibley Memorial hospitals.

Johns Hopkins Bayview

Gayle Adams, a 40-year veteran of the medical center and longtime director of the Community Relations Department, received the William J. McCarthy Award, the highest honor bestowed by Hopkins Bayview’s Board of Trustees. Adams became one of the best-known representatives of the medical center through her roles in hospital outreach, government relations and community services.

Thomas Berlin, administrator for the Department of Medicine’s Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology, will assume additional duties as specialty hospital administrator. He will oversee the specialty hospital unit for geriatric psychiatry and the ventilator unit.

Robert Dudas, M.D., assistant professor of pediatrics, received the 2014 Teaching and Education Award from the Council on Medical Student Education in Pediatrics, a nationwide organization that promotes exemplary teaching practices and advances innovations and scholarship among pediatric educators.

Carla Harrison, R.N., a nurse in the Archway Clinic, has been placed in the U.S. Public Health Service’s Career and Professional Development Committee’s “nursing spotlight” for her success in the public health field. The Archway Clinic is a treatment-research program that offers medication, drug and alcohol monitoring, counseling, support services and recovery planning for individuals with substance abuse problems.

Jennifer Nizer, director of the Child Development Center, has been appointed by Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley to the P-20 Leadership Council of Maryland. The council is charged primarily with ensuring that prekindergarten through postsecondary education in the state properly prepares Maryland students for 21st century jobs. Nizer is the first early-childhood representative to sit on the council.