Bloomberg School of Public Health
Advisory Board Meeting Minutes
Thursday, February 23, 2006 | 3:00 p.m. | 905th Meeting

Members Absent: Drs. William Brody, Steven Knapp, Martha Hill, Michael Klag, Robert Lawrence, Ellen MacKenzie, Edward Miller, E. William Spannhake, and Scott Zeger.

Guests: Drs. Kenrad Nelson and Ellen Silbergeld; Professor Stephen Teret; and Ms. Diane Glover.

Meeting Convened: Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs James Yager convened the meeting at 3 p.m.

Approval of the Minutes: Minutes of the 904th Advisory Board meeting of January 26, 2006 were approved.

Remarks by the Senior Associate Dean

Dean Yager welcomed Dr. Tielsch, who is representing Dr. Black while Dr. Black is on sabbatical through early May. Dr. Yager then updated the Advisory board on the preparations for the self study as part of the School's reaccreditation by the Council on Education for Public Health. The Committee has been enlarged somewhat to include greater community and student representation. Several chapters of the self study have been drafted and reviewed by the Self Study Steering Committee. After the next round of comments, chapters will be posted on the School website for comment by internal and external constituencies. Dr. Yager mentioned the challenges in collecting comprehensive information on the many practice and service activities of faculty and students from across the School; he will come directly to the departments to obtain some of this information. He also noted that some CEPH site visit teams have stated the importance of including course learning objectives on course syllabi to help students and others assess if the methods of student evaluation in a course match its learning objectives. Several upcoming changes in the School's on-line course supplement templates will enhance the faculty's ability to do this quickly.

Report of the Faculty Senate

Dr. Louis reported that the Faculty Quality of Life Survey will be circulated to the faculty very soon. After experience with one round of data collection, the survey can be refined for future years. Mr. Hansen presented an update of the School's financial status at the joint Faculty Senate/Committee of the Whole meeting on February 2, 2006.

An issue that has recently been raised at the Senate relates to how computer files are backed up, as well as ownership and privacy of certain files. Dr. Louis would like to develop or review any existing policies related to these topics. Dr. Groopman suggested that the Senate work with the Committee on Information Technology to research this issue.

Other Business

Recruitment of influenza virologist in the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Immunology

Dr. Griffin reported that the School presently does not have an influenza virologist or immunologist. Concerns about outbreaks of Avian Influenza in birds and transmission to humans have led the Department to identify this as a recruitment priority for a tenure-track professorial position. Due to the need for special laboratory facilities in order to work with the H5N1 strain, the School will work with external collaborators for access to these facilities. Dr. Griffin noted that a donor has already generously provided start-up support for this position.

Request to fill a faculty position in the Department of Mental Health

With the impending departure of Dr. Chilcoat, the Department of Mental Health seeks to recruit a tenure-track position at any rank to work in the area of drug and alcohol dependence, with a focus on epidemiologic methods and applications.

Request for new tenure-track assistant professor position to be filled by non-tenure-track assistant professor in Population and Family Health Sciences

Dr. Blum requested that a new tenure-track position be created and filled by a current non-tenure-track assistant professor without a national search. The Advisory Board discussed the precedent for this request. Several members of the Advisory Board suggested instead that a joint recruitment be undertaken with the Department of Biostatistics for a specialist in the area of survey sampling since the Department of Population and Family Health Sciences has identified it as a critical need and the Department of Biostatistics has had great strength in this area. After further discussion, Dr. Blum withdrew his request and will pursue with the Department of Biostatistics the possibility of a national search for a survey sampling specialist.

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 4:40 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Robin Fox

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Last updated 26Jun06 by dgips@jhu.edu