Bloomberg School of Public Health
Advisory Board Meeting Minutes
Thursday, February 22, 2007 | 3 p.m. | 917th Meeting

Members Absent: Drs. William Brody, Steven Knapp, Robert Blum, Ron Brookmeyer, Laura Caulfield, Michael Klag, Thomas Louis, Roger McMacken, and James Yager.

Guests: Drs. Sharon Krag and Laura Morlock; Professor Stephen Teret; Mr. Herbert Hansen; and Ms. Diane Glover.

Meeting convened: Dr. Robert Black convened the meeting at 3 p.m.

Approval of the Minutes: Minutes of the 916th Advisory Board meeting of January 25, 2007 were approved.

Remarks by the Chair of the Department of International Health

Dr. Black was asked to chair the meeting in the absence of Drs. Knapp, Klag, and Yager. Dr. Black reported on the recent visit to East Baltimore of Dr. Tachi Yamada, President of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Global Health Program. The visit went well and included one meeting with the principal investigators of Gates Foundation grantees, and another meeting with Drs. Black, Dang, Hill, and Quinn regarding the broad interests and the considerable expertise of faculty at the Schools of Public Health, Medicine, and Nursing in the areas of capacity-building, health services research, and delivery of new technologies in developing countries. The Gates Foundation is expected to expand their support for these areas in response to the critical needs in many parts of the world. Developing and maintaining close partnerships with in-country institutions is an important feature of the Gates Foundation approach.

Mr. Hansen updated the Advisory Board on HopkinsOne, noting that department administrators meet regularly to provide feed back directly to HopkinsOne staff. A number of challenges remain, including a backlog of travel reimbursements and vendor payments from the late December/early January transition period. Dr. Black noted ongoing problems with purchase orders and wire transfers, which are critical to the School's international work. Mr. Hansen reported that the HopkinsOne Service Center is also learning about these issues and that Ms. Schlegel is the School's primary conduit to HopkinsOne. Training is one area that has been identified as needing more attention. Dr. Hill asked that the hard work and dedication of the staff during this transition period be acknowledged. Mr. Hansen noted that presently HopkinsOne functions within its budget projections and that the costs of any new features will be evaluated before being added.

Report of the Faculty Senate

Dr. Spannhake reported that the Faculty Senate will revise the faculty quality of life survey. The survey will be better timed; one goal is to improve the response rate. The Senate is considering development of an annual report that will refer to major issues identified during the previous survey and how each was addressed. Several faculty have volunteered to work on this report. Drs. Spannhake, Louis, and Caulfield met with Drs. Strobino and Holt and suggested several topics for the strategic plan to address.

Other Business

Revisions of the DrPH Policy and Procedure Memorandum

Dr. Morlock joined the Advisory Board. She reviewed the rationale for continuous enrollment of DrPH student in explicitly part-time programs registering for a minimum of 1 credit per term. Presently, all DrPH students must register for 3 credits per term to maintain continuous enrollment status. She commented that part-time status has a different meaning for students in explicitly part-time programs as they take many of their courses on-line or in the winter or summer institutes. The change from three credits to one credit per term does not change the length of time students in part-time DrPH programs have to complete the degree and is not expected to negatively financially impact their departments.

After a brief discussion, the change in the minimum enrollment required to maintain continuous enrollment for DrPH students in explicitly part-time programs from three credits to one credit per term was approved by the Advisory Board.

Five year faculty recruitment plan of the Department of Environmental Health Sciences

Dr. Groopman reviewed the five year faculty recruitment plan. All recruitments will be at the assistant professor level and several will be conducted jointly with other departments in the School. He noted that the difficult climate for research funding may make some of the recruitments difficult. The first priorities are to recruit one faculty member in exposure assessment and one in occupational medicine, however Dr. Groopman stated that the occupational medicine recruitment may be a challenge due to changes in the field. Dr. Groopman then asked that the School take a critical look at the Occupational Medicine and General Preventive Medicine residency programs as the fields, particularly Occupational Medicine, have changed substantially since the residency programs were developed. The Advisory Board briefly discussed the residency programs including the reporting structures of the programs, the potential role of the new associate dean for professional practice in overseeing the programs, and other administrative issues. Dr. Groopman remarked that the occupational medicine residency will undergo a site visit in a few weeks and that he will inform Dean Klag of the outcome, after which it was suggested to further discuss both residency programs.

Request for a tenure-track assistant professor appointment in the Department of Health Policy and Management without a national search

Dr. MacKenzie discussed her request for a new tenure-track assistant professor without conducting a national search. Recruitment of the faculty member to work with Center for Injury Research and Policy was part of Dr. Mackenzie's plan when she became the chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management. After discussion, Dean Klag will be asked to provide a letter indicating this position was part of Dr. MacKenzie's plan when she assumed the department chair position.

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 4:50 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Robin Fox

© 2008 The Johns Hopkins University. Baltimore, Maryland. All rights reserved.
Last updated 01Jul08 by dgips@jhu.edu