Bloomberg School of Public Health
Advisory Board Meeting Minutes
Thursday, September 9, 2004 | 3:00 p.m. | 888th Meeting

Members Absent: Drs. William Brody, Diane Griffin and Edward Miller.

Guests: Dr. Cecile Pickart; and Mss. Donna Helm and Diane Glover.

Meeting Convened: Provost Steven Knapp convened the meeting at 3:00 pm.

Approval of the Minutes: Minutes of the 887th meeting on July 22, 2004 were approved.

Remarks by the Provost

Provost Knapp welcomed Dr. Spannhake, president-elect of the Faculty Senate, to the Advisory Board. He then reported that the search committee for the Public Health dean met for the first time. A national search is beginning and is expected to solicit candidates from both traditional and non-traditional backgrounds. A list of the search committee members was circulated. Nominations of candidates are eagerly sought from the School of Public Health and should be referred to the Provost's office ( provost@jhu.edu).

In other University matters, there is some indication that the visa requirements for foreign students and faculty who leave the U.S. for short periods of time are being more reasonably managed. Federal regulations governing use and export of materials and equipment by foreign students engaged in research are problematic and have the potential to adversely affect much on-site research at Hopkins.

Remarks by the Dean

Dean Sommer commented on the busy and exciting agenda of School activities over the next year. Searches for the chairs or the Departments of Health Policy and Management and of Behavior and Health have begun. Renovations of existing space and moves of faculty, staff and students into new and renovated offices and laboratories will occur throughout the year. Special events in the near future include a debate on September 13 about the health care platforms by representatives of the Bush and Kerry campaigns, and a panel discussion on October 29 with the maker of the film "Super Size Me."

Dr. Steinwachs then commented on the collaboration between the Department of Health Policy and Management and public health authorities in Barcelona to offer Hopkins credit- bearing institute courses. The Department is hopeful that a small number of part-time and internet MPH students will take courses in Barcelona, or that the courses will act as entr‚es into the School's degree programs. This initiative will be followed closely for several years and will need to be self-sustaining in order to become more permanent. Dr. Steinwachs will provide information about the scope of the School's programs to students in the Barcelona courses.

Remarks by the Faculty Senate

Dr. Diener-West reported that the first meeting of the Faculty Senate included discussions about pending changes in the course evaluation process and in the Office of Information Systems system for providing technical support to users. The "Balance of Effort" document will be discussed at the October 12 Committee of the Whole meeting and the first joint Faculty Senate/Committee of the Whole meeting will be on November 11, 2004.

Dr. Zeger announced that Dr. Diener-West has been named the inaugural Helen Abbey and Margaret Merrell Professor in Biostatistical Education. She will be "installed" on December 6, 2004. The Advisory Board offered its congratulations to Dr. Diener-West.

Other Business

Curricular Initiatives in Infectious Diseases, Clinical Research and Program Evaluation

Dean Sommer reminded the Advisory Board that development of coordinated curricula in "infectious diseases," "clinical research," and "program evaluation" were identified as top priorities of the School at its retreat in June 2004. In response to his request to identify faculty for these initiatives, Dean Sommer noted there were very few responses. In the next several weeks, he plans to appoint a small number of faculty to lead the development of interdepartmental curricula in "infectious diseases" and "program evaluation" and remarked that the area of "clinical research" will await the outcome of Dr. Brookmeyer's participation in the School of Medicine's curriculum revision. The interdepartmental curriculum in management can serve as a model for this initiative. Several faculty associated with the MPH concentration in infectious disease would be appropriate to participate in this exercise.

Report from the Committee on Conflict of Interest

Ms Donna Helm joined the Advisory Board. Dr. Steinwachs, acting chair of the Committee on Conflict of Interest, reviewed the progress of the Committee and identified some of the issues it faced. Three major issues of concern to the Committee were: a faculty member who proposed to hire a spouse to work on their grant; a faculty member who disclosed that their spouse was the CFO of a funding agency to which they wished to apply; and multiple faculty who wished to apply for funding to an agency with whom the University has a monetary agreement. The Committee's recommendation for management of these types of conflicts was discussed. Ms. Helm reported that the web-based annual reporting procedures seem to work well and have been expanded to include conflict of commitment in addition to those of conflict of interest. Each year a small number of faculty reach or exceed the lower threshold of allowable external commitments. The Chairs are given specific notification to review these disclosures.

In response to a question, Ms Helm noted that Public Health faculty will be asked to complete a Conflict of Interest training module that will probably be adapted from that currently used by the School of Medicine. After further discussion, the Advisory Board thanked Dr. Steinwachs and Ms. Helm.

Request from the Department of Biostatistics to recruit two new tenure-track faculty members

Dr. Zeger commented that the Department of Biostatistics is seeking faculty in social or environmental statistics and in statistics for genetics. In addition, the Department is supporting searches for a statistician in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences and a bioinformatics specialist in the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology.

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 4:10 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Robin Fox

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