May 14, 2002

Dear Colleagues:

We’ve now received the bittersweet news that Elias Zerhouni will be sworn in as director of the National Institutes of Health on May 20, so must resign from Johns Hopkins on May 19.

Many of you have asked me who will fill his shoes at Johns Hopkins Medicine. The answer to that is simple: No one person can be expected to do so. Accordingly, I have asked a number of people to take over the following important responsibilities:

• Department of Radiology: Norman Beauchamp, currently director of clinical operations, will serve as interim director of the department.
• Institute for Cell Engineering: Chi Dang, vice dean for research and director of Hematology, will assume Elias’s coordinating role.
• American Radiology Services: Bob Gayler, interim director of Radiology at Howard County, who also has had significant jobs in Radiology at Hopkins Hospital and Bayview, will fill in on the clinical side, working with Rich Grossi, Hopkins Medicine’s chief financial officer, on the business side.
• Surgery Search Committee: George Dover, director of Pediatrics and of the Children’s Center, will help the committee complete its search for a planned replacement for John Cameron when John relinquishes the directorship.
• Biotech Park: JHU President Bill Brody, who at one time had his own biotech business, and Sally MacConnell, JHH’s vice president for facilities, will serve as the Hopkins representatives on the board of the new corporation that will manage the Biotech Park’s development.

There is one of Elias’s roles – executive vice dean – that I won’t fill immediately. Since I became Dean and CEO of Hopkins Medicine five years ago, Elias has been my closest friend and advisor. That’s a role one can’t easily fill. Instead, I’ll be turning for advice to many of you.

I know I can count on you to lend your support to me and to those who have accepted the new responsibilities outlined above.

Edward D. Miller, M.D.
Dean/CEO
Johns Hopkins Medicine

[Return to Top]