May 8, 2010

Appointment of Vice President for Government and Community Relations
From JHM (Ron Daniels)

Dear Faculty and Staff,

The university Board of Trustees today enthusiastically accepted my recommendation that Thomas S. Lewis be appointed, effective immediately, as vice president for government and community relations.

Tom, who has served as interim vice president since July, is a gifted leader and public policy veteran who has proven himself time and again in roles both inside and outside of government service. He is an effective communicator, an astute analyst and strategist, and a man of unquestioned integrity. He emerged from a broad national search as the ideal choice for this position, which serves both the university and Johns Hopkins Medicine.

As director of state affairs, Tom has been with Johns Hopkins since 2005, heading up our representation in Annapolis. He has advocated vigorously for Johns Hopkins and for the higher education and academic medicine communities in our state, and enhanced elected and appointed officials’ understanding of our institutions, the work we do and the challenges we face.

Before joining Johns Hopkins, Tom served in state government for more than 17 years, 11 of those as chief of staff to speakers of the House of Delegates. Among the legislative packages he helped lawmakers enact were economic development and environmental initiatives, Medicaid reform, the Thornton K-12 education reform, the establishment of a state historic tax credit program and several health care and health insurance reform initiatives.

Tom is a graduate of the University of Maryland, College Park. He holds a law degree from the University of Maryland, Baltimore, and a master’s in international management from the American Graduate School of International Management. He served in the Peace Corps in Cameroon for two years.

The job of representing all of Johns Hopkins -- university and health system -- at the federal, state, local and community levels is a huge and important one. So too is the job of telling the Johns Hopkins story to audiences here at home and around the world, both our friends and those who don’t yet know us well. Both those functions -- government and community affairs and communications -- sit in rapidly changing landscapes and face evolving challenges. I have therefore recommended to the trustees that we split the university communications and public affairs portfolio from government and community affairs and assign it to a new vice president. We will begin a search to fill that position soon.

I want to thank Tom Lewis for agreeing to serve Johns Hopkins in the critical role of vice president for government and community relations. Please join me in congratulating him and welcoming him to this new position.

Sincerely,
Ronald J. Daniels