A Message from President Daniels

Dear Faculty and Staff Members:

It is never easy to announce the departure of a respected colleague. It is even harder to do so for someone who has been responsible for so many landmark contributions across our university. I find myself, however, having to make just such an announcement. After nearly two decades at Johns Hopkins, Lloyd Minor, the university’s provost and senior vice president for academic affairs, will be leaving us to serve as the 12th dean of the Stanford University School of Medicine.

In his three years as provost, Lloyd has brought considerable energy, imagination and intellect to the office. Lloyd has been deeply committed to the idea that the provost, as chief academic officer, should be the guardian of, and champion for, the highest academic standards and aspirations in the university’s research, teaching and service mission. He has been a dedicated advocate for the roles that interdisciplinary scholarship and teaching play in advancing our mission. He has also been a tireless supporter of the role of undergraduate and graduate education.

So, clearly, my excitement for Lloyd as he approaches a major new professional challenge is greatly tempered by my regret that he will be leaving Johns Hopkins to accept it.

This is, however, an outstanding opportunity for Lloyd and a testament to his record of leadership.

It will allow him to bring to bear all the knowledge, experience and skill he has amassed as a Johns Hopkins researcher, clinician, teacher and leader, as well as the university-wide perspective he has gained in his term as provost. Stanford values interdisciplinary and cross-divisional collaboration as much as Johns Hopkins does, and Lloyd’s talent and enthusiasm for fostering such initiatives will serve that university very well.

So, too, will Lloyd’s limitless dedication to excellence, his unflagging focus on getting the job done, and his humane, caring approach to dealing with the crises and personal concerns that inevitably arise in a large, complex organization.

Lloyd is a man of great accomplishment.

As a faculty member here, he rose from newly appointed assistant professor to director of the School of Medicine’s Department of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery in just 10 years. In conjunction with an outstanding set of colleagues, many of whom he recruited or helped to retain, he then drove a 50 percent increase in departmental research funding, a 30 percent rise in clinical activity, and even stronger performance in teaching and student training.

As provost, he has – among many other achievements – instituted regular externally led reviews of schools and departments throughout the university. He realigned the structure and focus of Homewood Student Affairs with the university’s highest priorities, and involved trustees through a new Committee on Student Life in an examination of issues such as student yield, satisfaction and retention.

He has promoted faculty excellence by working with schools and deans on addressing challenges to recruitment and retention. He helped launch the Gateway Sciences Initiative, a major ongoing effort to enhance the teaching of introductory science courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels. During his tenure, we created a Doctor of Philosophy Board and engaged it in identifying other opportunities for improving graduate education, including a statement of rights and responsibilities and a new electronic dissertation policy.

But, most importantly, Lloyd invested considerable time and energy in chairing or participating in the search processes that recruited a simply extraordinary constellation of outstanding deans and directors to the university. And having done so, he has worked hard to create a sense of teamwork and collaboration among these leaders that will advance our mission.

In short, Lloyd has been my indispensable partner in so many different activities that go to the core of the university’s academic enterprise. We will miss him.

I will soon launch a national search to identify the university’s 14th provost. In the meantime, I am pleased to announce that Jonathan A. Bagger, Krieger-Eisenhower Professor of Physics and Astronomy and, since 2008, vice provost for graduate and post-doctoral programs, has agreed to serve as interim provost beginning Sept. 1. I am grateful to Jon for this additional service to Johns Hopkins.

Lloyd will leave Johns Hopkins at the end of August and spend the next several months transitioning to Stanford before taking office Dec. 1. More information on his new appointment will be available online shortly at http://news.stanford.edu. I know that you join me in offering him congratulations and our deepest thanks for all that he has done for Johns Hopkins.

Sincerely,

Ronald J. Daniels
President
The Johns Hopkins University