Chris White to Retire as Assistant Dean for Medicine

To the Johns Hopkins Medicine community

Dear Colleagues,

I write to share with you the bittersweet announcement that Christine White, our longtime assistant dean for medicine in the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, has decided to retire in June 2016. Anyone who has worked, been trained or was educated in the school of medicine, or interacted with the Dean’s Office, has been the beneficiary of the invaluable contributions Chris has made throughout her 24 years at the school of medicine and during her 15 years at the school of public health. 

Chris has distinguished herself as a go-to person when a situation requires diplomatic intervention, swift facilitation or expeditious resolution. She has led the planning of dozens of institutional events, served on departmental director search committees and organized the five-year department reviews, to name only a few of the many areas she has served with distinction. Chris’ day-to-day responsibilities include serving as chief of staff, a liaison to the Johns Hopkins Medicine board of trustees and secretary to the Advisory Board for the Medical Faculty. Chris also provides daily oversight to the Child Care and Early Learning Center; in 2001, she led the effort to have the center established for Johns Hopkins faculty and staff members on the East Baltimore campus.

In the four years that Chris has served as one of my most trusted advisers, she has lent leadership, strategic vision and effective implementation to many complex activities and priorities. She has demonstrated an extraordinary ability to handle sensitive matters with diplomacy and challenging issues with grace and integrity. We depend on her keen organizational skills to manage staff leadership retreats, dinners and memorial tributes for senior leadership. 

This year, she co-chaired Johns Hopkins’ 34th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration, which was held last week, and has been the institution’s senior liaison for the United Way campaign. A creative thinker, Chris came up with the idea for and was the force behind Dancing with the Hopkins Stars last year. This fun event, which featured our faculty and staff members as contestants and judges, attracted a standing-room-only audience to Turner Auditorium and raised more than $52,000 for Johns Hopkins Medicine’s United Way campaign.

Chris first came to The Johns Hopkins University in 1977 after working as a legal assistant for such corporations as W.R. Grace. She was hired to handle administrative projects for Edyth Schoenrich, associate dean in what was then the school of hygiene and public health. Two years later, she went to work for then-dean Donald Henderson as an executive assistant, a position that at the time included the responsibilities of a chief of staff. Chris was later promoted to director of alumni affairs and government relations at the school of hygiene and public health.

In 1992, Chris was recruited to the school of medicine to serve as Dean Michael Johns’ executive assistant and became assistant dean for medicine five years later when Edward Miller became dean. Fortunately, Chris agreed to remain in that role when I was appointed dean/CEO.

Chris will now be able to do more of what she enjoys—traveling, playing golf and bridge, and spending time with family, particularly her husband and two granddaughters. I am grateful that Chris will remain involved with A Woman’s Journey, Johns Hopkins’ annual women’s conference that is held in Baltimore and several other cities. 

We will miss her personable disposition, energy, and around-the-clock responsiveness to any number of issues and requests. Please join me in thanking Chris for her nearly four decades of service to Johns Hopkins and wishing her well on her highly deserved retirement.

Sincerely,
Paul B. Rothman, M.D.
Dean of the Medical Faculty
CEO, Johns Hopkins Medicine