A committee led by Provost Steven Knapp has begun the search for the next Dean of the Bloomberg School of Public Health, a position set to be filled by fall 2005.
Alfred Sommer, the current dean, announced last May that he would be stepping down in September 2005, concluding his fifteen-year tenure.
Sommer, a 1973 graduate of Hopkins, is credited with overseeing a crucial rebuilding and expansion program at the school in both its physical appearance and academic programs.
"My main objective was to make the school more visible to the rest of the University and engage the other divisions in a meaningful way," Sommer said, "to strengthen the faculty and quality of applicants, take care of much needed renovations, both research and teaching spaces, and ensure we grew in a meaningful and proactive way, and not haphazardly."
The Bloomberg School of Public Health, which is still the largest of its kind in the world, houses 49 different centers and departments. The school serves nearly 1,500 students from 78 different countries and receives nearly a quarter of all the federal research grants to U.S. schools of public health.
The Bloomberg School is also annually hailed as the best school of public health in the country by U.S. News and World Report.
In a statement last April, President William Brody praised Sommer for the worldwide benefits of his research and leadership.
"As dean he has guided research and educational initiatives that are making literally a world of difference," Brody said.
Knapp acknowledges that locating a potential replacement will be difficult.
"Dean Sommer has been extraordinarily successful in leading the nations oldest, largest, and top-ranked School of Public Health," Knapp said. "His tenure has seen a doubling in size of the School"s Wolf Street facilities, a doubling in the size of its full time faculty, and a quintupling of its endowment."
The search committee consists of a diverse grouping of experts, including Dr. Martha Hill, Dean of the School of Nursing, Dr. Scott Zeger, chair of Biostatistics at Bloomberg, and Edgar Roulhac, the vice provost of academic services.
"We have assembled a fine, broadly representative search committee and will be conducting an aggressive national and international search," Knapp said.
The primary objective of the group is to find a candidate who can be both committed to students, while also upholding the worldwide reputation of the Bloomberg School of Public health.
"We are seeking candidates of the utmost integrity with strong academic values, a commitment to the school's mission," Knapp said, "a clear vision of the global opportunities and challenges facing the field of public health and an appreciation of the needs and interest of students, not only at the graduate level but increasingly at the undergraduate level."
"We are keenly interested in identifying candidates who will add to the diversity of backgrounds and perspectives of the University's senior leadership," said Knapp. "Given the school's influence in the wider public health arena, we will be looking for a dean who can be a powerful advocate on the national and international scene."
"We have already received a number of nominations of distinguished candidates," he added.
He declined to name the possible candidates, saying, "It is important to keep their identities confidential at this stage of the process."
While Sommer is stepping down as dean, he said his endeavors in academia and medicine are far from over.
"My present plans, about which I am excited, are returning to my research activities and policy efforts," Sommer said.
