Lloyd Minor was instated as the University's new provost and senior vice president of academic affairs on Sept. 1.
Minor does not plan to make any immediate changes in his new position, though he is prepared to look for new ideas.
"I don't think that any institution of higher learning can be static," Minor said.
"Here at Hopkins, we always want to be on a path to improvement, which means we constantly need to be involved in reflection and evaluation for opportunities to afford our people more opportunities for success."
As provost, Minor will work as the second-in-command to President Ronald Daniels.
"[The provost's job is to] work with the faculty and deans in implementing a vision to ensure that our university is on a path of improvement and delivering the type of education services we want to be associated with," Minor said.
Minor hopes to work on building collaborative endeavors and establishing bridges between the schools.
"[I want to] look for opportunities to make the whole even greater than the simple sum of the parts," Minor said regarding the University.
Minor has been an employee at Hopkins for 16 years. He worked as a professor of biomedical engineering, and following that, he was promoted to the chair of the department of otalaryngology at the School of Medicine, a position he held for the last six years.
Minor commented that his past experiences have prepared him to build programs that extend into many fields.
"I value consensus," Minor said. "I enjoy looking for opportunities to build initiatives that straddle different fields, different departments, different schools, and that enable people to achieve success they might not be able to achieve had they been working on a more narrow path."
He added, "My goals are centered around the values I think are central to Hopkins: excellence, integrity, collegiality, elaboration and respect."
Minor responded to concerns that the timing of his new position coinciding with a new president will reflect poorly on the school, as both the first-in-command and the second-in-command will be settling into their positions at the same time.
He said that he has spent the summer with Daniels and is impressed with his vision of the future as well as excited about the partnership.
"Clearly, there is a lot for everyone to learn through the process but I think that by beginning relatively close to the time that he has begun, we will be able to work together through that process of learning and through the process of contributing our knowledge and our skills to helping our university be even greater."
Minor is succeeding Kristina Johnson, who left the University last year to work with President Barack Obama as the U.S. Undersecretary of Energy.
Following Johnson's departure, Scott Zeger, vice provost for research and a professor in the department of biostatistics at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, served as acting provost and senior vice president for academic affairs until Minor's appointment.
