16. Catalyzing the Rise of Impactful Leaders

Survey any of the dozens of Hopkins faculty members who have received CIM funding early in their careers, and you’ll hear a common theme: Receiving CIM recognition and support has been nothing short of life-changing — and in many cases has ultimately helped catapult them to top leadership positions.

Consider the experience of Hopkins radiologist Pamela Johnson, a very early leader in advocating for “high-value” medical care — moving away from unnecessary, high-cost medical testing and procedures that can harm patients and lead to financial ruin.

“David Hellmann believed in the importance of my work so much that he secured generous funding to make me the (CIM) Stanley Levenson Scholar. It was the honor of my life, and it effectively launched my career,” Johnson says. The funding proved crucial to her co-leading the launch of the High Value Practice Academic Alliance, a national organization of academic partner institutions collaborating on high-value quality improvement.

She says it also shone the light on the value of her work among Johns Hopkins leaders. In 2020, she was appointed vice president of care transformation for the entire Johns Hopkins Health System. “The funding I received as a CIM Scholar was like a stamp of approval; it set off a cascading effect that led to this major appointment,” she says. In her role as vice president, Johnson — who also continues as a national leader in high-value care — leads frontline clinical teams across Johns Hopkins Medicine in improving patient care.

From his vantage point as vice dean for research at Johns Hopkins, rheumatologist Antony Rosen has witnessed, over and over, the “highly catalytic” impact that CIM support has had. “Through David Hellman’s leadership, CIM has really been able to ignite the careers of so many promising individuals, myself included,” says Rosen, Cosner CIM Scholar in Translational Research.

“So many of today’s leaders at Johns Hopkins — and others who have gone on to lead at academic medical centers around the world — have been in the orbit of CIM,” says Rosen.

Indeed, Rosen is among a very long list of CIM Scholars, now numbering more than 60, who have risen to key leadership positions across Johns Hopkins Medicine — and at prominent academic medical institutions across the country. Individuals on this list include:

• Steven Kravet, a Miller Coulson CIM Scholar, president of Johns Hopkins Community Physicians, the largest primary care group in Maryland

• Landon King, an early CIM Scholar, who is executive vice dean for the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

• Cynthis Rand, Mary Gallo CIM Scholar and co-leader of the Aliki Initiative, who is senior associate dean for faculty at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

• S. Chris Durso, Miller Coulson CIM Scholar, who became director of the Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology and is now director of the Department of Medicine at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center

• Colleen Christmas, an early Miller Coulson CIM Scholar, who directs the Primary Care Care Leadership Track at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine as well as the Medical Student Training in Aging Research program

• Cynthia Boyd, an early Lavinia Currier CIM Scholar, who is director of the Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology

• Constantine G. Lyketsos, Alafouzos CIM Scholar, who is director of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Johns Hopkins Bayview

• Jeremy Greene, Jacobs & Rosenthal Family CIM Scholar, who is director of the Department of the History of Medicine and the Center for Medical Humanities and Social Medicine

• Erica Johnson, a Mary Gallo CIM Scholar, who was recently named senior vice president for academic and medical affairs at the American Board of Internal Medicine (see p. 45 for more about her work)

• John Stone, a Cosner CIM Scholar in Translational Research, who is professor of medicine at Harvard’s Massachusetts General Hospital, where he is also director of clinical rheumatology

• Linda Fried, a Cosner CIM Scholar in Translational Research, who has served as dean of Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health since 2018

In August, Nadia Hansel, a Lavinia Currier CIM Scholar, became perhaps the latest CIM affiliate to be tapped for top leadership at Johns Hopkins when she was named director of the Department of Medicine, a position she had filled as interim since 2022.

“Dr. Hansel will be the first woman to lead the storied Department of Medicine in its 131-year history,” noted Dean/CEO Theodore DeWeese and Kevin Sowers, president of the Johns Hopkins Health System and executive vice president of Johns Hopkins Medicine, in the announcement of the appointment, which praised Hansel’s work as “a world-renowned investigator and accomplished physician leader.”

(Read more about Hansel and her translational research aimed at improving the lives of people living with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in Tackling COPD, One Breath at a Time.)

Cardiologist Roy Ziegelstein has spent his entire career at Johns Hopkins. The very first CIM Scholar (made possible by support from the Miller family), he rose to become vice dean for education at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, as well as vice chair of humanism in the Department of Medicine.

He adds his voice to the chorus of CIM believers. “Young superstars, incredibly talented individuals who make a huge difference at Johns Hopkins and in medicine around the world, are hungry for inspiration and support,” says Ziegelstein, a Miller Coulson master clinician and the Sarah Miller Coulson and Frank L. Coulson, Jr. Professor of Medicine.

“The Center for Innovative Medicine has offered both — by providing a community of established clinicians who serve as trusted mentors and by providing financial support, which is in such short supply for early-career physician-scientists,” says Ziegelstein.