Keshia M. Pollack Porter, PhD ’06, MPH, to lead HPM Department
Dear Alumni and Friends,
It gives me great pleasure to announce the appointment of Keshia M. Pollack Porter, PhD ’06, MPH, as the next chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management, effective February 15, 2022. Keshia has an outstanding record of academic accomplishments, demonstrated leadership and administrative abilities, and a bold vision for the Department’s future.
Keshia joined the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Bloomberg School in 2006 as the Leon S. Robertson Faculty Development Chair in Injury Prevention after completing a postdoctoral fellowship with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. She was promoted to professor in 2018 and is currently a Bloomberg Centennial Professor and director of the Institute for Health and Social Policy. Keshia also directs the RWJF-supported national Health Policy Research Scholars program.
Keshia is a health equity scholar and an international leader in advancing policies that create safer and healthier communities where people live, work, and play. A defining feature of Keshia's research career has been her commitment to translating her scholarship to inform and shape public health policy. Importantly, she has led the application of Health Impact Assessment as a strategy to bring public health considerations into policy and programs in a variety of sectors including housing and transportation.
Among her many awards and accolades, Keshia was selected in 2011 by the Maryland Daily Record for its annual 40 Under 40 list of young leaders, and in 2012 received the APHA Injury Control and Emergency Health Services Section Mid-Career Outstanding Service Award. She is a three-time winner of the School’s Advising, Mentoring, and Teaching Recognition Award, and in 2018 received the Johns Hopkins University Distinguished Alumni Award.
At the Bloomberg School, Keshia has held several leadership positions including, most recently, Vice Dean for Faculty. I have had the pleasure of working closely with Keshia in this role and have witnessed the empathy and grace with which she leads. I am most appreciative of her support of the faculty during the last two years which have challenged us all. We will soon begin a process for appointing a new person for this important role.
Throughout all her work, Keshia prioritizes a commitment to inclusion, diversity, anti-racism, and equity and was instrumental in developing the school’s IDARE Action Plan. She recently served as the guest editor for our School magazine’s Fall 2020 special section on racism as a public health crisis and created the magazine’s Voices Against Racism column, which provides School faculty with space to express their perspectives on racism and racial equity.
Please join me in congratulating Keshia on her appointment as chair of HPM. I am very much looking forward to working with Keshia in her new role.
I would also like to take this moment to express my enormous gratitude to Albert Wu, MD, MPH, who served as interim chair since September 2021. Albert has been a member of the HPM faculty for the last 31 years and his commitment to and love of the Department were never more apparent than over the last several months. We are profoundly grateful for his compassion and his readiness to help the Department during this time of transition.
Finally, let me extend my thanks to the amazing committee who led the search. It was expertly led by Vice Dean Elizabeth Stuart, and consisted of Jerry Anderson, Janice Bowie, Paul Ferraro, Hahrie Han, Mario Macis, Kathryn McDonald, Cynthia Minkovitz, Keeve Nachman, Michael Rosenblum, Brendan Saloner, Jodi Segal, Jeremy Shiffman, Michelle Spencer, and Bonnie Swenor. And, as she does so well, Susan Williams from the Dean’s Office staffed the committee and ensured an efficient and collaborative process
I am deeply grateful to the committee for their dedication to the search process that is critical in ensuring we bring the very best talent to the School and its leadership.
Warm regards,
Ellen J. MacKenzie, PhD ’79, ScM ’75
Dean
Bloomberg Distinguished Professor