Donald Steinwachs, a 34-year veteran of the Johns
Hopkins faculty with deep
connections throughout the university, will serve as
interim provost and senior vice president
for academic affairs, President Brody announced.
Steinwachs has begun already to work with outgoing
Provost Steven Knapp and will take
over Aug. 1, when Knapp becomes president of The George
Washington University, Brody said.
"I look forward to working with Dr. Steinwachs," Brody
said in a message to faculty,
students and staff announcing the appointment. "I always
have valued his advice; I know that
he will fulfill this interim role with all the sharpness of
mind, skill, grace and good humor that
he has brought to every position he has held in his long,
distinguished career at Johns
Hopkins."
Steinwachs served for 11 years as chair of the
Department of Health Policy and
Management in the
Bloomberg School of Public Health. He directs its
Health Services
Research and Development Center and holds joint
appointments in the schools of Medicine and
Nursing. He also teaches undergraduates in the public
health studies major at Homewood.
He earned his doctorate in operations research in 1973
from what is now the Whiting
School of Engineering and joined the Johns Hopkins faculty
that year.
"I sometimes kiddingly say that I was born here,"
Steinwachs said. "It's an outstanding
and unique institution, and it has been a great honor and
privilege to be a part of it for so
many years.
"The faculty is outstanding," he said, "and one of the
unique things that I've found is
that they are highly collaborative and willing to work
together to come up with new ideas on
both research and education and to implement them."
Steinwachs has been involved with the administration
of the university not only as
department chair but also as a member of the universitywide
Faculty Budget Advisory
Committee, serving for 20 years as its chair. He co-chaired
a 2004 review of the university's
employee benefits and chaired an advisory committee formed
to increase faculty input on
HopkinsOne.
Elected a member of the Institute of Medicine in 1993,
Steinwachs has studied medical
effectiveness and outcomes for individuals with specific
medical, surgical and psychiatric
conditions. His current research focuses on health care
quality and has included a project
evaluating a Web-based tool for use in the care of
schizophrenic patients and another
evaluating the Hospital at Home program for elderly
patients. He is a member of the
Department of Health and Human Services' National Committee
on Vital and Health Statistics
and chairs its Population Subcommittee.
Steinwachs is a 1968 graduate of the University of
Arizona and earned a master's in
systems engineering there in 1970.
Brody said he hopes to announce the appointment of
Knapp's successor before the end
of the summer, although Steinwachs — who has said he
is not a candidate — will likely serve for a
number of months until the new provost is able to take
office.
The chair of the search committee, Michael Klag, dean
of the Bloomberg School of
Public Health, said that the committee and its outside
consultants have attracted a "very
strong pool" of candidates.
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