You might say Kevin Sowers, who was recently appointed president of the Johns Hopkins Health System and executive vice president of Johns Hopkins Medicine, took a road less traveled to health care leadership.

A nurse who grew up on a farm in rural Ohio, living below poverty level, and who was the first in his family to attend college, Sowers had an early interest in singing and piano. To help pay for college, he spent mornings working as a music therapist for a county nursing home and evenings as an orderly, bathing nursing home residents and helping put them to bed. That’s where he fell in love with nursing.

“When I became a nurse,” he says, “Nurses were not allowed to become presidents of health systems or even hospitals. It was not even common for a man to become a nurse.” But Sowers says his experience as a nurse in oncology—a discipline chosen after his grandfather was diagnosed with a glioblastoma and Sowers was inspired to make a difference in cancer patients’ lives—coupled with a long administrative career at Duke University Health System, prepared him well for the Johns Hopkins roles.

“I know what it means to collaborate with a team of people to execute a plan of care for complex patients,” Sowers told a packed room at a Johns Hopkins Town Hall meeting. “I also know what it means to educate a generation of learners. I understood the importance of clinical trials, taking things from the bench to the bedside. It prepared me for the three missions of the academic enterprise, but it also prepared me for managing the complexity of the enterprise.”

Sowers joined Johns Hopkins in February after 32 years with Duke, the last eight of which he served as president and CEO of Duke University Hospital. He succeeds Ronald R. Peterson, who served in the dual Johns Hopkins positions for the past 20 years before deciding to retire. Peterson’s career at Johns Hopkins spanned 44 years.

After considering all viewpoints, Sowers says he’s not afraid to tackle tough decisions. A champion of diversity and of expressing gratitude for all employees’ roles in working toward common goals, Sowers says he looks forward to helping develop new care delivery models that meet the challenges of today’s evolving health care climate.

Sowers joined Duke University Medical Center Hospital in 1985 as a staff nurse in oncology and held several faculty and nursing leadership positions, as well as numerous senior leadership posts across the Duke University Health System. Active in many professional and community organizations, Sowers is an American Academy of Nursing Fellow and has collaborated on numerous research efforts as well as consulted internationally. He has also held leadership roles in the American Heart Association, Susan G. Komen and the Oncology Nursing Society.

Sowers earned his bachelor’s degree from Capital University School of Nursing and a master’s degree from Duke University School of Nursing. He has published extensively and speaks on issues such as leadership, organizational change, mentorship and cancer care.