Radiation oncologist Theodore DeWeese, who has served as dean of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and CEO of Johns Hopkins Medicine on an interim basis since the summer of 2022, has been appointed to the role on a permanent basis, the university announced in December.

DeWeese was selected as the 15th dean of the medical faculty and the third CEO of Johns Hopkins Medicine following a comprehensive global search for a leader with “the requisite vision, dedication, and humanity to chart a sound course for the future of our institution,” JHU President Ron Daniels wrote in a message to the Hopkins community.

DeWeese was appointed interim dean and CEO in 2022 by Daniels and the Johns Hopkins Medicine board of trustees, following the retirement of Paul B. Rothman.

“The best evidence of future performance is past performance,” Daniels wrote. “Over the past 18 months, Ted stepped into the role of interim dean and delivered a staggering record of accomplishment, setting Johns Hopkins Medicine on the path to financial transformation, ensuring greater faculty compensation, and launching our reimagination of the life and basic sciences at Johns Hopkins. He has done so with high standards, bold vision, deep understanding of the practice and purpose of medicine, a joy in discovery, and a palpable love of this place and its exceptional people.”

“I am honored and humbled to be entrusted with this role,” DeWeese says. “Every day, I am inspired by the talent, dedication and heart demonstrated by members of the Johns Hopkins Medicine community. Each of us supports our mission in thousands of unique ways, and we are all united in a common goal: to advance health care and to change lives.”

During his tenure as interim dean and CEO, DeWeese has elevated the renewal and modernization of Johns Hopkins Medicine’s facilities to keep pace with the cutting-edge research and educational needs of faculty, staff and students. At the heart of that work is a new Life Sciences Corridor, an innovative interdivisional ecosystem for basic biomedical research. This new effort is complementary to the ongoing development of a 12-story research tower at the site of the former Johns Hopkins Hospital Children’s Medical and Surgical Center, which will house the health sciences, including basic science, translation and computational biology labs. The first wing of the new Health Sciences Building is slated to open in 2024.

DeWeese first joined The Johns Hopkins Hospital as a radiation oncology resident in 1991, after receiving his M.D. from the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. He went on to become the founding director of the school of medicine’s Department of Radiation Oncology and Molecular Radiation Sciences, a role he held for 15 years, overseeing multiple clinical trials and growing the department into a diverse, supportive environment for faculty and students. In 2018, DeWeese became vice dean of clinical affairs and, in July 2022, stepped up as interim dean of the school of medicine and CEO of Johns Hopkins Medicine.

DeWeese, who grew up in public housing in Denver, shared that he never expected to go to college, let alone scale the ranks of academic medicine to lead Johns Hopkins Medicine. “It was certainly against all odds, but that’s part of the magic of this place,” he says. “Johns Hopkins inspires us to contribute more than we dreamed possible.” 

Read about one (long) day in the life of Dean/CEO Ted DeWeese.