Brenda Banwell, newly named director of the Department of Pediatrics, began her role on Sept. 1. She comes to Johns Hopkins from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where she served as chief of the Division of Neurology and co-director for both the Neuroscience Center and the Pediatric Multiple Sclerosis and Neuroinflammatory Clinic. She was also a professor of pediatrics and neurology at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine.

Banwell will also serve as co-director of Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, together with pediatric orthopaedic surgeon David Hackam. An expert in pediatric multiple sclerosis research and treatment, she investigates the use of neuroimaging to assess the clinical and cognitive impact of multiple sclerosis and other neuroimmune disorders, and conducts studies of the function of the immune system in children with these disorders.

In August, Nadia Hansel 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 Johns Hopkins Health System, in the announcement of her appointment, which praised Hansel’s work as “a world renowned investigator and accomplished physician leader” whose research focuses on environmental determinants of obstructive lung diseases.

Hansel previously served as director of the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine in the Department of Medicine and associate dean of research at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center.