Associate Professor Craig Pollack Named Inaugural Endowed Chair at the Johns Hopkins Schools of Nursing and Public Health

The Johns Hopkins School of Nursing and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health announce the appointment of Craig Pollack, MD, MHS, as inaugural chair of the Katey Ayres Endowed Professorship.

Funded through a generous gift from JHSON Class of 1967 Alumna Katey Ayres—and matched by the Maryland E-Nnovation Initiative Fund—the professorship will tackle the complex intersection of housing and social services and their impact on health.

“We are excited to welcome Dr. Pollack to this position and expand his already well established expertise and knowledge in how social determinants of health like housing, community stability, economic barriers, and more impact wellbeing and health of individuals and societies,” says Patricia Davidson, PhD, MEd, RN, FAAN, dean of JHSON.

Pollack is an associate professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health with a joint appointment in the Department of Epidemiology and at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He examines health effects of housing mobility programs that help families move from areas of concentrated poverty, as well as investigates the impact of housing affordability and place-based initiatives on health care use, spending, and outcomes.

“Dr. Pollack’s focus on understanding the broader social context of health and how the environment can affect the type and quality of care that patients receive make him the perfect fit for this inaugural position,” says Ellen J. MacKenzie, PhD, ScM, dean of the Bloomberg School. “We are grateful for this support which will enhance collaborations across schools and communities.”

As a practicing internal medicine physician, Pollack’s work is informed by the experiences his patients face in navigating complex health and social challenges. His work has been funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the National Institutes of Health.

“There is an increasing recognition that housing can profoundly influence health” says Colleen Barry, PhD, MPP, Fred and Julie Soper Professor and chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Bloomberg School. “Through this professorship, Dr. Pollack can help strengthen research collaborations between nursing and public health to improve the wellbeing of often vulnerable home-dwelling older adults.”

Pollack received his medical degree and an internal medicine residency at the University of California at San Francisco. He then received a master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania where he was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar.

“Dr. Pollack is an incredible clinician and researcher whose work has made significant impacts on a range of issues including housing policy and housing mobility,” says Keshia M. Pollack Porter, PhD, MPH, Associate Dean for Faculty, director of the Institute for Health and Social Policy, and a professor in the Bloomberg School’s Department of Health Policy and Management. “He is an experienced leader and I am excited to see how his focus on housing, as a key social determinant of health, will expand in his new role.”

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Located in Baltimore, the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing is a globally-recognized leader in nursing education, research, and practice. In U.S. News & World Report rankings, the school is No. 1 nationally for its master’s programs, No. 3 for DNP and online programs, and No. 2 for online MSN Health Systems Management options. In addition, the school is ranked by QS World University as the No. 3 nursing school in the world, No. 1 by College Choice for its master’s program, and No. 1 by NursingSchoolHub.com for its DNP program. For more information, visit www.nursing.jhu.edu.

Founded in 1916 as part of the Johns Hopkins University, the Bloomberg School of Public Health is the world’s oldest and largest independent school of public health. Every day, the Bloomberg School works to keep millions safe from illness and injury by pioneering new research, deploying its knowledge and expertise in the field, and educating tomorrow’s scientists and practitioners in the global defense of human life. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Bloomberg School experts are offering science- and evidence-based insights daily at https://www.jhsph.edu/covid-19/.