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Michael M.E. Johns honored for service to National Academy of Medicine
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Brian Katzowitz
Senior Director, Health Communications and Media Relations

Headshot of Michael Johns, MD

Michael M.E. Johns, MD

The National Academy of Medicine (NAM) has honored Michael Johns, MD, with its prestigious Walsh McDermott Medal, which is awarded to a member for distinguished service to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine over an extended period. The award was presented at its annual meeting on Oct. 16, 2022.

Johns is an internationally recognized leader in academic medicine, health policy and as a head and neck cancer surgeon. He currently serves as professor in the Schools of Medicine and Public Health at Emory University. He is emeritus executive vice president for health affairs at Emory University and emeritus president, CEO and chairman of the board of Emory Healthcare — positions he held at Emory from 1996 to 2007. During this time, Johns engineered the transformation of the Health Sciences Center into one of the nation’s preeminent centers in education, research and patient care. 

Johns also served as Emory’s Chancellor from 2007 to 2012. From June 2014 through February 2015 he served as interim executive vice president for medical affairs at the University of Michigan, where he earned his medical degree.

“I am deeply honored and humbled to receive this award from the National Academy of Medicine,” says Johns. “The NAM is an organization that continues to develop important initiatives that positively impact thousands of practitioners and, more importantly, patients. I have been privileged to have been involved with NAM all these years and look forward to working with them for many more.”

From 1990 to 1996, Johns was dean of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and vice president of the medical faculty at Johns Hopkins University. Under his leadership, the school revamped its curriculum to better meet the challenges of a new era in health care, and developed a technology transfer program that was considered a model in the country.

Johns was elected to the Institute of Medicine in 1993, serving on several committees and as vice chair of the IOM council prior to IOM’s transition to the National Academy of Medicine in 2015. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, served on the editorial board of the Journal of the American Medical Association and on the Advisory Council to the Congressional Taskforce on Biomedical Research and Innovation.

He has served on several boards and was appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Defense as a member of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences Board of Regents. Johns currently serves on the Vanderbilt University Medical Center Board and the University of Michigan Health Sciences Board.


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