Following a national search that began in November, Johns Hopkins University has named Jeffrey P. Kahn the next Andreas C. Dracopoulos Director of the Berman Institute of Bioethics, effective July 1. Kahn received a BA in microbiology from UCLA, an MPH from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and, finally, a PhD in philosophy and bioethics from Georgetown University in 1989.

“I was extremely lucky to have Dr. [Tom] Beauchamp as my dissertation advisor, as well as being able to work with him as a graduate assistant as part of my graduate fellowship,” Kahn shared in prior correspondence. “My career in bioethics began at the KIE and my experiences there and my degree from Georgetown allowed me to pursue a career in bioethics.”

Since 2011, Kahn has served as the deputy director for policy and administration at the Berman Institute and as the Robert Henry Levi and Ryda Hecht Levi Professor of Bioethics and Public Policy. He has also continued his professorial role in the Department of Health Policy and Management in the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Kahn will succeed Ruth Faden, who founded the Berman Institute in 1995. Faden, who also holds a Senior Research Scholar position at the KIE, announced in September that this academic year would be her last as director after 20 years in the role.