New Director Appointed for the Johns Hopkins Institute for Health and Social Policy

Pierre-Gerlier Forest, PhD, has been named the Director of the Institute for Health and Social Policy by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Well known for his work in the areas of health policy and the governance of health care organizations, Forest brings a rich tapestry of experience in scholarship, research and practice to Hopkins. Most recently, Forest served as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation since 2006, and has held several positions in Canada’s federal Ministry of Health. He spent most of his academic career at Universite Laval in the City of Quebec, where he was a professor of policy analysis and public management with the Department of Political Science.

“We are thrilled Dr. Forest has accepted our offer and has agreed to leave his native Canada to chart a new course for the Institute that will resonate for decades to come,” said Ellen MacKenzie, PhD, the Fred and Julie Soper Professor and Chair of the Bloomberg School’s Department of Health Policy and Management. “His vision, experience and passion for improving the governance of health care organizations and delivery systems, and on the development and implementation of social policies that improve lives will broaden the impact the Institute will have in the public health arena.”

Formerly known as the Johns Hopkins Institute for Policy Studies (IPS), the Institute was renamed the Institute for Health and Social Policy to reflect its new home in the Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Department of Health Policy and Management. When IPS was originally founded in the mid-1980s, it was a freestanding organization reporting to the University provost with the mission to strengthen public policy through rigorous analysis of the most pressing social issues.  Building on the Institute’s strengths in policy research and education and the assets of the Bloomberg School of Public Health, IPS was renamed to focus greater attention on health and social policies that affect people’s health, quality of life and the productivity of the nation. The Master of Public Policy degree primarily taught by IPS faculty, will retain its current character as a broad-based public policy degree under the auspices of a renamed Institute with areas of concentration spanning health, social, environmental and education policy.

Originally established as the Center for Metropolitan Planning and Research in 1963, with a focus on research in urban policy in the U.S. and internationally, by Johns Hopkins president Steven Muller, the Center was renamed and repositioned in 1985 as the Institute for Policy Studies under Professor Les Salamon’s charge. Professor Sandra Newman was director from 1999 - 2009. Donald Steinwachs, PhD, has served as the Institute’s interim director.  Under Dr. Forest’s leadership and expertise, the Institute will be well poised to focus on policy issues that impact health, quality of life and productivity. 

“The Bloomberg School is excited to recruit such an incredibly experienced and capable researcher, educator and administrator as Dr. Forest to lead the Institute for Health and Social Policy. His visionary leadership, teamed with the Institute’s integration into the Department of Health Policy and Management, only serves to reconfirm the Institute’s rich legacy of tackling the toughest problems in health and social policy,” said Michael Klag, MD, MPH, dean of the Bloomberg School of Public Health.       

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health media contact: Tim Parsons at 410-955-7619 or tmparson@jhsph.edu.