Bloomberg School Makes Changes to Communication and Development Teams

The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has added new personnel to its communication and development teams. Susan Sperry joins the Bloomberg School as Senior Director of Marketing and Communications, and Karen Kruse Thomas has been added as Communications Associate for development and School Historian.

Sperry oversees strategic communications and marketing for the School and leads a team of digital experts, content managers and writers and public and media relations professionals. Prior to joining the Bloomberg School, Sperry was a principal at RTKL, managing a global communications and marketing team for this international architecture, planning and creative services organization. Sperry was also marketing manager with JASMAX Architects in Auckland, New Zealand and held positions with the City of Auckland.

Sperry received her bachelor’s degree from Cornell University and has a Master's of Philosophy in Architecture from the University of Auckland. She is currently completing a master's degree in Public Relations and Corporate Communications from Georgetown University.

Thomas joins the team as School Historian and lead writer for the development team. Thomas earned her doctorate in history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her publications in the history of medicine and public health have received national awards from the American Association for the History of Medicine, the Southern Historical Association. She’s also received grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library. In 2011, the University of Georgia Press published her first book, Deluxe Jim Crow: Civil Rights and American Health Policy, 1935-1954.

Prior to joining the Bloomberg School, Thomas was a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of the History of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. There, she spent the last four years researching and writing a history of the Bloomberg School of Public Health from 1940 to 2005. Thomas is currently revising her work for publication.

“I’m delighted to have both Susan and Karen as part of our team,” said Joshua Else, associate dean for External Affairs at the Bloomberg School. “The Bloomberg School is a global leader in public health with a long and rich history of scientific discovery and achievement, which their respective roles and expertise will help us to share and grow particularly as we head towards our Centennial in 2016.”

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