Hopkins president William Brody is the most powerful man in Baltimore, according to Baltimore Magazine's "2007 Power 50," a list that ranks the most influential people in the city.
"This ranking is the way we see power being put into action in Baltimore," the magazine said. It observed that Brody's influence takes form as the chief driving force behind Hopkins's urban development in East Baltimore, just north of the Hopkins medical campus. Brody ranked No. 15 in 2003.
"This ranking of the 50 most powerful people in Baltimore is not a scientific list, but it is based on hard numbers and achievements and records," Baltimore Magazine explained.
Brody's executive authority does not come unwarranted, according to Baltimore Magazine, for he administers the institution's renowned scientific research and over $7 billion of business statewide. But more notable still is their description of Brody as the "living embodiment of Hopkins' institutions and brand, both locally and across the globe."
"Politicians and developers come and go; Hopkins is eternal," Baltimore Magazine concluded.
Brody says that the ranking attributed to him what is really the workings of an entire community.
"I happen to be at the helm of an important institution," Brody said. "But it's really many other people with important roles to play in the community. In the university, the faculties and students are really the ones generating the ideas."
"My job is really to be a facilitator,"
he said.
Brody explained that the Hopkins East Baltimore Project is taking place under a partnership with the Annie E. Casey Foundation to redevelop that area in order to provide affordable housing for people from various levels of income.
"It's one of the most impoverished areas in the United States. There are 4 or 5 thousand houses in the neighborhood but only about 400 households actually living there," Brody said.
A core portion of the project includes installing biotech labs in the neighborhood to work in conjunction with the nearby Hopkins Medical Institution. They envision that the expanded research facilities will draw in other enterprises and industries into the neighborhood. The project is also dedicated to building a new public school to perpetuate education among the original population and to serve as a magnet for bringing younger families into the community.
The Rangos building, the future home for the Hopkins Medicine's Institute for Basic Biomedical Sciences, is expected to be completed in 2008.
"Hopkins has eleven campuses. In each area, we consider what Hopkins can do to improve the surrounding communities," Brody said. The recent developments that Homewood has seen in the Charles Village have been part of the efforts to make the neighborhood more oriented towards the student population.
"My goal was to create a better sense of community for the students," he said.
Brody is a trustee of the Commonwealth Fund and of the Baltimore Community Foundation. He also serves as a member of the executive committee in a number of organizations, including the International Academic Advisory Committee in Singapore and the FBI's National Security Higher Education Advisory Board. On top of overseeing most activities that take place in the Johns Hopkins institutions, the president's job is also to raise funds for the university.
Brody began his career at Hopkins as a professor at the School of Medicine and as the radiologist-in-chief at the Hopkins Hospital. In 1996, Brody became the president of the University after having served two years as Provost of the Academic Health Center in the University of Minnesota.
Brody received his bachelor's and master's degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and his M.D. and Ph.D. from Stanford University. He has authored over 70 journal articles and three textbooks.
