This winter, we initiated a reorganization of the DOM Vice Chair infrastructure. As a result of the search, we are pleased to announce that Drs. Allan Gelber, Michael Melia and Sunil Solomon have been named vice chairs in the Department of Medicine, effective April 1, 2025.
Vice Chair for Faculty Development
Dr. Allan Gelber, professor in the Division of Rheumatology, is now our Vice Chair for Faculty Development. Dr. Gelber is an associate faculty member at the Welch Center for Prevention, Epidemiology and Clinical Research, with a joint appointment in the Department of Epidemiology in the Bloomberg School of Public Health. He earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Tufts University before coming to Johns Hopkins for his medical degree in 1984. After receiving both his M.P.H. and his M.D. from Hopkins, Dr. Gelber entered residency training in internal medicine at Duke University Medical Center. In 1992, Dr. Gelber returned to Hopkins for fellowship training in the Division of Rheumatology and joined the faculty in 1994. In 1999, Dr. Gelber earned his Ph.D. in clinical investigation from the School of Public Health. He is the Deputy Director for Education and Faculty Development in the Division of Rheumatology as well as Thayer Firm Faculty Leader in the Osler Medical Residency and Aliki Faculty at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. He also chaired the School of Medicine M.D. Admissions Committee from 2017-2024 and directed the Rheumatology Fellowship Program from 2001-2011. As chair of the DOM Appointment and Promotions Committee since 2018, Dr. Gelber has already taken up the cause of DOM faculty, helping many of them achieve promotion. He has proven to be an extraordinary mentor to students, residents, fellows and faculty alike, and we are very excited to see what he will accomplish in his new role as Vice Chair for Faculty Development.
We’d like to take this opportunity to thank Dr. Eric Bass for serving as Vice Chair for Faculty Development and Promotions since 2015. Over the past decade, he has strengthened our academic mission by supporting the career development of countless DOM faculty and addressing barriers to faculty development and promotion. He instituted a process for ensuring that all faculty under the rank of professor receive periodic feedback on their readiness for promotion based on their CVs and launched a pilot project to minimize the time burden associated with the preparation of promotion nominating materials. We remain incredibly grateful for Dr. Bass and his indelible mark on our faculty and Department.
Vice Chair for Education
Dr. Michael Melia, associate professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases, is our Vice Chair for Education. Dr. Melia earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Duke University and a medical degree from Georgetown University. He completed an internal medicine residency and a clinical fellowship in infectious diseases at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center where he also served as chief resident. In 2008, Dr. Melia joined the faculty at Hopkins where he is now director of the Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program and Associate Program Director for Housestaff Coaching in the Osler Medical Residency. He has served as Medical Student Advisor for the SOM Colleges Advisory Program and received the Award for Teaching Excellence from the Institute for Excellence in Education in 2015. Dr. Melia's academic and research interests center around medical education and coaching in medicine, specifically curriculum development and the growth and development of learners as teachers. He is the current Chair of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) Medical Education Community of Practice and a past Chair of the IDSA Training Program Directors' Committee. We are confident his passion for medical education and encouragement of clinician educators will serve him well in his new role as Vice Chair for Education. He plans to focus initially on understanding the strengths and opportunities for improvement and growing a peer-supported community of clinician-educators.
Dr. Danelle Cayea, who has served as Vice Chair for Education since 2022 and Associate Vice Chair for Education since 2014, has proven to be instrumental in overseeing and promoting the DOM’s educational mission. We are grateful to her for her work and advocacy in supporting our students, residents and fellows, as well as for her recent contributions to the amended departmental compensation plan, which is designed to provide recognition across various educational contributions for our faculty. Dr. Cayea has greatly strengthened the infrastructure of support for educators through the development of the Office of Education and advanced promotion of educators and their sense of community within the Department through numerous programs. We are particularly grateful that Dr. Cayea will continue to support the Department’s education mission through her DOM Clerkship director role.
Vice Chair for Research
Dr. Sunil Solomon, professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases, is our new Vice Chair for Research. He also holds a joint appointment as Professor of Epidemiology in the Bloomberg School of Public Health. He earned his medical degree from the Sri Ramachandra Medical University in India before completing his M.P.H. and Ph.D. from the School of Public Health. He joined the faculty at Hopkins as an assistant professor in 2011. Throughout his research career, Dr. Solomon has received both NIH Directors Awards (DP2 and DP1); served as protocol chair of ACTG 5360 (MINMON), a Phase 4 trial that evaluated a simplified HCV treatment algorithm across four continents that has impacted access to HCV care globally; led one of the first trials of contingency management to demonstrate the impact of non-financial incentives on improvements in the HIV care continuum among people who inject drugs; and demonstrated the impact of integrated HIV prevention programming on uptake of HIV testing among vulnerable populations in India with a trial that spanned 27 sites and included over 60,000 participants. He has established a diverse sponsored funding portfolio including NIH, NSF, USAID, foundations, industry and government, and currently serves as protocol chair of HPTN 103/PURPOSE 4, a Phase 2 trial of injectable Lenacapvir for HIV prevention among people who inject drugs across nine U.S. cities, the first trial of a HIV prevention product among people actively injecting drugs. Dr. Solomon’s immense experience as an investigator will serve him well as he aims to support DOM faculty and aid them in the diversification of their funding to continue to move our research forward.
We are incredibly grateful to Drs. Clifton Bingham, Brian O’Rourke and Stuart Ray for serving as vice chairs for research. As Vice Chair for Clinical and Translational Research since 2021, Dr. Bingham has advocated for our physician-scientists, improving bidirectional communication between investigators and research administration. Along with Dr. Bingham, Dr. O’Rourke has established a grant review process as well as a vast grant library with varied application samples to aid our investigators in obtaining funding. As vice chair since 2015, Dr. O’Rourke’s impact on the DOM’s basic scientists and research initiatives is almost immeasurable. Dr. Ray has served as Vice Chair for Data Integrity and Analytics since 2015, developing the DOM’s best practices for research data stewardship focused on discoverable retention of primary data for publications and distributing information on relevant technologies to aid in clinical investigation. We’d like to thank Drs. Bingham, O’Rourke and Ray for their commitment to improving the lives of our researchers, and therefore, our community overall.
