James D. Yager, PhD, Named Acting Director of CLF
Sep 22, 2016
Dr. James D. Yager, PhD, Professor with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Department of Environmental Health and Engineering, has been appointed acting director of the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future (CLF). Dr. Yager replaces Dr. Anthony D. So, MD, MPA, who served as director since 2015 and was just named Director of the IDEA initiative with the Bloomberg School’s Department of International Health. A leader in public health education and environmental health, Dr. Yager will oversee the leadership transition and management of CLF effective immediately.
“I have been following the growth of the CLF since its creation 20 years ago, and it has been exciting to watch it become a leader in food system and public health research and education,” said Dr. Yager. “I’m looking forward to working with faculty and staff at the Center and supporting the commitment of the CLF to building a healthier, more resilient, and equitable food system.”
Dr. Yager, an expert on the mechanisms of estrogen carcinogenesis, is the author or co-author of over 200 publications, book chapters and abstracts and has trained many doctoral and postdoctoral students. He has served on a variety of research-related advisory boards and review panels, including various NIH grant, program project, center and doctoral training program review panels, and he served on the National Academies of Science/National Research Council Committee on Toxicity Testing and Assessment of Environmental Agents. Dr. Yager is also on the editorial boards of several scientific journals.
As senior associate dean for academic affairs from 2000-2013, Dr. Yager was responsible for overseeing, facilitating, and coordinating existing, and development of new academic, training, and continuing education programs in the Bloomberg School. Dr. Yager oversaw the School’s large, highly-rated online education infrastructure and programs. Working with members of the School’s faculty, he was instrumental in facilitating the development and funding of the School’s Open CourseWare program, which provides free access to the content of over 100 of the School’s courses to individuals throughout the world who desire this knowledge for self-improvement, use in teaching, or use in their professions. In 2012 he was influential in facilitating development of the School’s recent partnership with Coursera, a company that offers Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) at no charge. School faculty have offered 55 courses that have had over 5 million enrollments and over 280,000 successful course completion certificates. Dr. Yager also facilitated development of a novel internet-based certificate program in Spanish titled “Certificate Program in Epidemiology for Public Health Managers.” Twelve cohorts of 30 students each from various countries in Central and South America have completed this 8-month highly successful customized online certificate program that is taught in Spanish. A consortium of Latin American institutions along with the Bloomberg School now participate in this program, which serves as a model for training and capacity building of public health professionals in developing and developed countries. In 2010, Dr. Yager was the recipient of the Ernest L. Stebbins Faculty Award recognizing exceptional contributions to the development of educational programs throughout the school.
Dr. Yager was an Association of Schools of Public Health representative on the Council of Education in Public Health (CEPH), the body that accredits schools and programs of public health in the United States and internationally from 2004-2009, and was president of CEPH in 2009. He is also a member of the Board of Directors and chair of the Testing Committee of the National Board of Public Health Examiners, which oversees the Certified in Public Health certification exam.
“Jim is a senior leader at the Bloomberg School who served as Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs for 13 years and who has had a long professional and personal interest in the issues of sustainability and the environment,” said Michael J. Klag, MD, MPH, dean of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
More about Dr. Yager’s career and research is available here.