The Drew Family Professorship in Honor of Alec John Cosgarea

INA and HOWARD DREW met in eighth grade in Springfield, New Jersey and both went to Johns Hopkins University, graduating in 1978. Ina earned a BA in International Studies and then received a Master’s Degree in International Affairs from Columbia University in 1979. At Hopkins, Howard received a BA in Public Health and then his DMD degree from the Rutgers School of Dental Medicine (RSDM), New Jersey Dental School (NJDS), in Newark, New Jersey in 1982.

Ina serves as a Trustee and Board Member of Barnard College and Johns Hopkins Medicine and is a Trustee Emerita of Johns Hopkins University after serving on the board for 12 years. She also served for a decade on the Board of Legal Momentum, the country’s oldest Women’s Legal Advocacy Group.

For 30 years, Ina worked in various executive positions with JPMorgan Chase and its predecessor banks. She was Chief Investment Officer and a member of the Operating Committee from 2005 to 2012. Ina is a past member of the US Treasury Department Borrowing Advisory Committee. Having recently retired from JPMorgan, Ina is now an independent consultant.

In private practice since 1984, Dr. Howard Drew has also been a faculty member at NJDS since graduating from the school. He is a Clinical Professor, Director of Implantology, and the Vice Chairman of the Department of Periodontics at RSDMNJDS. His students recognized him with the Excellence in Teaching Award in 2008, and in 2009, Dr. Drew received the prestigious American Academy of Periodontology Educator Award. In 2010, Dr. Drew joined an elite group, the Stuart D. Cook Master Educators’ Guild, which recognizes RSDM faculty members who advance the university’s educational mission in extraordinary ways. Furthermore, Dr. Drew was inducted into the American College of Dentists in 2011. In 2012 he was awarded the RSDM Alumni Association Decade (1980’s) Award. He has published extensively and lectured throughout the country.

Ina and Howard Drew reside in New Jersey, where they raised their two children.

 

“Larger than life,” is how ALEC JOHN COSGAREA was described by a young friend’s mother.

Alec was a rising high school senior at McDonogh School when he died from injuries sustained in a car accident in the summer of 2012.

A gifted student with a highly creative mind, Alec took a middle school art project involving duct tape and turned it into an online business selling wallets, flowers, belts, ties and hats made exclusively out of duct tape. He proudly called himself the CEO of Duct Tape Outfitters, LLC. Alec understood the importance of giving back to his community and donated 5% of his company’s profits to Swim Across America Baltimore, a charitable organization that organizes swims to raise money for cancer research at Johns Hopkins.

Alec was a dedicated swimmer who, alongside his brothers Drew and Will, trained and competed at the North Baltimore Aquatic Club with some of the most talented swimmers in the world. He was a Maryland State Swimming Champion and MIAA High School State Champion. Alec loved his sport and his enthusiasm was infectious. The highlight of his abbreviated athletic career was an upset victory in the 100 yard butterfly in his high school championships in 2012 that helped propel McDonogh to its first MIAA Championship in thirty-six years. At the time of his death Alec was being recruited to swim at Northwestern University and the University of Notre Dame.

Alec was passionate about his friends, having been described by one as ‘The King of All Boys.” He was a social being and always had his eye on organizing the next fun event. With a talent for gently pushing the envelope of appropriateness, Alec invariably got away with his escapades because of his charming personality and disarming smile. It brings the Cosgarea family great comfort to know that the Drew Family Professorship in Orthopaedic Surgery will be part of a legacy that honors Alec’s creative energy, passion for athletics, and desire to serve the community.

Drew Family Professorship

The Drew Family Professorship in the Humanities was given jointly by INA and HOWIE DREW. Both graduates of the Class of 1978, Ina and Howie place great emphasis on quality teaching and have a tremendous love for the humanities. Their wish is that this professorship recognize creative and inspirational teaching, as well as excellent scholarship. In addition, they hope to provide the school with the means to retain current outstanding faculty in the humanities.

The humanities programs at Johns Hopkins reflect the characteristic qualities of an intellectual community. The coordinated study of Western civilization through its literature, art, philosophy, and history has been one of the oldest continuing concerns at Hopkins. Because it has remained by design and tradition the smallest of the major American universities and because of the interdisciplinary interests of some of its most distinguished faculty, Hopkins has fostered to a remarkable degree the free exchange between scholars and students across departmental boundaries. The Drew Professorship demonstrates the commitment of Arts and Sciences alumni to the continued excellence of the humanities at Johns Hopkins.