FRANCES WATT BAKER and LENOX D. BAKER JR., both A&S 1963, Med 1966, have strong family ties to Hopkins, where they met as students. Frances Baker, who trained as a pediatrician, is a member of the Alumni Council. Lenox Baker, a former senior partner in Mid-Atlantic Cardiothoracic Surgeons in Norfolk, Virginia, is a trustee of Johns Hopkins Medicine and trustee emeritus of Johns Hopkins University. He co-chaired the Johns Hopkins Initiative fundraising campaign.
More than a dozen of the Bakers’ relatives also are Hopkins affiliated, including both of their fathers–Lenox D. Baker Sr., who served as chief resident in orthopaedic surgery in the l930s, and James Watt, Med 1935, SPH 1936 (MPH), who served on the public health faculty–as well as their oldest daughter, Sarah Baker, SPH 1995 (MPH).
This was the first endowed deanship created at Johns Hopkins and is one of only a handful at medical schools nationwide.
“Sometimes the reward from giving to Hopkins comes in the brilliant career of a scholarship student, and sometimes it comes in a miraculous medical breakthrough. We can guarantee there is tremendous enjoyment in seeing your gift make a difference.”
–Frances W. and Lenox D. Baker
Held by Theodore L. DeWeese
THEODORE L. DEWEESE, M.D., is dean of the medical faculty and CEO, Johns Hopkins Medicine. Dr. DeWeese is the Sidney Kimmel Professor of Radiation Oncology and Molecular Radiation Sciences, and is professor of oncology and urology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. His areas of clinical expertise include prostate cancer, radiation oncology and urological oncology.
He and his colleagues focus their research on developing new ways to enhance radiation-induced killing of prostate cancer cells. This includes development of novel, prostate cancer-targeted RNA molecules as well as new ways to modulate androgen receptor signaling. He and his colleagues also developed the first adenoviral gene therapy trial for prostate cancer, using a common cold virus to target cancer cells while leaving normal cells unharmed.
Dr. DeWeese earned his M.D. from the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. He completed his residency at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, serving as chief resident, and performed a laboratory research fellowship at the Johns Hopkins Oncology Center and the James Buchanan Brady Urological Institute.
Dr. DeWeese’s research interests include prostate cancer, DNA damage, and radiation sensitization.
Dr. DeWeese has served on numerous committees and boards including as President and Chair of the Board for the American Society for Radiation Oncology. He also serves on committees for the American Association for Cancer Research and was appointed by the National Academy of Sciences as a scientific counselor for the Radiation Effects Research Foundation in Hiroshima, Japan. He has received numerous awards and honors, including several teaching awards from Johns Hopkins.
