The Johns Hopkins University is expected to announce today that it has selected as its new president Ronald J. Daniels, a Canadian-educated lawyer who is the provost of the University of Pennsylvania, sources have told The Baltimore Sun.
Daniels, 49, is something of an unorthodox choice to lead the Hopkins medical institution and university. He has spent the bulk of his professional career in Canada as a professor and dean of law. Hopkins does not have a law school. And unlike Dr. William R. Brody, the departing president at Hopkins, Daniels does not have a medical background.
But he is a prodigious fundraiser, consensus-builder and creative thinker, according to friends and colleagues. As dean of the University of Toronto law school, Daniels increased its endowment from $1 million to $57 million. As provost at Penn for the past three years, he has focused on faculty retention and recruitment, and on increasing support for students.
Daniels declined to comment yesterday. Hopkins spokesman Dennis O'Shea also declined to comment. The university has scheduled an announcement for this afternoon.
Several Hopkins trustees said a board meeting is scheduled for today. Hopkins presidents are elected by the full board of trustees. The university formed a selection committee in the spring that has conducted a nationwide search for a new president.
A spokeswoman for the University of Pennsylvania said yesterday that Penn President Amy Gutmann had prepared a statement on Daniels' appointment at Hopkins but would not release it until today.
Daniels, who is a trustee at Hopkins, has written or edited at least four books on topics ranging from Hurricane Katrina to the welfare state. He has four children, all under the age of 18, and his wife is a human-rights lawyer. It is not known when he will start at Hopkins. Brody is stepping down Dec. 31.
"I think you can expect a lot of great things," said Frank Iacobucci, a former justice of the Supreme Court of Canada and a former dean of the Toronto law school. He called Daniels "a proven academic leader" who is industrious and hard-working and "has a rare bundle of leadership talents."
William E. Kirwan, chancellor of the University System of Maryland, said Daniels "appears to be an excellent choice" and has a very good reputation in academia. He said Daniels' lack of medical background would not be a hindrance. Former presidents of Hopkins have included a geographer, a chemist, a physicist and other scientists.
