05/08/2026
Dear Colleagues,
I am writing to let you know that Dr. Joseph Cofrancesco Jr. has decided to step down as director of the Institute for Excellence in Education (IEE), effective Sept. 15, 2026. For everyone who knows him, and even more for everyone who may not, Dr. Cofrancesco has been an extraordinary and tireless advocate for educators in medical and biomedical education. His energy, vision and dedication helped transform the culture of education at Johns Hopkins, and nationally, to promote this mission.
As founding director of the IEE in 2009, Dr. Cofrancesco led the teams that took the idea of an institute and built the entity of the IEE. It centered on a robust portfolio of programs across four pillars:
1. Improving teaching and facilitating learning;
2. Inspiring and supporting research, scholarship and innovation in education;
3. Valuing and recognizing educators and education; and
4. Fostering a community of educators.
The IEE has become an essential part of education in our school and is recognized nationally. There are innumerable examples of the impact IEE has had on our faculty. It has funded educators with small grants, Shark Tank awards, and the IEE Faculty Education Scholars’ Program to create new and innovative programs, several of which have gone on to receive national recognition.
It has recognized stellar faculty and staff with IEE Outstanding Educator awards. Most notably, it has worked to refine and implement objective metrics, making promotion of educators fairer and more transparent. Finally, it has elevated the work of educators with the annual IEE Conference and Celebration, which attracts abstracts and participants from across the country; expansion of the IEE Ambassador program; and dissemination of content through the online monthly IEE Educators’ Corner.
Dr. Cofrancesco is recognized nationally as an educational leader, earning many prestigious awards, publishing over 100 peer-reviewed manuscripts, presenting his work nationally and internationally, and chairing a National Academies Collaborative Steering Committee in 2011.
He is also an outstanding clinician who cares for his patients in general internal medicine and in HIV care. Johns Hopkins was fortunate to recruit Dr Cofrancesco in 1994 as a general internal medicine fellow. He joined the faculty in 1997, and rose to the rank of professor, as an educator, in 2019.
We wish Dr. Cofrancesco all the best as he continues his clinical work and mentoring. As he transitions to working part-time hours, we are grateful that he will still be at Hopkins.
A search for the next IEE director will follow soon. For now, please join me in offering our sincere appreciation for Dr. Cofrancesco and his exceptional leadership.
Sincerely,
Sanjay Desai, M.D., M.A.C.P.
Vice Dean for Education
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
