Deborah Baker, DNP, AG-ACNP, NEA-BC, FAAN is the senior vice president for nursing for the Johns Hopkins Health System.  As the health system’s first senior vice president for nursing, Dr. Baker partners with the chief nursing officers and leaders at Johns Hopkins health system hospitals and outpatient care settings to ensure integration of services and alignment with the health system’s strategic goals and objectives.  She is accountable for enhancing a clinical practice environment that is patient centered, with unsurpassed clinical quality and patient safety, while also providing significant contributions to education and research, ensuring nursing practice at the highest scope of licensure.  In partnership with JHHS nursing leaders, has developed a system Nursing Professional Practice Model.

Dr. Baker joined the staff of The Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1992 as a clinical nurse in the Department of Surgery and spent most of her clinical career as a nurse practitioner caring for adult trauma and surgical oncology patients.  She was appointed to her current position in 2016.  At that time, she was also named the vice president for nursing and patient care services and Chief Nursing Officer for The Johns Hopkins Hospital.  Dr. Baker served in these dual roles until 2025, when she transitioned to focus solely on her health system position.  She is also DNP faculty at Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing, Associate Dean for Health Systems Partnership and Innovation and a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing.