Alicia Wilson, who led community and economic development initiatives at Johns Hopkins from 2019 to 2023, is returning to Hopkins as its first-ever vice president for civic engagement and opportunity. She will start her new position in March.Wilson originally joined Hopkins in July of 2019 as vice president for economic development and community partnerships, the first person to hold that position. For the past two years, she has served as managing director of JPMorgan Chase’s North American regional philanthropy team, overseeing the organization’s philanthropic strategies in more than 40 markets. Since 2023, she has been a member of Hopkins’ board of trustees, a position she will give up when she returns to Hopkins.According to the JHU Hub, Wilson will report to Hopkins president Ron Daniels and work closely with several other university and health system leaders “to strengthen partnerships across the city and maximize the impact of the university’s civic engagement and investments.” In addition to Daniels, the Hub said, she will work with Maria Harris Tildon, vice president for government, community, and economic partnerships, and Beth Blauer, who was recently promoted to the role of vice president for public impact initiatives.“We are thrilled that Alicia Wilson is returning to Johns Hopkins in this new role,” The Hub quoted Daniels as saying. “During her time at Hopkins, Alicia brought her keen intellect, persistent zeal, and boundless passion for Baltimore and its people to ensure their flourishing, particularly in the face of challenging moments like the COVID-19 pandemic. Anyone who knows Alicia knows how fortunate we are to have her as part of the Hopkins family.”“All of us at Johns Hopkins are committed to serving the city we proudly call home, and we are invested in Baltimore’s future,” said Theodore DeWeese, dean of the medical faculty and CEO of Johns Hopkins Medicine. “As a proven leader with deep local ties, Alicia is uniquely equipped to advance our efforts to expand economic impact, strengthen educational and career pathways, and deepen the community partnerships that are central to our mission.”According to The Hub, Wilson will apply her experience and expertise to a variety of Hopkins programs and initiatives, including the establishment of the Innovation Fund for Community-Academic Partnerships, as called for in the “Second Roadmap” plan, a strategic framework for advancing diversity, equity and inclusion at Hopkins, and the university’s programs and partnerships with K-12 public schools in Baltimore. Wilson will also be an adviser on several high-priority public impact initiatives, including Hopkins’ recently-announced Baltimore Strategic Impact Initiative; HopkinsLocal, an economic inclusion effort, and other economic and community development projects.“I am deeply honored and thrilled to return to Johns Hopkins as the inaugural vice president for civic engagement and opportunity,” Wilson told The Hub. “It is a tremendous opportunity to return to Baltimore and Johns Hopkins to help strengthen partnerships, expand access, and create lasting opportunity that helps our city to grow and thrive and reflects the university’s commitment to impact, innovation, and Baltimore.”Wilson holds an undergraduate degree in political science from the University of Maryland Baltimore County and a law degree from the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law. Before joining Hopkins in 2019, she served as the senior vice president of impact investments and senior legal counsel for the development team at Port Covington, now Baltimore Peninsula. She also was a partner with the law firm of Gordon Feinblatt for eight years.When she was with Hopkins before, Wilson played a key role in supporting Johns Hopkins’ community response in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the spring of 2020, she convened Johns Hopkins’ COVID-19 Anchor Strategy Workgroup, a partnership between the university and health system that helped inform the institution’s response to an array of pandemic-driven needs in Baltimore, and created and led the East Baltimore Food Access Initiative, a network of community-based partnerships through which Hopkins distributed fresh groceries to approximately 7,000 Baltimore residents every week — more than six million meals in all.Wilson was instrumental in establishing the ‘Just Us Dialogues,’ a conversation series created in response to the 2020 death of George Floyd. She also established and lends her expertise to expungement clinics co-hosted by Hopkins to help citizens remove past offenses from their criminal records, clearing pathways to jobs and other opportunities.