John Michael Colmers is the Johns Hopkins Medicine vice president for health care transformation and strategic planning. Colmers is the former Secretary of the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH). At Johns Hopkins Medicine, Colmers supports the executive leadership in strategically positioning the expanding Hopkins system to respond to health care reform and other near-term and long-term market forces.
As secretary of DHMH, Colmers led a $9 billion agency that's responsible for protecting, promoting and improving the health and well-being of Marylanders through a broad spectrum of programs including Medicaid, public health, behavioral health, state health facilities and regulatory oversight. Under his leadership, Medicaid coverage was expanded to more than 200,000 parents and children, substance abuse services expanded to 33,000 low income adults, dental services to low-income children improved, and the Clean Indoor Air Act was enacted, among other achievements.
Colmers has a B.A. from The Johns Hopkins University and an M.P.H. from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He is the immediate past chairman of AcademyHealth, as well as a member of the board of directors. He is a member of the Commonwealth Fund's Commission on a High Performance Health System and the past chairman of the steering committee of the Reforming States Group, a bipartisan group of executive and legislative leaders. From 2004 to 2007, Colmers served on the board of directors for CareFirst Blue Cross Blue Shield, Inc.