As interim dean of the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School since 2019 and dean of the Rutgers New Jersey Medical School since 2011, Johnson is the first dean in history to oversee two medical schools at once.
Johnson’s clinical expertise and research focuses on adolescent physical and mental health, along with adolescent HIV, adolescent violence, adolescent sexuality, health equity and family strengthening. He chairs the New Jersey Governor’s Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, the Newark Ryan White Planning Council, and the Board of Deacons at Union Baptist Church in Orange.
In response to COVID-19, NJMS quickly developed the Rutgers University Center for COVID-19 Response and Pandemic Preparedness to serve as an institutional hub for COVID-19 research activities and information dissemination, and to stimulate transformative solutions for challenges at the local, national and international levels.The school joined other units at Rutgers putting the university front and center of research into the virus and its control.