Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein is a Professor of the Practice in Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where he also serves as Vice Dean for Public Health Practice and Community Engagement. He is the Director of the Bloomberg American Health Initiative.

He works to develop and promote public health strategies, healthcare payment approaches, and regulatory policies that advance health and equity.

A pediatrician by training, he is a former health commissioner of Baltimore, Principal Deputy Commissioner of the U.S. FDA, and health secretary of Maryland. As health commissioner of Baltimore, he led an effort to expand access to addiction treatment with buprenoprhine that contributed to a two-thirds decline in fatal heroin overdoses over the course of a decade.

With respect to the opioid crisis, Dr. Sharfstein has advised states and localities, published articles and co-authored the book, The Opioid Epidemic: What Everyone Needs to Know, published in 2019 by the Oxford University Press. He is also the author of The Public Health Crisis Survival Guide: Leadership and Management in Trying Times. 

Dr. Sharfstein will be in conversation with Emily Witkowski, Emily holds Masters Degrees in Public Health and Library Science. She is the Teen Services Librarian for Maplewood Library, and currently works with the Maplewood Middle and Columbia High School libraries while the Main library is closed for construction.