Hopkins at Home(wood) - Alumni Association Awards Series: Building Community and Connection in Baltimore

Hopkins at Home(wood) - Alumni Association Awards Series: Building Community and Connection in Baltimore Header Image

• Celebrating Johns Hopkins' Sesquicentennial; presented by Hopkins at Home and the Johns Hopkins University Alumni Association
• Featuring Shelly Choo (SOM ’11, BSPH ’14), Peter Kannam (Ed ’99), Daniel J. Trahey (Peab ’00), and Monica Guerrero Vazquez (BSPH ’18); moderated by Aaron Henkin

What does it look like to build meaningful, lasting community in a city shaped by both deep challenges and extraordinary resilience? How can leadership—in education, health, the arts, and grassroots advocacy—strengthen connection, expand opportunity, and uplift neighborhoods?

Join us for a timely and inspiring conversation with four Johns Hopkins alumni whose work is helping to shape Baltimore’s present and future. Drawing from their diverse experiences across public health, education, music, and community organizing, these leaders will explore what it means to show up for a city, listen deeply, and build systems rooted in trust, equity, and collaboration.

From advancing health equity and maternal care to transforming music education and public schools, our panelists demonstrate how sustained commitment and local partnership can drive meaningful change. They will reflect on the paths that led them to this work, the communities that motivate them, and the lessons they’ve learned about leadership, service, and connection in Baltimore.

Featured panelists include:

  • Shelly Choo, MD, SOM ’11, BSPH ’14 – Community Champion Awardee (2024)
  • Peter Kannam, Ed ’99 – Community Champion Awardee (2021)
  • Daniel J. Trahey, Peab ’00 – Community Champion Awardee (2018)
  • Monica Guerrero Vazquez, BSPH ’18 – Community Champion Awardee (2022)

Moderated by Aaron Henkin, an award-winning public radio producer with more than two decades of experience telling stories at the intersection of culture and community. He currently serves as Content Strategist at the Hopkins Bloomberg Center for Public Innovation, where he collaborates with public sector innovators from cities across the country and around the globe to document their research and experiences.

 

This virtual program will be broadcast live from Johns Hopkins Alumni Weekend. 
If you are interested in attending this panel discussion and our other Hopkins community events in person, visit https://jhu.events.alumniq.com/go/aw26 to register!

 

Disclaimer: The perspectives and opinions expressed by the speaker(s) during this program are those of the speaker(s) and not, necessarily, those of Johns Hopkins University and the scheduling of any speaker at an alumni event or program does not constitute the University’s endorsement of the speaker’s perspectives and opinions.
JHAA Event Cancellation and Refund Policy 
ABOUT Dr. Shelly Choo, MD, SOM ’11, BSPH ’14
Director of Policy and Planning at the Behavioral Health Administration

2024 Recipient of the Johns Hopkins Alumni Association Community Champion Award

Dr. Shelly Choo is a public health physician. She currently serves as the Director of Policy and Planning at the Behavioral Health Administration. She previously served as Director for the Bureau of Maternal and Child Health at the Maryland Department of Health, and as the Senior Medical Advisor of B'more for Healthy Babies and Chief Medical Officer with the Baltimore City Health Department. Her specialty is in Preventive Medicine and Public Health, and she is passionate about integrating primary health with behavioral health, maternal and child health, and population health. In 2023, she was recognized in the de Beaumont Foundation's 40 Under 40.

ABOUT Peter Kannam, Ed '99 (MS)
Principal, Elmer A Henderson: A Johns Hopkins Partnership School

2021 Recipient of the Johns Hopkins Alumni Association Community Champion Award

Peter Kannam, Ed ’99 (MS), is the principal of Elmer A. Henderson School. He brings more than 25 years of experience in education, including five years as a science and U.S. history teacher, two years teaching in a special education inclusion classroom, several years as executive director of Teach For America–Baltimore, and four years as executive director of New Leaders for New Schools Maryland. Peter was also jointly appointed by the governor and the mayor to serve two terms on the Baltimore City School System school board.

ABOUT Daniel Trahey, Peab ’00
Founder and Director, Tuned In @ The Peabody Preparatory of the Johns Hopkins University

2018 Recipient of the Johns Hopkins Alumni Association Community Champion Award

Dan Trahey, is the co-creator of The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s OrchKids and founder and director of Tuned In at the Peabody Conservatory. He is a musician, composer, educator, and a social change trailblazer. Throughout the United States, South America, Africa, and Europe, Trahey has been an entrepreneur and architect for socially conscious and artistically progressive music programs. As an implementer of programs that use music as a vehicle for social change, Trahey is highly sought after to educate, advocate, and design programs across the nation. In those programs, Trahey cultivates opportunities to use creative youth voice and community voice as a key ethos. 

Trahey currently directs Tuned In at The Peabody institute, is a Senior Faculty Advisor with the Academy of Impact through Music and the Director of the Youth Ambassador Program for El Sistema USA. In 2024 Dan was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to Columbia to work with the orchestral program, ‘Batuta’ focusing on collective composition and creative youth voice.

Trahey’s upcoming engagements include composition residencies at the Aspen School of Music and Sistema Utah and coaching with the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Yola program.

ABOUT Monica Guerrero Vazquez, BSPH ’18
Executive Director, Centro SOL; Commissioner, Maryland Governor's Commission on Suicide Prevention; Founder, TAMOJA Foundation

2022 Recipient of the Johns Hopkins Alumni Association Community Champion Award

Mónica Guerrero Vázquez is a public health professional. As an immigrant, she is a strong advocate for health equity and social justice, and passionate about improving quality of life for immigrant origin communities. Monica has worked with the Center for Health and Opportunity for Latinos (Centro SOL) since 2014, currently leads the center as the executive director where she oversees programming and research addressing issues affecting social determinants of health among immigrant communities. She received her MPH from the Bloomberg School of Public Health in 2018.

ABOUT Aaron Henkin
Content Strategist, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg Center for Public Innovation

Aaron Henkin is an award-winning public radio producer with more than two decades of experience telling stories at the intersection of culture and community. 

He currently serves as Content Strategist at the Hopkins Bloomberg Center for Public Innovation, where he collaborates with public sector innovators from cities across the country and around the globe to document their research and experiences.

Prior to joining Johns Hopkins, Aaron spent 22 years creating and producing original radio programs and podcasts for Baltimore NPR station WYPR. His neighborhood documentary series Out of the Blocks earned the 2018 national Edward R. Murrow Award. His other projects include The Maryland Curiosity Bureau, The Signal, and the Smithsonian Folkways Recordings series Tapestry of the Times. His work has aired nationally on NPR’s Morning Edition and All Things Considered.

 Event Date
Saturday, April 18, 2026
Start Time: 11:00am EDT
End Time: 12:00pm EDT

 Location
Virtual Livestream

Hopkins at Home
Livestream

 Contact
Office of Alumni Relations
Joe Letourneau
Lifelong Learning
(800) JHU-JHU1
hopkinsathome@jhu.edu

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