FAQs

Currently, the scope of the Ombuds Office extends to anyone with concerns related to doctoral, MD, full-time master’s and postdoctoral programs, or other aspects of life at Johns Hopkins impacting the students, postdocs, faculty and staff associated with those programs.

The Ombuds can provide a variety of services — including partnering in strategic thought, providing information on resources, communication coaching or facilitating a difficult conversation. What an ombuds provides depends on the situation and the preferences of the person who shares the concern with the Ombuds Office.

You can schedule a meeting via Calendly or contact the Ombuds by phone at (410) 218-6669 to make an appointment. Initial appointments are usually an hour, but we can adjust according to your availability, and we will do our best to accommodate your schedule. If you wish to remain anonymous, you may do so by scheduling a Calendly appointment with an email address that does not identify you, or by calling to schedule. The Ombuds Office will not attempt to identify people via phone number.  

During a consultation, the Ombuds will briefly explain their role and answer any questions you may have. The Ombuds will then invite you to share whatever you would like to share with them. The Ombuds will listen, ask clarifying questions, and then work with you to determine the next best steps. You do not need to prepare in any specific way for this meeting. But if you have any relevant documents or materials (email exchanges, course or program documents, letters of discipline, performance evaluations, etc.) that you think are pertinent to your concerns, you are welcome to discuss/share them (via Zoom) with the Ombuds during your visit.

The Ombuds can assist with a variety of situations, including (but not limited to): authorship disputes, communication challenges, interpersonal conflicts, navigating academic or research expectations, mistreatment, harassment/discrimination and questions or concerns about JHU policy.

For a more comprehensive list, please click here to review the type of issues the Ombuds typically hears.

People are welcome to contact the Ombuds Office with any concern related to a Johns Hopkins doctoral, MD, full-time master’s or postdoctoral program. The students, fellows, faculty and staff associated with those programs may also contact the Ombuds Office with any concerns about their experience in general at JHU. If an issue is outside of our scope, we may offer a referral to other resources to address your concern. The Ombuds does not participate in formal grievance processes, but can still be available to consult confidentially on connecting our visitors with resources and to describe how formal processes work. The Ombuds cannot attend meetings or hearings as a “support person” but can, with a visitor’s permission, coordinate and facilitate meetings between a visitor and others.

We will not reveal the name of anyone who contacts or meets with the Ombuds Office, nor any information shared with us, unless given explicit permission to do so. The only exceptions to this are if we learn that someone is in imminent danger of serious physical harm or if we have reason to believe a child or vulnerable adult has experienced abuse or neglect.  We will resist any attempts by inquirers or third parties to compel disclosure of confidential communications or documents. 

To the greatest degree possible, we manage scheduling and case data via secure third-party software, rather than using university email and servers. We keep only temporary case notes, which are destroyed as soon as your work with the Ombuds Office concludes. We maintain no permanent records beyond deidentified statistical information, which we use to report generally on the annual activities of the Office. We do not maintain the names of visitors to our office after a case is closed.

We discourage the use of email for substantive communications because we cannot guarantee the confidentiality of digital information, particularly if sent via university email.

The only exception to our confidentiality is if we learn that someone may be in imminent danger of serious physical harm or if we have reason to believe a child or vulnerable adult has experienced abuse or neglect.

If we are ever subpoenaed or otherwise asked for information, we will assert the confidential nature of that information and resist any attempts by inquirers or third parties to compel disclosure of confidential communications or documents to the full extent legally possible. 

Organizational Ombuds who operate at universities and other institutions are hired by the organization to serve in a confidential, independent, impartial, and informal role. The JHU Ombuds, like most university ombuds, follows the professional code of the International Ombuds Association, which underscores how critical impartiality and independence are to the effectiveness of the work. The Ombuds Charter agreement between the Ombuds Office and the university serves as the formal contract that protects the office’s independence and impartiality, as well as the confidentiality of its visitors, and it directly specifies that the Ombuds’ work is not subject to the substantive direction of the university. It further states that the Ombuds is not a representative of any party, be it administration or an individual visitor to the office. The Ombuds is impartial, and therefore does not exist to protect the university’s interests, nor to become the personal advocate of visitors to its office.

We discourage the use of email for substantive communications because we cannot guarantee the confidentiality of digital information, particularly if sent via university email. Instead, please schedule a consultation with us via Calendly or by calling us at (410) 218-6669.

Yes. While the Ombuds cannot receive formal complaints on behalf of the university, the Ombuds can help you understand formal grievance processes, know where to go for information, and discuss possible outcomes to support you in deciding what you want to do. The Ombuds can also help you to identify other available alternatives to formal grievance procedures, and can direct you to the appropriate office if you determine that you would like to file a formal complaint.

The word “ombudsman” is a Swedish word meaning “representative of the people” and originally stems from the Old Norse words umboth (“commission”) and mathr (“man”). Sweden was the first known country to appoint independent officials known as ombudsmen to investigate complaints against government officials and agencies.  Today, the word “ombuds” refers to someone who is designated to resolve concerns within an organization in an independent, confidential, impartial, and informal way.