Administrative Development Program (ADP)

Grouping of JHU’s 2018–19 Administrative Development Program participants

the Administrative Development Program is a selective, six-month program for high-potential administrative professionals, designed to build the key competencies required for success in senior-level administrative roles.

Cohorts are small, with fewer than 15 employees across the university selected for each program. Each participant is paired with a senior administrative professional as a mentor, and the group meets at various Hopkins locations in the Baltimore area.

“The ADP program honestly changed my life. It opened my eyes to the fact that I have a very special gift and talent. Without the instructors and my cohort, I wouldn’t have had the self confidence to seek my dream role in SOM. The ADP helped me polish my skills and reach for a brighter future within JHU.”

Jamie Karl

ADP Participant
Selection Criteria

General Guidelines

To qualify, you’ll need a paragraph of support from your manager and must also: 

  • Have the support of your direct manager and senior leadership to participate in the program 
  • Be preparing for a more senior administrative role 
  • Be able to attend all sessions 
  • Demonstrate the university’s core values 
  • Be viewed as high-potential by others 
  • Have a record of consistently aboveaverage or excellent performance 
  • Have worked in the university for at least a year 

Nomination Process

Nominations for 2022 are now closed.

Please email us with any questions. 

Program Topics and Calendar for Fall 2022
ADP Fall 2022 Schedule
Resources

In addition to ADP, JHU offers a host of in-person and online courses, ebooks, and videos that can help you develop the skills you need to advance your administrative career. Browse our courses and resources.

You also can hear directly from ADP mentors about highly valued skills required of an executive assistant:

Problem Solving
Keeping Things Moving
Gatekeeping
Redirection
Keeping Them on Time
Managing Stress
The “Know-it-All”
Wellness
Emotional Intelligence

All That You Can Be

When it came to career advancement, Donna Sims says she was “my own worst enemy.” A Johns Hopkins employee since 1983 in a variety of assistant positions—beginning as a temp secretary in Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology—Sims stood by as many of her peers moved on to better jobs. And then wondered why she wasn’t doing the same.

“I’d become stagnant and only looked for something else [at Hopkins] if something upset me where I was,” says Sims, currently executive assistant to Ellen MacKenzie, dean of the Bloomberg School of Public Health. Those moves, she says, were usually lateral.

But when JHU launched a pilot program in 2018 to develop talent already at the university, someone who knew what Sims was capable of nominated her for the inaugural course. Eligible were current employees throughout the university already working as administrative assistants.