Johns Hopkins Leaders Guide Local Workday Transition Teams

More than 100 Hopkins colleagues, selected for leadership and administrative expertise, become Workday Transition Team “leads” 

In the broadest change network of its kind across the enterprise, 90-plus Workday Transition Teams will play an important role in disseminating communications, promoting learning opportunities, supporting data validation, and collecting important readiness community feedback through surveys and direct engagements.  

The teams are organized into three communities — one for the Johns Hopkins Health System, currently made up of 34 teams, one for Johns Hopkins University, excluding the School of Medicine, comprised of 33 teams, and one for the university’s School of Medicine, currently with 24 teams. Health system and university leaders selected team sponsors, who in turn, tapped local colleagues known for their leadership and administrative expertise to serve as Workday transition leads. 

The Sightline team will highlight John Hopkins experts involved in the transformation efforts.  

Johns Hopkins Regional Physicians Spotlight: John Dunn

“This is about more than just technology; it’s about building a stronger, more connected system. I urge everyone to share their insights and questions. Together, we can shape a future that embraces the best of [Hopkins] while catering to the unique needs of each entity.”

John Dunn, Chief Operating Officer for Johns Hopkins Regional Physicians (JHRP), was selected as a lead for the JHRP Transition Team. With nearly three decades of experience within JHHS, Dunn’s expertise gives him a unique appreciation for the transformative potential of the transition to Workday. 

Dunn began at Johns Hopkins in 1996 as an administrative fellow, and he has held various roles that have provided him with a deep understanding of the healthcare landscape. After five years as assistant administrator for the Wilmer Eye Institute’s community-based practices, he spent two decades as the administrator for the JH Howard County Medical Center for Imaging Services. In his current role as COO for JHRP, which he joined two years ago, Dunn oversees operations for this broad network of community providers. 

With a diverse set of experiences, Dunn understands the important foundation that administrative technology and processes provide to an organization. Dunn noted that the implementation of Workday is an opportunity to simplify and enhance user experiences. “Workday isn’t just a new tool; it’s a chance to rethink how we work together,” he explained. Access to real-time, accurate data will empower managers and staff to make informed decisions and reduce administrative burdens. 

In a complex organization such as Johns Hopkins, he noted that standardization can help drive efficiency and accuracy. Transition Teams are crucial to helping realize this value because, according to Dunn, they serve as the bridge between the enterprise-wide design and the reality of local operations. Transition Teams will ensure that the system is configured in ways that reflect the diversity of our organization. 

Looking ahead, Dunn thinks that the JHRP Transition Team will be instrumental in translating the broader Workday implementation into relatable concepts for his unit. “We’ll identify areas where standardization can benefit us while also respecting where flexibility is necessary. Our team will serve as a resource, addressing questions and facilitating a smooth rollout,” he explained. 

Whiting School of Engineering Spotlight: Erika Lance

“Local transition teams are essential because they bridge the gap between the enterprise-wide vision and our schools.”

Erika Lance, a senior leader named to lead WSE’s Transition Team, knows a thing or two about bridging gaps between academic departments, divisions, research centers, and academic cultures.  

She joined Johns Hopkins in 2011 from the University of Southern California, landing in the highly collaborative Center for Imaging Science, at the epicenter of mathematics, computer science, biomedical engineering, and electrical engineering.  By 2018, she was tapped for the monumental task of restructuring the Department of Biomedical Engineering — consistently ranked as the leader in its field — uniting administrative operations from WSE, the School of Medicine, and affiliated research centers. “That required not only operational redesign but thoughtful change leadership: balancing cultural dynamics, building trust, and ensuring transparency through data,” she recalls. 

The experience has Lance excited for the possibility ahead. “Today, we spend valuable time piecing together information from multiple systems or reconciling spreadsheets,” she says. With deep knowledge of SAP, Concur, COEUS, and Fibi, Lance sees the Workday transition as an opportunity to simplify and modernize work processes, resulting in a more integrated system with real-time data that will free up capacity to partner more strategically with faculty, support students, and advance research activities.  

The WSE Transition Team will play a key role, she says. Team members will help explain what’s changing and why, guide colleagues as they learn new systems, and become an indispensable divisional resource. What’s more, team members will share back with the Sightline Program team what’s working — and where refinements are needed — creating an iterative process that stays grounded, collaborative, and ultimately successful.  

Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital Spotlight: Sarah Stephens

“When we bring all of our systems together, the biggest impact to our daily workflow will be spending less time figuring out how to find answers — instead, we’ll go to one centralized place and get the answers.” 

Sarah Stephens, a Senior Administrative Manager at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital (JHACH), has been tapped to lead the School of Medicine’s JHACH Transition Team.  With a passion for streamlining and finding efficiencies, and a black belt in Lean Six Sigma, Stephens is excited about the process improvements Workday will bring. 

Stephens began her career at Johns Hopkins as a healthcare administrative resident at ACH back in 2013. Starting in 2014, she worked her way up from Program Coordinator to Senior Administrative Manager working in the Vice Dean’s office on the integrations team where she focuses on supporting and fortifying integrations between JHACH and Baltimore campus departments, centers, and programs. She also serves on the core administrative team for research at JHACH, working towards developing high-quality basic and translational research programs in pediatric medicine.  

Working in a complex and collaborative environment, Stephens expressed concerns with losing time on “fishing expeditions” to find data in many different ponds. “Getting the full scope of data sometimes is so difficult. We spend a lot of time having to sift through and clean data and identify the sources of truth.” She sees the transition to Workday as an opportunity to break down silos and standardize business processes in a way that makes it easier to complete transactions as well as find training and resources when needed. 

Stephens is looking forward to collaborating with other School of Medicine Transition Teams and is ready to lead her team through the Workday Transition. The Workday Transition Team structure, she says, better supports an impactful rollout as Hopkins end-users will play a role in implementation and be given a voice. Having Transition Teams directly involved enhances engagement, making frontline teams who use these systems on a day-to-day basis feel their opinions really matter.