Emily Boss Named Director of Pediatric Otolaryngology

On April 29, 2024, David Eisele, Director of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery and David Hackam, Co-director of Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, announced that Emily Boss has been appointed director of pediatric otolaryngology, effective immediately.

A professor of otolaryngology, pediatrics, and health policy and management at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Bloomberg School of Public Health, Dr. Boss joined the pediatric otolaryngology division at Johns Hopkins in 2008. She completed her medical degree and otolaryngology residency at Virginia Commonwealth University and her pediatric otolaryngology fellowship at Seattle Children’s Hospital, and she is sub-certified in complex pediatric otolaryngology.

Dr. Boss is committed to leading and growing the pediatric otolaryngology division in its provision of family-centered, high-quality care grounded in evidence-based practices, innovative clinical programs, pioneering research and interdisciplinary collaboration.

As a nationally renowned thought leader in pediatric otolaryngology, a highly regarded clinician, a successful surgeon scientist and an established health system leader, Dr. Boss is passionate about organizational and interpersonal performance improvement in health care delivery. Her widely recognized and federally funded research focuses on mitigating health disparities in pediatric surgical care through optimized patient- and family-centered communication and decision-making. She was a leader nationally for the development and assessment of quality and performance measures in pediatric otolaryngology. A physician leader at Johns Hopkins, she is the medical director for revenue cycle performance improvement for Johns Hopkins Medicine and a physician adviser for care coordination/clinical resource management at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. She previously served as chief surgical quality officer for Johns Hopkins Children’s Center. 

Dr. Boss succeeds the foundational leadership of David Tunkel, who is stepping down after 30 years of service. Dr. Tunkel will remain on faculty as division chief emeritus, continuing to educate trainees, study otolaryngologic disease and treatments, and provide clinical care for children. We thank Dr. Tunkel immensely for his many years of leadership, his extensive clinical expertise and his success in building a renowned pediatric otolaryngology program at Johns Hopkins over the past decades.