Bob Hughes, Ph.D., a distinguished educator and health policy expert, is the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s first chief learning officer. Since joining the Foundation in 1989 as director of program research and then vice president, Hughes has played an instrumental role in program development and management in tobacco control, children’s health insurance, tracking health systems change, and community health projects. While he views his work in developing the field of policy research at the Foundation as one of his most significant achievements, the role of chief learning officer provides Hughes with the opportunity to harness the lessons, knowledge and practice of more than three decades of Foundation grantmaking. 

Hughes is responsible for the Pioneer Portfolio, the component of the Foundation dedicated to promoting fundamental breakthroughs in health and health care through innovative projects, including those from nontraditional sources and fields. This area of Foundation programs represents a “purposeful vehicle for seeking out new and exciting ideas that have the potential to change health care for the entire country.” Hughes believes that RWJF has a vital catalytic role to play in promoting the adoption and spread of new ideas and approaches to improve the future of health and health care. He also heads the RWJF editorial board, established to oversee learning products on the Foundation’s Web site that share “what the Foundation has learned about helping the country to get healthier and to improve health care.” 

Before joining RWJF, Hughes was an assistant dean at Johns Hopkins University. He also taught at the University of Washington School of Public Health and Community Medicine and the Arizona State University College of Business. He has written numerous articles on organizational behavior and institutional dynamics in a variety of health fields and philanthropy.

Hughes received a Ph.D. in behavioral sciences from Johns Hopkins University and a Pew postdoctoral fellowship in health policy at the University of California, San Francisco. He received an M.A. from Ohio State University, and a B.A. from DePauw University.

Hughes lives in Princeton with Linda Shaw, a pediatrician, and Marylin Smith, her mother and a retired nurse. Linda and Bob have three children. An avid reader, he also enjoys biking and tennis, a sport he coached at Johns Hopkins University. 

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