Jon Kucskar, JD, serves as the inaugural Deputy Chief Risk Officer. He plays a key role within the Office of Institutional Risk Management (IRM) – including as Chair of the university-wide IRM Committee – in implementing JHU’s long-standing IRM program; developing JHU’s crisis management framework and coordinating crisis response efforts; leading issue-specific risk-related workgroups; and on a variety of other risk-related issues.
Prior to joining JHU in 2023, Jon served as Special Assistant to the President and Assistant Vice President for Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) at the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB). Notably, Jon led UMB’s ERM program in developing and implementing a new risk assessment framework; oversaw the Office of Risk Management; and played critical leadership and coordination roles during the COVID-19 pandemic. Previously, Jon served as Deputy Legal Counsel to the Governor of Maryland, Senior Advisor to the Maryland Public Service Commission, Senior Attorney at the U.S. Government Accountability Office; and a federal law clerk.
Jon has extensive experience teaching graduate classes and sharing best practices in national fora. Each year since 2014, he has served as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law. He also teaches as an Adjunct Instructor at the JHU Carey Business School. Jon has presented multiple times about ERM best practices at the University Risk Management and Insurance Association’s annual conference and previously presented numerous times at other associations’ events. His written publications include a law review article examining advantages to pursuing policy changes at the state level and a multi-author article about how best link an ERM program to strategic planning.
Jon earned his Juris Doctor, magna cum laude, from the Maryland Carey School of Law; his Bachelor of Science, cum laude, from Boston College; an executive certificate in Public Leadership from the Harvard Kennedy School; and a certificate in Intercultural Leadership from the University of Maryland, Baltimore Graduate School. He was named to The Daily Record’s VIP List and is a graduate of Leadership Maryland.
