When Rebecca Dineen thinks about what makes August Summers exceptional, she does not start with a strategy or a campaign. She starts with trust. 

Dineen, assistant commissioner for maternal and child health at the Baltimore City Health Department, has worked with Summers for nearly a decade through B’more for Healthy Babies, the citywide initiative recognized nationally for improving birth outcomes.  

She wrote a letter of support for Summers in nominating him for the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Staff Excellence in Baltimore Public Health Practice Award, which he will receive today, because she has seen firsthand how he approaches public health practice.  

“He has a special combination of technical rigor and relational strength that allows people to feel heard, respected, and valued,” Dineen wrote in her nomination letter. 

At the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs, and in his work across Baltimore, Summers has built a reputation as someone who listens first, understands context, and helps communities shape the solutions that affect their lives. 

The roots of that approach go back much further than his public health career. When he learned he was receiving the award, he thought of his family, especially his grandmothers, who were quiet but deeply connected to their South Carolina communities. 

“They were very service-oriented folks that saw the best in people, never asked for much, always were available,” he says. “That’s kind of where the value of the way that I work comes from.” 

For him, the recognition is meaningful because it reflects what he sees as the purpose of public health. 

“I just consider it service,” he says. “It’s what I would do no matter what job I had, what position I was in.” 

Summers carried that same sense of service into his public health career. At the start, communication was not the destination he imagined. He was drawn to health education and to a question that continues to guide his work today: How can we help people close the gap between where they are and where they want to be? 

Growing up, Summers saw the effects of chronic disease in his own family. He wanted to understand how public health could better help people reach the health goals they already had for themselves. 

“There are barriers to getting there, whether it’s knowledge or something else,” he says. “It’s usually a lot of something else.” 

For Summers, that “something else” is where communication matters most. Public health challenges are rarely solved by information alone. They require understanding people’s experiences, listening to what matters to them, and recognizing the expertise communities already have. 

“I want people to feel listened to,” Summers says. 

Listening, he says, is one of the most powerful tools a communicator has. 

“The more people feel listened to, the more they’re going to share,” he says. “You’re building trust. You’re getting more honesty.” 

The same principles shape the way Summers leads the domestic team at CCP. 

“What stands out about August is that the way he works with colleagues is the same way he works with communities,” says Tina Suliman, a senior program officer. “He listens, he asks questions, and he makes people feel valued. That’s not just a communication skill. It’s a way of leading.” 

Debora B. Freitas López, CCP’s executive director, sees those same qualities reflected in Summers’ work across the organization. 

“August represents the very best of CCP and public health practice,” says Debora B. Freitas López, CCP’s executive director. “He understands that meaningful communication begins with listening and with truly valuing the experiences, strengths, and expertise of communities. He brings tremendous care and commitment to his work and to the relationships he builds. This recognition is richly deserved.” 

That way of working has been central to Summers’ work with B’more for Healthy Babies, where communication has been a core strategy from the beginning. Dineen credits Summers with helping sustain the communication approach that connects more than 200 partners across Baltimore around a shared goal of improving maternal and infant health. 

“He has made sure communication is one of the core strategies of B’more for Healthy Babies,” Dineen wrote. “Our communication work in BHB is what ties the 200+ partners and the many different technical areas of work together.” 

Over the years, Summers has worked on some of Baltimore’s most complex public health priorities, from maternal and child health to COVID vaccination, safe sleep, breastfeeding, immunization and congenital syphilis. Across these challenges, his approach has remained consistent: start by understanding the community. 

Dineen says this ability to center community is one of the qualities that makes Summers such a trusted partner.  

“He approaches public health practice in a way that elevates community,” she wrote. “He looks for what reflects the strengths, realities, and expertise of Baltimore communities.” 

For Summers, community is more than a strategy. It is the foundation of the work. 

“I think the community piece is at the heart of it,” he says. “There’s definitely love in it. I love what I do, I love the people.” 

That sense of connection has carried him through both the rewarding and difficult moments of public health work. 

“The love part, the community part,” he says, “it transcends all of the very difficult parts of public health.” 

The Excellence in Baltimore Public Health Practice Award recognizes a body of work built over years of partnership, listening, and service. 

It also recognizes something harder to measure: the trust Summers has built, one conversation at a time.