The Johns Hopkins University is nominating seven people to fill spots for students, faculty and staff on its police accountability board.

The university this month selected Panagis Galiatsatos, a pulmonary and critical care medicine physician with the School of Medicine, to serve as the faculty member. Others tapped to serve in staff seats were Jerrell Bratcher, a communications administrator and president of the Black Faculty and Staff Association, and Laura Rossi, the director of human resources at the Peabody Institute.

Four students were also nominated to serve on the board: Ateeb Ahmad Parray, a graduate student in the Bloomberg School of Public Health as well as Freud-Williams Maignan and Chyna Sinclair, both undergraduates in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences. The seventh nominee, Kamaria S. Hill, a graduate student in the Carey Business School, has already served on the board before, according to the university’s announcement.

The Maryland Senate has final say over the appointments, with terms beginning June 1, 2024, and concluding May 31, 2025. The nominations come at a critical chapter in the police department’s launch as officials prepare to deploy officers this summer.

The 15-member police accountability board is charged with sharing community feedback, reviewing crime metrics and making recommendations to improve the department’s policies, procedures and training.

The police force has for years stirred heated debate in Baltimore. Advocates for the project say the private police force will help keep the campus and surrounding communities safe at a time when Baltimore City has struggled to address crime. Meanwhile, critics of the effort object to the private police force patrolling public streets surrounding campus out of concerns for oversight and transparency.

Nominees were selected from a pool of 25 applicants by a committee led by nonvoting chair Calvin L. Smith Jr., former president of the university’s Black Faculty and Staff Association. The committee reviewed the applications without names to keep the process anonymous and made recommendations to the university’s leadership, who made the final selections, according to the university’s announcement.