In 2014, Dolby joined the faculty of Johns Hopkins University as a Homewood Professor of the Arts. Initially, he was tasked with teaching a class on film music at the then-brand new JHU-MICA Film Centre in Station North, but his involvement in music education deepened when the Peabody Institute (which is part of Johns Hopkins) asked him to join a panel discussing the future of the conservatory and how it could better prepare its students for a changing musical job market.