2025 Virginia Black Business Leaders Awards: Michael Elliott

In 2022, Elliott was named VCU Health System’s first chief operating officer, and moved to Richmond from Lynchburg, where he was chief transformation officer at Centra Health. He also worked for Sentara Health and earned a doctorate in pharmacy and master’s in health administration at VCU. In 2024, he was elected chair of the Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association board.

MY MOST MEANINGFUL JOB: My first job as a pharmacy technician in an independent pharmacy in Portsmouth. This job fulfilled my longing for the personal part of health care as well as the science. It was here that I got to know the people we were serving.

WHY I CHOSE MY PROFESSION: My maternal grandmother had just had quadruple bypass surgery on her heart, and my family went to visit her. She was clutching a heart pillow and had lots of tubes connected to her. I wanted to know everything about every tube and the heart pillow. I keep that desire for knowledge to this day.

MOST MEANINGFUL AWARD: One of the most meaningful honors I’ve had is to be the keynote graduation speaker at my alma mater, the VCU School of Pharmacy. It was miraculous for me to get into the VCU School of Pharmacy in the first place, but then to have had a blessed career worth of being selected as the graduation speaker still brings me to tears today.

TV SHOW I’D RECOMMEND: My youngest son, Evan, is 15 and likes anime. He recently asked me to watch a show called “Black Clover” with him. If you are like me, when your teenager wants to spend time with you, you do it.