After two years, VCU Health makes Levy permanent CEO

Two years after he first became interim CEO, Dr. Marlon F. Levy has been named VCU Health System’s permanent head.

Virginia Commonwealth University announced Monday that Levy’s interim roles as the Richmond-based health system’s CEO and senior vice president for VCU Health Sciences were made permanent in appointments by the VCU Board of Visitors and the VCU Health System Authority Board of Directors.

“Dr. Levy has the full confidence of both the VCU Board of Visitors and VCU Health System Authority Board of Directors to lead our health system and health sciences with the continued momentum he has already established,” said VCU’s rector, Todd P. Haymore, in a statement. “With his leadership and the unwavering commitment of all our people to our mission, VCU’s future is bright.”

Levy was appointed to his posts on an interim basis in November 2022 after VCU leadership called on his predecessor, Dr. Art Kellermann, to resign. Kellermann’s exit came shortly before news broke in 2023 that VCU Health had paid $72.9 million to back out of a $325 million failed development project that Kellermann warned against.

Formerly VCU Medical Center’s chief medical officer, Levy, who was a practicing abdominal multiorgan transplant surgeon who joined VCU Health in 2015 as chair of its transplant surgery department and director of the VCU Hume-Lee Transplant Center. Previously, Levy was surgical director of transplantation at Baylor All Saints Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas. He received his medical degree from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas. He also has an MBA from Brandeis University.

In June, Levy and VCU President Michael Rao appeared before the Virginia General Assembly’s watchdog body, the Joint Legislative Audit & Review Commission (JLARC), which released a study that found the university and Rao had too much influence over the health system’s operations. State analysts recommended that VCU Health change its bylaws to make the health system’s CEO report to the health system’s board and to eliminate its president position, which was filled by the president of VCU. In September, Rao, whose contract was renewed into 2030, lost the position of VCU Health president.

Last month, VCU Health announced it had gained approval from the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) to start lung transplants at its Hume-Lee Transplant Center, becoming one of three facilities in the state providing lung transplants. Other successes the health system has chalked up during Levy’s interim leadership include financial recovery from the pandemic and receiving upgraded bond ratings from Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s. And VCU Health Sciences, which includes the university’s health colleges and schools, saw the VCU School of Medicine again receive full accreditation. Additionally, the university secured state approval for planning funding for a new dental school facility and hired new deans to lead the School of Pharmacy, the School of Medicine, and the College of Health Professions.

“In his two years in this interim role, Dr. Levy has done an outstanding job, and I’m grateful that we will keep him here,” Rao said in a statement Monday. “Dr. Levy has led VCU Health’s post-COVID financial turnaround, restoring VCU Health to a positive operating margin, maintaining strong bond ratings and setting our health system on a course for greater success and patient outcomes. In the two years of his service, he has worked to support our colleagues in research and teaching. Additionally, Dr. Levy puts the needs of patients, students, faculty and staff first. He is an experienced and trusted leader, whose empathy for people is evident in everything he does.”