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Tag: education

Education 2023: KATHERINE A. ROWE

In 2018, Rowe took the helm of the nation’s second-oldest university, William & Mary, bringing with her a diverse educational background that includes degrees in literature, graduate work in cinema and media studies, and 16 years as an English professor and department chair at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania. A Shakespearean scholar, she also co-founded and was CEO of a software company that developed apps to help students understand the Bard of Avon’s plays.

Rowe has championed entrepreneurism and job readiness at W&M, leading to the university’s No. 1 spot on The Wall Street Journal’s ranking of best public schools for internships three years in a row. Meanwhile, U.S. News & World Report has ranked W&M No. 1 in annual alumni giving for eight consecutive years. The university raised nearly $150 million in fiscal years 2022 and 2023, supporting priorities such as scholarships, internships and the W&M Athletics Complex.

Rowe serves on the Northern Virginia Technology Council board of directors and the Virginia American Revolution 250 Commission.

SOMEWHERE I’D LIKE TO VISIT: South Africa

WHAT MAKES ME HAPPIEST: Being part of a classroom, rehearsal, practice, lab — or any kind of learning experience

Education 2023: DONNA PRICE HENRY

Henry is making history at the University of Virginia’s College at Wise — the school’s first female chancellor, she created the school’s first office devoted to equity, diversity and inclusion. And in 2019 she made technology accessible for every student by instituting a program to grant every incoming freshman an iPad.

In June, she was honored by the YWCA Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia with a 2023 Tribute to Women Award in the STEAM Education category. Before coming to U.Va. Wise in 2013, Henry spent 16 years in a variety of positions at Florida Gulf Coast University, including as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. A biologist by training, she has degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia.

Henry serves on the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center board and recently completed a term on the NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics.

WHAT MAKES ME HAPPIEST: Spending time with my family, traveling and enjoying good food and wine

MOST RECENT BOOK READ: “Demon Copperhead,” by Barbara Kingsolver

Education 2023: TIMOTHY SANDS

Known among Hokies as “the Sandsman” — a nod to the Hokies’ football anthem, Metallica’s “Enter the Sandman” — Sands joined Virginia Tech in 2014 after serving as interim president at Purdue University.

Sands signed a contract in August 2022 to stay on as president through the 2027 academic year. During his tenure, Sands has been leading development of Virginia Tech’s Innovation Campus, a $1 billion campus in Alexandria for graduate computer science and engineering programs. Virginia Tech has also received notable donations in recent years, including $50 million from Fortune 500 defense contractor Boeing to foster diversity at the Innovation Campus and $50 million for the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC in Roanoke.

Trained as a scientist whose research focused on light-emitting diodes, Sands announced this year a goal for Tech to become a top 100 global research university. In July, he announced that Virginia Tech would end legacy preferences in admissions, as well as the option of early decision, following the U.S. Supreme Court’s June decision to end affirmative action.

Education 2023: JAMES E. RYAN

Ryan, who became the University of Virginia’s ninth president in 2018, has spearheaded several growth initiatives at the state’s flagship university, including the School of Data Science, a new performing arts center and the Karsh Institute of Democracy — all projects funded by donors, including a record 2019 gift of $120 million from alumni couple Jaffray and Merrill Woodriff for the data science school.

In January, U.Va. announced a $100 million donation from Charlottesville philanthropists Paul and Diane Manning to create a $300 million biotechnology institute to produce new medical treatments. U.Va. will contribute $150 million to the center, and the state has allocated $50 million in initial investments.

Ryan also has dealt with significant challenges as president, including the November 2022 mass shooting that claimed the lives of three football players and injured two other students, as well as the aftermath of the white nationalist march that took place on U.Va.’s Grounds the night before the deadly Unite the Right Rally.

Ryan, who previously served as dean of Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, was a first-generation college student who graduated summa cum laude from Yale University and was first in his U.Va. law class.

Education 2023: DAVID DORÉ

A newcomer to Virginia, Doré arrived in April as the Virginia Community College System’s new chancellor. It was quite the jump in scale from Doré’s previous role as president of campuses and executive vice chancellor for student experience and workforce development at Tucson, Arizona-based Pima Community College, which serves about 30,000 students. At VCCS, he oversees 23 colleges with 40 campuses and more than 200,000 students.

Doré, who calls community colleges “the most transformative organizations in this country,” has worked in higher education for over 30 years. As a former high school teacher, he once took his students on a field trip to meet PBS icon Mister Rogers.

A first-generation college graduate from Pennsylvania, Doré has a doctorate from Pepperdine University in California, an MBA from Georgetown University, and master’s degrees from Boston College and Santa Clara University. In 2017-18, he was a Rising Presidents Fellow in the Aspen Institute’s College Excellence Program. Doré serves on the American Technical Education Association’s board.

MOST RECENT BOOK READ: “Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know,” by Adam Grant

SOMETHING I’D NEVER DO AGAIN: Plant bamboo in my backyard

Education 2023: MAJ. GEN. CEDRIC T. WINS (U.S. ARMY, RET.)

A 34-year U.S. Army veteran and 1985 VMI alumnus, Wins became the first Black superintendent to lead “the West Point of the South,” the nation’s oldest state military college, following the resignation of his predecessor in 2020.

Wins joined at a time when VMI, known for its demanding “Rat Line” boot camp, was the subject of a state-ordered investigation that found instances of racism against Black cadets, as well as reports of sexual assaults and harassment of women cadets. Amid demands for reform from VMI alum Gov. Ralph Northam and Democratic state lawmakers, Wins hired VMI’s first chief diversity officer and oversaw the removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson.

The changes resulted in vitriolic criticism of Wins by alums who decried his tenure as a “woke assault” on VMI’s culture and traditions. Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who ran on a platform that included opposition to critical race theory, appointed conservative members to VMI’s board of visitors. Amid the backlash, VMI’s chief diversity officer, Jamica Love, resigned in June, two months after the state’s new chief diversity officer, Martin D. Brown, told an audience of VMI faculty and staff that “DEI is dead.”

Education 2023: LANCE R. COLLINS

Collins came to Virginia from Cornell University in 2020 to build Virginia Tech’s Innovation Campus in Alexandria, a $1 billion development that will educate computer science and engineering students within a stone’s throw of Amazon’s $2.5 billion-plus HQ2 East Coast headquarters in Arlington. Slated to open in 2024, the Innovation Campus was a key part of the state’s successful pitch for landing HQ2. 

Virginia Tech graduate students are already attending classes in temporary quarters in Alexandria. Collins also has been busy securing major donations for the campus, including $50 million from Boeing, $12.5 million from Northrop Grumman and $10 million from Hokie alumni Hema and Mehul Sanghani, CEO of Reston-based Octo.

At Cornell, Collins served as the Joseph Silbert Dean of Engineering for a decade and was part of the leadership team that partnered with New York City to build Cornell Tech, which opened in 2017. He also raised $400 million in new gifts.

Elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2021, Collins has bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Princeton University and a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. 

Education 2023: PETER BLAKE 

Blake will leave quite a legacy when he steps down from his role as director of the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia at the end of the year. SCHEV is establishing a search committee for his replacement and will work with the state education secretary’s office and others.

During Blake’s 11 years at SCHEV, the agency produced two statewide strategic plans for higher education, created an internship program with the Virginia Chamber of Commerce Foundation and developed the Pathways to Opportunity Plan to increase access to higher education.

Formerly state secretary of education under Gov. Mark Warner, Blake also served as vice chancellor of the Virginia Community College System. He serves on the boards of the Southern Virginia Higher Education Center, Virginia 529, Lead Virginia and the Virginia College Building Authority.

HOW I CHOSE MY CAREER: I said yes to opportunities and observed the styles and ethics of leaders I admired.

WHAT I’VE LEARNED: Everyone has an interest in being part of the solution, provided you give them an opportunity and a voice.

2023 Virginia 500: Education

 

Makola M. Abdullah

PRESIDENT, VIRGINIA STATE UNIVERSITY, ETTRICK 

 

 

Javaune Adams-Gaston 

PRESIDENT, NORFOLK STATE UNIVERSITY, NORFOLK

 


Jonathan R. Alger

PRESIDENT, JAMES MADISON UNIVERSITY, HARRISONBURG

 


Peter Blake

DIRECTOR, STATE COUNCIL OF HIGHER EDUCATION FOR VIRGINIA, RICHMOND

 


Lance R. Collins

VICE PRESIDENT AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, VIRGINIA TECH INNOVATION CAMPUS, ALEXANDRIA 

 


Maj. Gen. Dondi E. Costin

PRESIDENT, LIBERTY UNIVERSITY, LYNCHBURG

 

 


David Doré

CHANCELLOR, VIRGINIA COMMUNITY COLLEGE SYSTEM, CHESTERFIELD COUNTY

 


Tracy Fitzsimmons

PRESIDENT, SHENANDOAH UNIVERSITY, WINCHESTER

 

 


Aimee Rogstad Guidera

SECRETARY OF EDUCATION, COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA, RICHMOND

 


Kevin F. Hallock

PRESIDENT, UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND, RICHMOND

 


Brian O. Hemphill


PRESIDENT, OLD DOMINION UNIVERSITY, NORFOLK

 


Donna Price Henry

CHANCELLOR, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA’S COLLEGE AT WISE, WISE COUNTY

 


Anne M. Kress

PRESIDENT, NORTHERN VIRGINIA COMMUNITY COLLEGE, ANNANDALE

 


Karl McDonnell

PRESIDENT AND CEO, STRATEGIC EDUCATION, HERNDON

 


Troy D. Paino

PRESIDENT, UNIVERSITY OF MARY WASHINGTON, FREDERICKSBURG

 


Michael Rao

PRESIDENT, VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITY, RICHMOND

 


Gordon P. Robertson

CHANCELLOR, REGENT UNIVERSITY; PRESIDENT AND CEO, CHRISTIAN BROADCASTING NETWORK, VIRGINIA BEACH

 


Katherine A. Rowe

PRESIDENT, WILLIAM & MARY, WILLIAMSBURG

 

James E. Ryan

PRESIDENT, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA, CHARLOTTESVILLE

 


Timothy Sands

PRESIDENT, VIRGINIA TECH, BLACKSBURG

 


Gregory Washington

PRESIDENT, GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY, FAIRFAX

 


Lt. Gen. Darrell K. Williams

PRESIDENT, HAMPTON UNIVERSITY, HAMPTON

 


Maj. Gen. Cedric T. Wins

SUPERINTENDENT, VIRGINIA MILITARY INSTITUTE, LEXINGTON

 

 

 

 

Education 2023: MICHAEL RAO

In his 14th year at VCU, Rao has had a year of ups and downs.

VCU opened its $125 million STEM building in April, and in May it announced an $18 million donation from Washington, D.C.-based real estate analytics company CoStar Group to build an academic building for arts and innovation. However, VCU Health made headlines in May when it was revealed that it paid $73 million to exit a redevelopment project in downtown Richmond that would have provided more space for the health system. In June, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported that VCU’s board of visitors were unaware of that because VCU Health’s board members had been told to keep it confidential. In the wake of media reports, former Gov. Doug Wilder called for Rao’s firing and a state investigation.

One of the nation’s youngest college presidents when he was tapped to lead California’s Mission College in 1992, Rao became president of Central Michigan University in 2000 and was hired to lead VCU in 2009 at age 42. During his tenure, the university’s footprint has expanded by 5.3 million-plus square feet. VCU is the largest employer in the Richmond area.