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Tag: education

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.

Education 2023: JAVAUNE ADAMS-GASTON

Rising in prominence since Adams-Gaston became its leader in 2019, Norfolk State now ranks regularly in the top 20 historically Black colleges and universities, as ranked by U.S. News & World Report.

In 2021, Norfolk State received its largest single-donor gift, $40 million from billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott, ex-wife of Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos. The private HBCU also has made headlines from its connections with native Virginia music legends Pharrell Williams and Missy Elliott, who delivered NSU commencement speeches in 2021 and 2022, respectively.

Named a Trailblazer of Title IX by the Women Leaders in College Sports in 2022, Adams-Gaston — NSU’s seventh president and third woman in that role — also serves on President Joe Biden’s HBCUs advisory board, along with Virginia State University President Makola M. Abdullah. 

Adams-Gaston has overseen the expansion of NSU’s online academic programs in recent years, including master’s degrees in cybersecurity and cyberpsychology. 

Prior to joining NSU, Adams-Gaston served as senior vice president for student life at Ohio State University and held several executive positions at the University of Maryland.

Education 2023: GREGORY WASHINGTON

A first-generation college graduate, Washington became the first Black president of Virginia’s largest and most diverse public university in 2020.

Trained in mechanical engineering at North Carolina State University, Washington was elected in February to the National Academy of Engineering. He was previously dean of the University of California, Irvine’s Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science.

Under his leadership, Mason last year established the state’s first College of Public Health at its Fairfax campus. GMU also is undertaking a major expansion of its Arlington campus, breaking ground last year on its $250 million Fuse at Mason Square building, where the Institute for Digital InnovAtion and School of Computing will be housed. GMU has pledged to produce an additional 2,000 undergraduates and 5,000 postgraduates in computer science and engineering over the next two decades as part of a state tech talent initiative.

In May, the university received a $50 million bequest from late Loudoun County businessman Donald G. Costello to endow business school scholarships. Additionally, Attain Partners CEO Greg Baroni and his wife, Camille, donated $7 million to the business school’s Center for Government Contracting, now named for the couple.