Dominion Energy Chief Operating Officer Diane Leopold plans to retire from the Fortune 500 utility this summer after working for nearly four decades in the industry.
Leopold, who will remain as COO and executive vice president until she steps down on June 1, 2025, oversees major construction projects such as Dominion’s $9.8 billion Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project and Charybdis, the first U.S.-built wind turbine installation vessel.
In the coming months, Leopold will transfer utility and contracted energy duties to Ed Baine, president of Dominion Energy Virginia, and Eric Carr, Dominon Energy’s chief nuclear officer.
Leopold, who earned a master’s degree in electrical engineering from George Washington University and an MBA from Virginia Commonwealth University, got her start with Dominion as a power station engineer in 1995. Previously, she led Dominion’s gas infrastructure group, was vice president of financial management and business planning, and served as senior vice president of Dominion Transmission. Prior to joining Dominion, she held engineering positions at Potomac Electric Power.
Leopold sits on the boards of Nuclear Electric Insurance Limited, a mutual insurance company with headquarters in Delaware, and of Markel Group, the Fortune 500 insurance company based in Glen Allen. She is also a board member of the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation and the World Pediatric Project.
“Diane is one of the brightest, most dedicated, and most capable people in our company and in our industry,” Dominion Energy Chair, CEO and President Bob Blue stated in a news release. “Over her 36 years in the utility industry, she’s demonstrated best-in-class performance in nearly all areas of operations, business development, financial planning [and] corporate strategy, as well as the construction of several multibillion-dollar energy infrastructure projects. … When she retires in June, she’ll leave behind a deep and capable bench of talented leaders, including Ed and Eric, due to her deliberate focus on developing her team members.”
Baine’s new title will be president of utility operations and Dominion Energy Virginia. He will continue overseeing operations of
an electric utility serving 2.8 million accounts in the commonwealth and northeast North Carolina. Starting Jan. 1, 2025, Baine will assume additional responsibilities for Dominion Energy South Carolina, which serves 800,000 electric utility accounts and 500,000 gas utility accounts. Keller Kissam, president of Dominion Energy South Carolina, will report to Baine.
Baine joined Dominion in 1995 as an associate engineer after graduating with a degree in electrical engineering from Virginia Tech. He has held numerous leadership positions at the company, including senior vice president of distribution, power delivery group and senior vice president of power delivery for Dominion Energy Virginia.
As chief nuclear officer and now president of nuclear operations, Carr will continue to be responsible for the company’s nuclear operations at four stations in three states. On Jan. 1, 2025, Carr will take responsibility for the utility’s contracted energy business segment, which includes Millstone Power Station, a nuclear power plant in Connecticut, long-term contracted solar generation assets and a renewable natural gas portfolio.
Eric Carris is president of nuclear operations and chief nuclear officer. Photo courtesy Dominion Energy.
In March, Gov. Glenn Younkin appointed Carr, who has an engineering degree from the University of Delaware and an MBA from Widener University in Pennsylvania, to the board of the Virginia Nuclear Energy Consortium Authority.
Carr joined Dominion Energy in 2023. Previously, he was president and chief nuclear officer for PSEG Nuclear in New Jersey. There, he oversaw 1,600 employees and operations at the Hope Creek and Salem nuclear generating stations.
Dominion Energy provides regulated electricity service to 3.6 million homes and businesses in Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina, as well as regulated natural gas service to 500,000 customers in South Carolina. The company also develops and operates regulated offshore wind and solar power. Dominon Energy, which boasts 17,000 employees, reported $14.4 billion in revenue for 2023.
The country’s aging, overwhelmed electrical grid. Threats of cyberattacks. The explosion of interest in — and confusion about — artificial intelligence.
These real-life problems don’t know boundaries. Neither should the search for solutions, says Azim Eskandarian, dean of Virginia Commonwealth University’s College of Engineering.
Cross-disciplinary learning is the way of the future and VCU’s engineering school is setting itself up to be that kind of learning institution, says Eskandarian, who advocates for what he calls “engineering without boundaries.”
In a move to break down walls between disciplines and qualify students for high-demand jobs, the college has added six new minors for undergraduates: artificial intelligence, aerospace engineering, nuclear engineering, software engineering, cybersecurity, and data science. These minors became available at the beginning of the 2024-25 academic year.
What makes the addition of these minors so valuable is that engineering “has become a more interdisciplinary field that requires at least a basic understanding of principles from a variety of industries,” says John R. Harrell, Dominion Energy’s director of nuclear engineering and fuel department.
Richmond-based Dominion, which runs four nuclear reactors in Surry and Louisa counties and is taking steps toward potentially developing a small nuclear modular reactor at the North Anna Power Station, relies on VCU engineering graduates to fill a wide range of positions, including mechanical design engineer, electric transmission engineer, nuclear core design engineer and nuclear spent fuels engineer.
“Knowledge of nuclear power generation could be beneficial to an electrical engineer working on the power grid. A deeper understanding of nuclear energy can enable them to find better and more efficient solutions for Dominion Energy,” says Harrell, a member of VCU’s nuclear engineering advisory board.
Having expertise in more than one engineering discipline allows new hires “to rotate between roles on a team that might have been unavailable to a specialist,” he adds.
The engineering college teaches nearly 2,000 undergraduate students and approximately 300 graduate students who are pursuing degrees in everything from biomedical engineering through nuclear engineering.
In addition to the new minor focuses, the college has six new master’s concentrations in aerospace engineering, engineering management, environmental and sustainable engineering, rehabilitation engineering, systems engineering, tissue engineering, and regenerative medicine.
Eskandarian describes VCU’s engineering curriculum as focused and unusual. “We don’t have programs in industrial or civil engineering — we don’t have that traditional type of program.”
“Every graduate of VCU should have a chance to get educated in data science and AI,” says Preetam Ghosh, interim chair of VCU’s Department of Computer Science. Photo courtesy Virginia Commonwealth University
Nuclear option
The new nuclear engineering minor helps VCU address the ever-expanding need for education relating to nuclear power reactors, shipbuilding and medical isotopes, according to John Speich, interim chair and professor of VCU’s Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering.
The demand for sustainable energy has spurred interest in small modular reactors (SMRs), which have a lower initial capital investment, greater scalability and a smaller physical footprint than traditional reactors, allowing them to be built closer to the grid.
In July, Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed a bill aimed at accelerating the deployment of SMRs in Virginia. Dominion Energy followed up with requests for proposals to study the feasibility of an SMR at North Anna. In October, Dominion Energy Virginia signed an agreement with Amazon.com to explore potential development of SMRs, with Amazon helping finance the move.
Only two SMRs are currently in operation worldwide, officials note, and Virginia likely wouldn’t have its own small reactor until at least the mid-2030s.
The new minor, says Supathorn Phongikaroon, engineering foundation professor and director of nuclear engineering programs at VCU, will help expand the pool of scientific talent available in Virginia. “We want … to involve and include people who often think this is an extremely difficult area” and shy away from it, he says.
For example, he says, students majoring in electrical engineering could add the minor to enable them to better explore possible nuclear-power solutions to the U.S.’s growing demand for energy, largely attributed to expanding digital use and data center growth.
Five or six students are already taking the nuclear engineering minor. The intro class typically has about 30 students, but about 40 are enrolled this fall, Phongikaroon says.
VCU offers students a wealth of opportunities to research various aspects of nuclear power. Its Nuclear Reactor Simulator Laboratory is home to the GSE Solutions GPWR (Generic Pressurized Water Reactor) nuclear reactor simulator, which mimics the behavior of a nuclear reactor like those at Dominion’s power stations that heat water to create steam and drive an electric generator.
This gives students hands-on experience with nuclear plants’ operations and lets them learn how to handle unanticipated events.
“It can simulate an entire power plant,” Eskandarian says, which allows researchers to study a range of issues, including sustainability and potential safety hazards.
VCU also is involved in research at the Center of Operational Excellence for Nuclear Products and Services in Lynchburg and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. The university’s work has been honored by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the International Atomic Energy Agency, among others.
The nuclear engineering minor also is valuable in the nuclear Navy and the shipbuilding industry, Speich says.
Newport News Shipbuilding, a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries, is one of two primary designers and builders of nuclear-powered submarines for the U.S. Navy. And it is currently building the Ford-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the first new aircraft carrier design in decades.
VCU has many nuclear and mechanical engineering alumni at Newport News Shipbuilding, as well as other big employers like nuclear fuel maker BWX Technologies and nuclear reactor builder Framatome in Lynchburg, Speich notes, and “we have representatives from these companies on our advisory boards.”
Other options are in the study of medical isotopes, an essential part of radiopharmaceuticals that are used to detect diagnosis and treat cardiovascular diseases and cancer, according to Phongikaroon.
In 2023, the Energy Department awarded a VCU-led team a $5 million grant to develop a more efficient method of isotope production, and researchers from VCU, Virginia State University and Virginia Union University are forming a consortium with the Oak Ridge laboratory to train 70 undergraduate and graduate students in all aspects of isotope production.
The next frontier
Nuclear energy isn’t the only hot area of research. VCU engineering master’s students have the option for a concentration in aerospace engineering, which prompted the idea of offering a minor to undergraduates.
The demand for education in the field certainly has been strong, according to Speich. “When we have open houses, people ask if we have aerospace.” VCU students are active in the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics professional society and in RAM Rocketry, which provides experience in the field of rocketry and aerospace design through student rocketry competitions.
The minor will be useful to engineering students seeking jobs related to the design, manufacture and testing of airplanes, helicopters, drones, rockets, spacecraft or satellites, Speich says. So far, “we have at least a dozen in this minor,” he says. One student who had already begun taking electives, “will be graduating in December.”
Having already offered aerospace courses, VCU can cite an impressive list of employers its engineering grads have gone on to, including NASA, Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
Artificial intelligence is also another popular area of study, Eskandarian says — “perhaps the hottest topic now. It’s on the news all the time.”
This new minor covers the essentials of AI technology, with a selection of courses that delve into topics such as machine learning, natural language processing and the ethical considerations of AI.
According to a survey of 300 U.S. and U.K. organizations conducted by Gartner, a technology research and consulting firm, 56% of software engineering leaders rated AI/machine learning engineer as the most in-demand role for 2024, as well as the biggest skills gap.
While perhaps not quite as red-hot as AI is currently, VCU’s minors in data science, cybersecurity and software engineering are also promising fields for future employment.
All types of businesses want employees who know how to handle data, says Eskandarian, and the data science minor is primarily for students majoring in computer science and mathematical sciences with a concentration in statistics.
This interdisciplinary field combines expertise in statistics, computer science and domain-specific knowledge to extract insights and knowledge from data, according to Preetam Ghosh, a professor and interim chair for the engineering college’s Department of Computer Science.
Ghosh’s department is the largest in the college, offering courses on AI, cybersecurity, high-performance data mining and machine learning, among other fields. Data science is used in all of them, Ghosh says. “Every graduate of VCU should have a chance to get educated in data science and AI. Every job needs some type of data and AI, even arts majors.”
As for the cybersecurity minor, it’s open to non-computer science majors and gives them valuable troubleshooting skills that let them identify hacking weaknesses and correct problems. The student may not be qualified to create a cyber defense product, Ghosh says, but “it covers the basics” such as blockchain technology, a method of recording information that makes it difficult for the system to be hacked or manipulated.
As for software engineering, Ghosh says it’s a mainstay for the IT industry, where “the demand is more than the supply. These are good jobs with security.”
The minor is meant to provide students with an understanding of software life cycles; architecture and design patterns; agile software development; and maintenance and testing methodologies. Students also learn about how to collaborate in large software development teams.
Many software jobs don’t need to be filled by someone who has majored in the field, Ghosh adds. It could be an art student or a marketing major. “We’re creating new pathways for students from different backgrounds. We’ve democratized software engineering.”
Eskandarian sees all of these new minors as critical to meeting the needs of students and companies in Virginia. “We want to produce student leader engineers that are serving the market.”
VCU at a glance
Founded
Virginia Commonwealth University was founded in 1838 as the Medical College of Hampden-Sydney and was later renamed the Medical College of Virginia. In 1968, MCV merged with Richmond Professional Institute to form VCU.
Campus
VCU has two campuses in downtown Richmond covering a total of 198 acres. The Monroe Park Campus houses most undergraduate students and classes. VCU’s five health sciences schools, the College of Health Professions, VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center and VCU Health are located on the MCV campus.
Full-time faculty: 2,457
Full-time university and academic professionals: 3,675
Tuition and fees
In-state tuition and fees: $16,720**
Tuition and fees (out of state): $39,884**
Room and board and other fees: $14,268***
Average financial aid awarded to full-time freshmen seeking assistance: $20,261
* Includes VCU and VCU Health
** Based on 15 credit hours per semester and 30 credit hours for the 2024-25 year. This does not include program fees, which vary based on a student’s major.
*** Room charge is based on a double occupancy in Rhoads Hall, and the dining rate is for the 200 swipes with $225 dining dollars meal plan for the 2024-25 year.
Officials with Virginia Commonwealth University are discussing with the Altria Group the possibility of buying its 450,000-square-foot research building in downtown Richmond, the two parties acknowledged separately this week.
The Altria Center for Research and Technology, which opened in 2007, sits on more than four acres at 600 E. Leigh St. and is assessed for $275 million. School executives have been holding “active discussions with state budget leaders” about purchasing it, VCU spokesperson Grant Heston noted in a statement.
“Though the building was not listed for sale, Altria agreed to discuss a potential sale when approached by VCU and the Commonwealth of Virginia,” David Sutton, a spokesperson for Altria, the parent company of tobacco products manufacturer Philip Morris USA, said in a statement.
Sutton added that if the deal comes to fruition, Altria plans to construct a new research facility in Richmond, likely at Philip Morris USA’s Manufacturing Center complex, located near Interstate 95 in South Richmond.
In 2022, the National Science Foundation included VCU for the first time on a list of the top 50 public research universities.
“This recognition comes despite significant need for new, modern research facilities,” Heston said. “Additional research space is a priority for VCU, Richmond and the Commonwealth and is crucial to delivering new drugs, medical devices, pharmaceutical advancements and breakthroughs in disease prevention and treatments.”
VCU’s Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center and Medicines for All Institute, an initiative to improve global access to medicines, as well as some of the university’s academic health sciences programs such as the School of Pharmacy, could move into the new facility. The space, Heston stated, also “would help the health system add more fully private rooms to the VCU Medical Center.”
Constructing a new building the size of the research facility would likely cost more than $700 million and take at least a decade, according to Heston.
VCU has not set a timetable for making a decision. Any agreements would need to be reviewed and approved by the VCU Board of Visitors, the Virginia General Assembly and the governor’s office, according to the university’s statement.
VCU and VCU Health have had a controversial history with downtown development deals in recent years. In spring 2023, news broke that the university’s health system was planning to pay developers $72.9 million to back out of a $325 million downtown development project with higher costs than the university had anticipated.
Known as the Clay Street Project, VCU planned to build a medical office tower and a multiuse project at the site of the City of Richmond-owned Public Safety Building at 10th and Clay streets. Ultimately, VCU paid about $5 million to demolish the Public Safety Building in a promise to the city — bringing the university’s costs to nearly $80 million. VCU Health also had an agreement with the city government to pay about $56 million to make up for lost tax revenue, but the city and VCU Health have not yet reached an agreement over that money. Ultimately, state watchdog JLARC recommended changes in governance for the health system. In September, VCU Health’s board voted at the request of VCU President Michael Rao to eliminate his dual title as VCU Health president, noting the “title was misleading as it implied an operational role which did not exist.”
Since real estate owned by VCU would likely be tax exempt, the city’s coffers could take a hit if VCU’s deal to acquire Altria’s research facility becomes a reality.
In a brief response to a request for comment, Margaret Ekam, a city spokesperson, said in a statement, “At this time, we are still gathering information about the proposed plan.”
RICHMOND, Va. — Students, lawmakers and free-speech activists question if updated university policies that regulate student demonstrations violate First Amendment rights.
After campus protests that led to some clashes with police, institutions such as Virginia Commonwealth University, James Madison University, University of Virginia and Virginia Tech adopted similar policies.
The new rules ban encampments, require masked individuals to show identification if asked, limit where students can hold events and implement stricter rules on chalking, a popular form of peaceful protest.
College students across Virginia have protested in response to the Israel-Hamas war, through marches and gatherings in solidarity with Palestine. The movement peaked before the end of spring semester, when Virginia students erected encampments on campuses that led to police response and 125 arrests, according to the Virginia Mercury.
Demonstrations erupted around the world after the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel that killed approximately 1,200 people, according to the Associated Press. About 250 hostages were seized in the attack.
A war ensued in the region that has led to the death of at least 41,000 Palestinians, as of October.
State Attorney General Jason Miyares denounced student demonstrations last November, and stated Jewish students felt unsafe and threatened by certain chants and slogans that called for a free Palestine. Miyares concluded some of the speech is antisemitic and might not be protected by the First Amendment, because it could incite “imminent lawless action.”
Miyares recommended Virginia colleges implement policy changes to foster safer campuses and avoid disruptions of the educational environment, according to communications director Shaun Kenney.
State Secretary of Education Aimee Guidera in August urged governing board members of Virginia universities to update their codes of conduct, according to an email statement.
“Considering the challenges faced on college and university campuses last academic year and reports that the fall will be even more chaotic, we have asked each institution take proactive steps to update policies,” Guidera stated.
The Students for Justice in Palestine has chapters across Virginia that organize campus demonstrations.
State leaders, in multiple statements and most recently at a legislative hearing, highlight the SJP as a source of antisemitism and disruption on campuses.
Last academic year, an anti-abortion campus event at VCU also ended in disruption, when abortion-rights protesters interrupted a meeting because they did not want people “spewing hate on our campus,” according to the Commonwealth Times.
Student protestors at Virginia Commonwealth encampments on April 30. Photo by Summer DeCiucis, Capital News Service
The new policies will impact how and where student organizations meet moving forward.
Sereen Haddad is a Palestinian student and organizer for the SJP chapter at VCU since October 2023. Haddad has regularly helped host peaceful protests in support of Palestine.
Haddad is concerned the policies intended to protect free speech, actually infringe on free speech rights. The new policies limit outlets for peaceful protests, she said. Students can only display posters the size of a letter-size piece of paper and assemble in designated areas.
“It’s very clear that quite frankly all these policies that are being put in place are no way promoting safety, instead they do promote fear and they promote silence,” Haddad said.
The 25-year-old Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression is a nonpartisan and nonprofit organization that defends free speech.
FIRE rates and tracks the policies that regulate student expression at almost 500 colleges and universities. It works to ensure students are able to lawfully protest, and reaches out to universities whose policies violate the First Amendment.
Laura Beltz, director of policy reform at FIRE, has seen the impact of increased policies regarding student demonstrations.
“We’ve seen a lot of policy changes happening this academic year,” Beltz said. “An unprecedented number of new restrictions on the way students can get out and express themselves on campus.”
No Virginia universities are in direct violation of the First Amendment, yet these institutions have taken a heavy hand through new restrictive policies, according to Beltz.
“I’m concerned that students will see these new regulations when they come back to campus and the message they will receive is that it’s either too onerous to get out and express themselves or that there’s really no reasonable opportunity to do so,” Beltz said.
FIRE ranked UVA. No. 1 in advertised commitments to free expression, on a list last updated in November 2023. The annual list is set to be updated this fall, and will take into consideration the actions of universities over the past academic year.
The Senate Education and Health Committee met Sept. 17 to hear directly from those who were involved in student-led actions, as well as eyewitnesses, and to learn about the new policies.
Numerous speakers from Virginia colleges offered testimony at the two-hour long hearing, including teachers and students arrested in the spring. Jewish students and people affiliated with universities offered perspectives that the demonstrations were important to address injustice. Representatives also said certain SJP chants are offensive.
Committee chair Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, D-Chesterfield, a former college professor, encouraged universities to think about uniform policies to approach student activism and faculty rights when it comes to protest.
Sen. Schuyler VanValkenburg, D-Henrico, teaches high school government classes. He questioned if the Senate should be doing anything legislatively concerning college policies.
Colleges have two conflicting responsibilities: to uphold free speech and to uphold anti-discrimination, according to VanValkenburg. Colleges need to make sure all kids have a voice and are safe, he said.
“At the end of the day this comes down to clear boundaries, clear rules, clarity and objective standards that are followed, no matter what,” VanValkenburg said. “I might like some of those rules, I might not like some of those rules, but they’re the rules.”
Capital News Service is a program of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Robertson School of Media and Culture. Students in the program provide state government coverage for a variety of media outlets in Virginia.
Virginia Commonwealth University’s College of Health Professions will have a new dean effective Aug. 15, the university announced Wednesday. Amy R. Darragh comes from Ohio State University, where she is director and vice dean of the School of Health and Rehabilitation Services.
Darragh succeeds interim dean Paula Song, the college’s Richard M. Bracken Chair and professor of health administration, who stepped in after the departure of Susan Parish in July 2023. Parish, who served as dean beginning in 2019, was named president of Mercy College in New York last year.
As dean, Darragh will be in charge of nine departments and one center, as well as 84 full-time faculty members and nearly 1,250 students at four campuses in Richmond, Roanoke, Abingdon and Alexandria. Darragh, who has been with Ohio State since 2008, earned a Ph.D. in environmental health epidemiology from Colorado State University, where she also received a master’s degree in occupational therapy. At Barnard College, she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and arts.
Her current research includes testing pediatric and adult medical treatments that work well for patients while also protecting caregivers’ health, and at Ohio State, she focused on expanding radiologic sciences and therapy programs to meet workforce demand. She is also a licensed occupational therapist.
“I am thrilled and honored to serve as dean of a college that prepares students who will work in some of the most in-demand health care roles, and who will ultimately impact the patient experience throughout our communities,” Darragh said in a statement. “I look forward to advancing the college’s efforts to inspire the most outstanding health professionals, researchers and leaders.”
The College of Health Professions offers bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees in various health-related fields, including physical therapy, health administration, gerontology, nurse anesthesia and rehabilitation counseling.
“Dr. Darragh’s distinguished leadership, commitment to innovation and strong collaborative vision make her uniquely positioned to lead the VCU College of Health Professions,” said Dr. Marlon Levy, interim senior vice president of VCU Health Sciences and interim CEO of the VCU Health System. “I am confident that her extraordinary track record of academic and leadership success will help continue to build on the college’s stellar reputation.”
After a failed development deal and a nearly $80 million payout, VCU Health needs to change the way it is governed, the Virginia General Assembly’s investigative body declared Wednesday. Virginia Commonwealth University’s president has too much room to influence the health system’s operations, the Joint Legislative Audit & Review Commission (JLARC) found.
State lawmakers directed JLARC to review VCU Health’s governance and capital process last fall, after news broke in spring 2023 that the Richmond health system was planning to pay developers $72.9 million to back out of a $325 million downtown development project with higher costs than the university had anticipated.
Known as the Clay Street Project, VCU planned to build a medical office tower and a multiuse project at the site of the City of Richmond-owned Public Safety Building at 10th and Clay streets. Ultimately, VCU paid about $5 million to demolish the Public Safety Building in a promise to the city — bringing the university’s costs to nearly $80 million.
Additionally, the health system is on the hook to the City of Richmond for about $56 million it agreed to pay the city in lieu of taxes. That is to be paid in $2.5 million installments annually, according to JLARC.
To date, the VCU Health System has paid $1.9 million in fees to the city in lieu of taxes, according to a spokesperson for the health system.
State lawmakers have directed the VCU Health System to “pursue to terminate payments” to Richmond of these fees. A request for comment to Richmond officials was not immediately returned.
VCU President Michael Rao came under heavy criticism over the misstep, including calls from former Gov. Doug Wilder to resign after news of the payout broke in 2023.
The failed project also led to the abrupt November 2022 resignation of former VCU Health CEO Dr. Art Kellermann, who had tried in 2021 to convince Rao and other VCU administrators to not enter into the deal, citing outsize costs to VCU Health, which developers anticipated would pay $650 million over 25 years to lease the office tower. A slideshow presented Wednesday noted that Rao’s cabinet had “strongly advised” Kellermann to sign the lease for the Clay Street development, despite his stated concerns.
Kellermann left his post in 2022 after Rao asked him to resign, and Dr. Marlon Levy became interim CEO of VCU Health and interim senior vice president of VCU Health Sciences, positions he still holds.
Changes in leadership structure
In addition to leading VCU, Rao is president and board chair of the VCU Health System, which generated more than $3 billion in operating revenue in fiscal 2023. During a lengthy presentation Wednesday, Chief Legislative Analyst Lauren Axselle reported that JLARC’s team found that VCU Health “improved its capital process following the Clay Street project but needs to develop a long-term strategic capital plan, strengthen several policies and increase staffing to effectively handle capital projects.”
What’s more, the health system’s leadership structure needs to be changed to “reduce the potential for the VCU president … to have too much influence on [health system] operations and decisions and ensure that the [VCU Health] CEO’s principal focus is on the health system’s strategic planning and operations.”
Five individuals serve on both the health system’s board of directors and VCU’s Board of Visitors, according to JLARC, which found that although collaboration between VCU and VCU Health is beneficial, the two entities would benefit from “a greater number of impartial board members.”
Virginia’s lawmakers could consider amending the health system’s bylaws to eliminate the position of president at the health system and make the CEO its top executive, according to Axselle. Members of the General Assembly could also amend state code to limit the role of VCU’s president on the health system’s board of directors so that the VCU president is a nonvoting member on the board and not eligible to serve as board chair.
Additionally, the health system’s CEO post and VCU’s senior vice president of health sciences role would be held by two people if JLARC’s recommendations are followed.
Other possible changes
Virginia’s lawmakers could also look at changing the code to require the health system to elect a chair every two years and mandate that the chair cannot sit on VCU’s Board of Visitors and can’t be a health system or VCU employee, according to JLARC. Additionally, the agency recommends that General Assembly members consider giving four-year terms, instead of three-year stints, to members of the health system’s board of directors. Lawmakers also could add “commercial real estate” and “finance” to existing expertise requirements for individuals selected for the board.
VCU Health staff should develop a 10-year strategic capital plan for the board to consider, according to JLARC. Additionally, JLARC noted that hiring outside experts can reduce risk on capital projects. VCU Health did not hire a site consultant for the Clay Street project and only hired outside legal counsel after the board approved the project, according to JLARC.
Additionally, the health system needs to have “director-level positions overseeing construction and real estate functions” that report to an executive of the health system. VCU Health also needs to develop staffing capacity “to effectively plan, procure and manage future capital projects,” JLARC’s study states.
VCU Health has filled a vacant director of construction project management position and created a director of real estate position, according to JLARC.
Rao briefly spoke to the commission, noting that he has publicly supported updating the role of the VCU president and VCU Health System board chair.
As for the failed Clay Street project, Rao noted that in July 2021 the health system’s chief legal officer and chief financial officer positions became vacant around the same time. He stated he “asked the former VCU Health CEO to work with available university leadership.”
Even so, Rao said, “the buck stops with me as chair of the health system.”
Gov. Glenn Youngkin made headlines last December when he announced a $90 million-plus pitch to launch “Virginia’s Research Triangle.”
Initially envisioned as a cooperative initiative among Virginia Commonwealth University, Virginia Tech and the University of Virginia, the triangle was expanded into more of a rhombus following the addition of Old Dominion University to the research network during the 2024 General Assembly session.
If approved by the legislature and Youngkin, a total of $96.4 million would be divided among the four public research universities: $46.5 million for U.Va.’s Paul and Diane Manning Institute of Biotechnology; $31 million for Virginia Tech’s Roanoke-based Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC; $14.9 million for VCU’s Medicines for All Institute; and $4 million for ODU, which a university spokesperson says plans to develop its “digital patient model,” a “simulation-based environment” for virtually testing treatments and therapies. (As of this story’s press deadline, the budget was still in negotiations.)
This would help establish a biotechnology, life sciences and pharmaceutical manufacturing network in Virginia, partnering research universities with the Virginia Innovation Partnership Authority to collaborate on commercialization and startup support.
It’s also hoped that the statewide research network will help spur the creation and expansion of Virginia businesses as well as attract outside companies to locate here. This endeavor comes on the heels of several developments at each hub of the proposed research network.
In December 2023, U.Va. broke ground on the $350 million Manning biotech institute. Expected to open in late 2026, it received a $100 million gift in January 2023 from its namesakes, Charlottesville-based PBM Capital Chairman and CEO Paul Manning and his wife, Diane.
In October 2023, the Richmond-Petersburg region was selected as one of 31 federally designated tech hubs, allowing the region to compete for up to $70 million in federal grants as it focuses on strengthening advanced pharmaceutical manufacturing.
And in September 2023, Roanoke’s Fralin Institute announced it had received a $50 million commitment to support cancer and neuroscience research from a foundation established by the estate of Richmond philanthropist Bill Goodwin’s late son, Hunter.
Frank Gupton, CEO of the Medicines for All Institute at VCU, and a co-founder of Richmond-based pharmaceutical company Phlow, compares Youngkin’s proposal to North Carolina’s Research Triangle — “except we’re doing more translational work, as opposed to basic science.
“If U.Va., Virginia Tech or VCU comes up with a new innovative drug, we’ll have a platform that we’ll be able to scale up and do the clinical trials for. It’s going to be an end-to-end capability,” Gupton says. “My hope is that we’ll be working together and leveraging our collective resources to be able to do some really meaningful research and development that will benefit all the universities.”
Joe Benevento, CEO and president of Virginia Innovation Partnership Corp., VIPA’s nonprofit operations arm, and formerly Virginia’s deputy secretary of commerce and trade, says the commonwealth’s proposed research network will attract startups seeking access to research facilities, wet labs, testing space and equipment.
“Startups really can have the opportunity to collaborate and partner with world-class university researcher talent [and] build off and leverage that IP and know-how to accelerate commercial development, attract growth investment and enhance market delivery,” Benevento says.
High tech, high wages
Erin Burcham, president of Verge, an umbrella organization for the Roanoke-Blacksburg Technology Council and Roanoke’s Regional Accelerator and Mentoring Program (RAMP), says that additional biotech research funding will increase opportunities for biotech companies, growing the state’s economy.
“Biotech in our region is transforming the economy in a really impactful way,” says Burcham. “We’re going from a very industrial town that was really focused on Norfolk Southern and trains to more of an innovation economy where we’re focused on high-wage, high-tech, advanced science-type companies.”
Paul Manning sees the capacity for collaboration between the research network’s hubs. While VCU will continue focusing on large-scale pharma manufacturing, U.Va. and Virginia Tech will use the new state funding to move research from labs to patient treatments. Charlottesville Economic Development Director Chris Engel has said that the Manning institute alone could support a bioscience cluster of about 75 companies and 3,000 employees.
“There’s so much to be done, and we are in a revolution in biotechnology right now. There won’t be much overlap [between hubs], and I think the research that’s going to be done at every institution will help all,” says Manning, adding that the quality of research facilities will motivate “people and companies … [to] start moving here to set up their operations in Virginia because we have such a deep bench of scientists that will be able to provide support.”
Dr. K. Craig Kent, CEO of UVA Health and executive vice president for health affairs at U.Va., also thinks startups will be drawn to the research network.
“Biomanufacturing is really expensive. It costs a lot of money to develop these facilities,” Kent says. “Part of the draw is that smaller companies trying to get into phase 1 drug trials don’t have the money to build their own facilities. The research triangle could partner with these companies and grant access to their facilities.”
Kent says this initiative will attract companies outside Virginia while retaining existing biotech startups.
“As long as we have the ability to help those companies translate and run clinical trials, they’ll stay here in Virginia,” Kent says. “If we have a critical mass of intellect, researchers that do this kind of work, companies want to associate with those individuals. They want to be around them. They want to partner with them in their own research.”
He compares the draw that Virginia’s research network will have to that of Boston, which attracts startups and researchers to its large number of top-level universities and biotech companies with an associated talent pool. But Virginia, he says, can offer researchers a much lower cost of living and higher quality of life.
Marc Nelson, Roanoke’s economic development director, says he’s already seen a transformational change in his city from the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, which was founded in 2010 by Virginia Tech and Carilion Clinic.
The institute “really helps from an economic development standpoint … [to] create really lucrative and innovative jobs,” Nelson says. “We’re just getting started, and Fralin Biomedical and Carilion have really led the way. Now you’re seeing the partners come up behind them and give them the support structure they need.”
And the research network isn’t the only new proposed state initiative that could help spur the creation of biotech startups. In collaboration with Richmond-based innovation incubator Activation Capital and CvilleBioHub, a nonprofit that works to boost Charlottesville-area biotech businesses, Verge has applied for a GO Virginia grant that would total roughly $15 million. The funding would support health care innovations at an earlier stage in the creation process.
“These three organizations are very passionate about identifying additional capital through grants and public-private funding to support the growing, commercialized biotech side of the state, and doing it hand-in-hand with the universities so we can nurture intellectual property,” says Burcham of Verge. “Entrepreneurial organizations are responding to the money coming in for biotech research and really trying to build out a holistic ecosystem for those startups to thrive in Virginia.”
Graduate school isn’t a prerequisite for a career in the pharmaceutical industry.
Virginia Commonwealth University’s new Bachelor of Science in Pharmaceutical Sciences (BSPS) degree will prepare students to step into pharma jobs like quality assurance technicians, research technologists and laboratory technicians, according to Kelechi “K.C.” Ogbonna, dean of VCU’s School of Pharmacy.
VCU will be the first public university in Virginia to offer the BSPS degree when it begins enrolling students in the fall, according to an announcement the university made Thursday. Hampton University, a private university, also offers the BSPS degree. Nationally, several institutions offer the degree.
“What’s different about this program is many of those programs were designed as feeder programs for a professional degree or a graduate degree,” Ogbonna said. “A lot of those programs were not focused on … being a standalone program that is hands on, where they’re actually translating what they learned in the classroom and in internships and externships and getting familiarity and understanding with certain tools and instruments, assurance methodologies.”
When students graduate, Ogbonna said, they should be “well-equipped to jump immediately into a pharmaceutical company, for example, and be able to begin doing that work.”
VCU leaders were propelled to develop the undergraduate program at the school because of real-world problems, according to Ogbonna.
In the first quarter of this year, there were 323 active medication shortages according to the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists. A report by the U.S. Food and Drug Association, updated in 2020, identified complicated root causes for the shortage, including a lack of economic incentive to produce less profitable drugs and a failure to reward manufacturers for investing in manufacturing quality.
A need for employees to run Central Virginia’s thriving hotbed of pharmaceutical manufacturing companies also propelled the university’s leaders to offer the degree, according to Ogbonna.
In October, the Richmond and Petersburg region received a federal designation as an Advanced Pharmaceutical Manufacturing (APM) Tech Hub that could lead to millions in future federal funding .
“There’s federal and state support to say, ‘Are there ways we can be more efficient about drug discovery and manufacturing? And if so, can Virginia really be the epicenter for that?’” Ogbonna said. “In order for this to work, there’s got to be a really intentional and strategic focus on workforce development.”
Eric Edwards, co-founder and CEO of Phlow, a Richmond-based, public benefit corporation that develops and domestically manufactures active pharmaceutical ingredients and finished pharmaceutical products, said VCU’s BSPS degree will be “fantastic [for students] who are seeking to contribute beyond just a basic science field in biology or chemistry or physics and trying to move more into an applied career pathway that may involve building medicines, or pharmaceutical products or treatments.”
Previously, these students would have needed to obtain a master’s degree or doctoral degree in pharmaceutical sciences or a doctor of pharmacy degree.
“I think what’s going to happen here is this program is going to unlock and equip students to really gain momentum and move beyond just a foundation that would serve them well into graduate studies, but actually a foundation that will enable and equip them to enter into the pharmaceutical industry and gain experience earlier,” Edwards said.
There’s plenty of work for these students in Richmond, according to Edwards. “This is definitely going to be another piece of that puzzle to really strengthen the future pipeline,” he said.
Sandro da Rocha, director of pharmaceutical engineering at VCU’s School of Pharmacy, will serve as inaugural director of the undergraduate pharmaceutical sciences program.
Ogbonna feels confident students will be gravitate toward the degree. After all, they saw firsthand the impact scientists who quickly developed a vaccine for COVID-19 made on the world.
“There’s renewed interest amongst the public about how medications are made,” he said.
Editor’s note:The print version of this story in the May 2024 issue of Virginia Business incorrectly reported the amount of Virginia Commonwealth University’s purchase of the Creative Circus. VCU acquired Creative Circus’ branding and intellectual assets from Texas-based Ancora Education for $75,000.
The potential bottom line wasn’t the sole motivator behind Virginia Commonwealth University’s purchase in December 2023 of the Creative Circus, a well-known Atlanta advertising portfolio school.
“I want to be very careful that the intention is not seen as a purely business acquisition,” says Vann Graves, executive director of the Brandcenter, VCU’s graduate program for advertising, branding and marketing. “Really, it was a way to ensure that there are different levels and different pipelines and opportunities for students into the industry.”
Founded in 1995, the Creative Circus shut its doors at the end of 2022, due to declining enrollment. At one time, however, the school served as a “vital part of the pipeline into the industry,” Graves says. “And we think it’s important to keep it alive.”
Joe Maglio, CEO of McKinney, a Durham, North Carolina-based national advertising agency, agrees. McKinney provided financial support to VCU to help the school relaunch the Creative Circus. VCU purchased the Creative Circus’ branding and intellectual assets from Texas-based Ancora Education for $75,000. (McKinney and VCU declined to disclose the amount of the ad agency’s donation.)
“We’re working closely with the university to advise on the rollout of the curriculum as this new iteration of the Creative Circus is developed,” Maglio said in a statement to Virginia Business.
In late March, VCU named Berwyn Hung as director of the revived Creative Circus at VCU. Hung, who has taught at the Brandcenter since 2011, was director of program development at the Creative Circus, where he also taught, from 1998 to 2011.
He remembers feeling disappointed when he heard the school was closing. “It was hard not to be sad, because I helped build so much of what it was,” Hung says. “It was really nice finding out we had bought [the Creative] Circus, and that we’re going to be bringing it back.”
Numerous graduates from Atlanta’s Creative Circus hold top roles at advertising agencies nationwide. The school filled a niche for students who earned bachelor’s degrees in advertising but who often graduated without having worked in the creative side of the business — think copywriting, photography or design — according to David Haan, executive director of the Creative Circus from 2009 to 2022.
“If you came out with an advertising degree, it was pretty easy to [get hired] as an account executive or a media person or even a research person, but creative was kind of a different animal,” Haan says. “I don’t just show up at the Atlanta Falcons and say, ‘Hey, I’m a pretty good football player. Do you want to hire me?’”
While most students at the Creative Circus had undergraduate degrees, Hung remembers teaching some students there who weren’t yet old enough to drink and others who had a year or two of college under their belts but had decided to work on their advertising portfolios instead of chasing a diploma.
During his tenure at Atlanta’s Creative Circus, Hung developed about two new classes a year. “We were able to do a lot of crazy things that you probably couldn’t do today without getting fired,” he recalls.
For instance, Hung would write the names of the students who were the losers of different challenges on posters, which were publicly displayed. And in one particularly tough class, called Design Deathmatch, the student who got the worst grade on a project — even if that grade was a B — failed the assignment.
“It was kind of like the Wild West,” Hung says.
Several years before the Creative Circus announced it was closing, Haan could see the market shifting. Some state schools, which had previously fed students to Atlanta’s Creative Circus, began offering creative tracks, and some ad agencies began training newcomers who demonstrated talent on the job, according to Haan.
Like its previous Atlanta-based incarnation, VCU’s Creative Circus will employ industry leaders to teach classes.
Initially, the Creative Circus at VCU will offer virtual classes, but eventually Graves would like to offer hybrid instruction. Classes could begin as soon as spring 2025, according to Graves.
The first courses will focus on copywriting, art direction, design and content creation. “The goal is for it to be focused on foundational learning,” Graves says.
He hopes to keep the cost of each course between $1,200 and $1,800.
VCU’s Creative Circus will be a certificate program, but the university hopes to ultimately offer stackable credentials, which could be applied toward an undergraduate degree.
Maglio believes it’s important to offer a path for people who don’t have the inclination, time or money to attend graduate school to get a foothold in the advertising industry.
“It’s all about unleashing the untapped potential and the creativity that exists in so many people, regardless of their starting point,” he said. “Ultimately, the Creative Circus will fuel our industry by graduating a new generation of talent with diverse backgrounds and unique points of view, ready to roll on day one.”
The University of Virginia, Virginia Tech and Virginia Commonwealth University landed in the top 100 in the National Science Foundation’s fiscal 2022 rankings by expenditures on research and development.
NSF determines the rankings with data from its annual Higher Education Research and Development Survey, which surveys U.S. colleges and universities that expended at least $150,000 in separately accounted for research and development in the fiscal year. Survey results were released in late November.
For FY22, U.Va. placed No. 48 overall, with $662.6 million in R&D expenditures. U.Va. was No. 30 among public institutions, the same place it held last year.
With $591.86 million in research expenditures, Virginia Tech ranked 53rd among all institutions and 35th for public institutions, up from 38th in the previous fiscal year.
“Virginia Tech’s increase in ranking is a reflection of our faculty’s success attracting sponsored support for the impactful research, innovation and discovery they lead. We are especially proud that our growth in externally and federally sponsored research significantly outperformed peers,” Dan Sui, senior vice president and chief research and innovation officer at Virginia Tech, said in a statement.
VCU was No. 73 overall and No. 47 in the public institutions’ rankings, rising from No. 50 in the previous year. VCU’s R&D expenditures totaled almost $405.9 million. The FY22 total is the first time VCU has passed the $400 million mark, according to a news release.
“A public research university’s role is to advance discovery, creativity and innovation in ways that few other institutions achieve as we endeavor to improve the quality of life everywhere,” VCU President Michael Rao said in a statement. “This NSF ranking is a testament to VCU’s commitment to research for the public good. Thanks to my faculty colleagues, our research enterprise has grown exponentially.”
The remaining public Virginia universities were ranked as follows:
George Mason University, No. 117 overall, No. 78 in public institutions;
William & Mary, No. 180 overall, No. 130 in public institutions;
Old Dominion University, No. 191 overall, No. 137 in public institutions;
Eastern Virginia Medical School, No. 278 overall, No. 202 in public institutions;
James Madison University, No. 308 overall, No. 225 in public institutions;
Virginia State University, No. 333 overall, No. 243 in public institutions;
Norfolk State University, No. 471 overall, No. 328 in public institutions;
Christopher Newport University, No. 514 overall, No. 358 in public institutions;
University of Virginia’s College at Wise, No. 522 overall, No. 360 in public institutions;
Virginia Military Institute, No. 578 overall, No. 386 in public institutions;
University of Mary Washington, No. 614 overall, No. 403 in public institutions.
Four Virginia private schools were included in the NSF rankings:
Hampton University, No. 338 overall, No. 91 in private institutions;
Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine, No. 384 overall, No. 104 in private institutions;
University of Richmond, No. 518 overall, No. 159 in private institutions;
Marymount University, No. 608 overall, No. 207 in private institutions.
In total, academic institutions spent $97.8 billion on research and development in FY22, roughly $8 billion more than in FY21. The next NSF HERD Survey results will be released in November 2024.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story listed Marymount University’s rank among private institutions incorrectly. This story has been updated with the correct ranking.
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