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byline: Don Harrison

100 People to Meet: Public Faces

From educating Virginians about the offshore wind industry to shepherding $400 million casino resorts across the finish line, these are the people who add to the commonwealth’s conversation and lend a face to ambitious undertakings.

Read about the rest of our 100 People to Meet in 2021.

 

B. Hayes Framme
B. Hayes Framme

B. Hayes Framme

Senior manager, government relations and communications, Ørsted
Richmond

The blades started turning this summer on a $300 million pilot offshore wind project years in the making. Offshore wind power generation may be a mature industry, Hayes Framme says, but it’s new to the United States — making education a key component of the effort. That fell to Framme, former deputy secretary of commerce and trade under Gov. Terry McAuliffe. Since November 2017, Framme has served as public liaison in Virginia for Ørsted. The Danish company led engineering, procurement and construction for Dominion Energy Inc.’s two-turbine offshore wind pilot project, located 27 miles off the Virginia Beach coastline. Dominion plans by 2026 to build the nation’s largest wind farm, off the Virginia coast, a $7.8 billion initiative that should generate enough electricity to power more than 650,000 homes. Ørsted is leasing a portion of the Portsmouth Marine Terminal to stage materials and equipment for the venture.

Mark A. Herzog
Mark A. Herzog

Mark A. Herzog

Vice president, corporate affairs, Kaléo
Richmond

For more than 20 years, Mark Herzog has been a key connector in Virginia’s life sciences industry, which contributes $8 billion to the state economy, according to the Virginia Biotechnology Association. Herzog was hired as the association’s first full-time executive director in 2000. He left in 2012 to become an executive at Health Diagnostic Laboratory Inc. Since 2014, he’s been with Kaléo, known for its portable epinephrine auto-injector, which uses voice instructions to help people counter serious allergic reactions. This year, he helped the company launch its Allerject auto-injector in Canada. Herzog also serves on the Virginia Chamber of Commerce board.

Andy Poarch

Andy Poarch

Chief operating officer, Alliance Group
Richmond

There was no guarantee Virginia would legalize casino gambling when Alliance Group was called in September 2018 to help launch what The United Co. CEO Jim McGlothlin characterized as a “moonshot idea” from his childhood friend and business partner Clyde Stacy. The pitch: To build a resort and casino at the dormant Bristol Mall, which had been purchased by Stacy, president of Par Ventures LLC. “They needed to embark on what became a two-year legislative effort,” says Andy Poarch, who led the communications and outreach efforts that helped the planned $400 million Bristol Hard Rock Hotel & Casino receive overwhelming approval from local voters in a November referendum. Planned to begin construction in early fall 2021, the casino will serve as an economic catalyst for Bristol and Southwest Virginia, Poarch says.

Emily Hasty Reynolds
Emily Hasty Reynolds

Emily Hasty Reynolds

Executive director of governmental affairs, Hampton Roads Chamber
Norfolk

In December, Emily Reynolds marks the end of her first year as director of governmental affairs for the Hampton Roads Chamber. She had plenty of business and politics to keep her busy during a year that coincided with a presidential election and the General Assembly’s extended session during a pandemic. Her duties this year included arranging Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District debate, which the chamber hosted in October. A 2018 Liberty University graduate, Reynolds worked as a legislative aide for state Sen. Stephen D. Newman, R-Lynchburg, before joining the chamber. She’s hopeful the long-lauded Virginia Way will emerge in 2021 and overtake the partisan divide.

Jay Smith
Jay Smith

Jay Smith

Partner, Capital Results
Richmond

No tax breaks, no public funds — “not one single penny,” Jay Smith says of the planned $500 million Norfolk Resort & Casino. “That resonates with people.” It did for 65% of Norfolk voters, who approved the casino in a November referendum. Smith is spokesman for the Pamunkey Indian Tribe and its Norfolk casino project, which he says will create 2,500 permanent jobs, $30 million annually for Virginia’s public schools and $30 million in new annual revenue for Norfolk. Smith attended Virginia Tech, stayed for graduate school and started with Capital Results a month after it was formed in 1999, helping a variety of clients with messaging and public relations. The Pamunkey tribe, which also wants to build a casino in Richmond, plans to start work on its Norfolk project in 2021, when Smith also has his sights set on climbing Mount Rainier.

Molly Whitfield
Molly Whitfield

Molly Whitfield

President and chief operating officer, Madison+Main
Richmond

After spending the bulk of her career at Richmond branding, marketing and public relations agency Madison+Main, Molly Whitfield was named president in March. She joined the firm as traffic and production manager in 2007, working in every area of the agency for 13 of its 15 years. With Whitfield adding president to her title, Madison+Main’s founder and previous president, Dave Saunders, has been elevated to chief idea officer. Whitfield, who was born in Florida and grew up in Virginia, expects remote work to continue in 2021. She’ll also keep a business model that focuses on clients who make up no more than 15% to 20% of total billings. “I really am focused on overall efficiency,” Whitfield says, “and streamlining different things we do so that we can focus on the creativity.”

 

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100 People to Meet: Innovators

Representing sectors ranging from data analysis to pharmaceuticals to fashion, these visionary trendsetters keep the Old Dominion from getting stale.

Read about the rest of our 100 People to Meet in 2021.

Jason Crabtree
Jason Crabtree

Jason Crabtree

Co-founder and CEO, Qomplx Inc.
Tysons

Growing up in Seattle, Jason Crabtree was more likely to be found raising and showing Angus cattle than stuck inside on a computer. But now his career revolves around data. With 220 employees, Qomplx has grown “hundreds of percent” in each of the last two years, he says. It closed on $78.6 million in Series A financing in July 2019. A West Point graduate, Crabtree met Qomplx co-founder Andrew Sellers while attending the University of Oxford to study engineering science on a Rhodes Scholarship. Both were in graduate programs while on active duty. “Risk is really just a consequence of dependence,” says Crabtree, who served as an infantry officer in Afghanistan. Qomplx helps companies manage risk, making sense of data to drive decisions. Crabtree aims to help clients navigate “what I think will be an increasingly turbulent century.”

Tom Deierlein
Tom Deierlein

Tom Deierlein

Co-founder and CEO, ThunderCat Technology
Reston

Tom Deierlein saw a pandemic hit in the year his company marked its 10th anniversary. In response, ThunderCat Technology entered a new arena, partnering with UV Angel Inc. to offer germicidal ultraviolet light products to health care facilities. Six months later, ThunderCat announced that it became one of 31 contractors to win part of a $13 billion, 10-year contract to provide information technology enterprise solutions software to the U.S. Army. A West Point graduate and retired U.S. Army major, Deierlein received a Bronze Star and Purple Heart for his service in Iraq, where he was shot by a sniper. He also runs TD Foundation, a nonprofit he co-founded to help families and children of veterans who were wounded or died in service.

Luiz DaSilva
Luiz DaSilva

Luiz DaSilva

Executive director, Commonwealth Cyber Initiative; Bradley Professor of Cybersecurity, Virginia Tech
Arlington

If you hadn’t noticed from the new iPhone, 5G is having a moment. Luiz DaSilva, the Bradley Professor of Cybersecurity at Virginia Tech, is immersed in the wireless networking technology. In October 2019, he was tapped as the first executive director of Virginia’s Commonwealth Cyber Initiative, which is based at the Virginia Tech Research Center in Arlington. DaSilva and his team deployed the first 5G research testbed in Virginia this year, he says. Next year, the project will expand outdoors “to support connected vehicles, drones, ports and warehouses and smart cities.” DaSilva, who co-authored the book “Game Theory for Wireless Engineers,” also aims to launch an AI testbed in 2021.

Dr. Eric Edwards
Dr. Eric Edwards
Photo by Nick Davis

Dr. Eric Edwards

CEO, Phlow Corp.
Richmond

When Dr. Eric Edwards started working with Frank Gupton on a venture in spring 2019, little did they know how prescient their goals would be. Edwards was helping Gupton, a VCU pharmaceutical engineering professor and CEO of the university’s Medicine for All Institute, to address drug shortages. “Fortuitous,” Edwards calls it. Because when COVID-19 hit, the need to secure, protect and repatriate the supply chain of essential, vulnerable medicines was heard loud and clear. The Trump administration awarded Edwards’ startup, Phlow Corp., with a $354 million, four-year contract in May. “It’s occurring lightning-fast,” Edwards says. R&D and manufacturing programs are up and running, and Phlow is building out a pharmaceutical hub that will bring more than 350 jobs to Petersburg.

Charis Jones
Charis Jones

Charis Jones

Owner and designer, Sassy Jones
Richmond

It takes a bold attitude to wear the looks dreamed up by Charis Jones, she says. Big and vivid, her jewelry and handbags turn heads and lift revenue. This summer, her company, Sassy Jones, became the No. 1 Virginia company (and No. 75 overall) on the Inc. 5000 ranking of the country’s fastest-growing, privately held companies. Her e-commerce site has a 75% return customer rate, Jones says, compared with an industry average of about 30%. She serves the “professional, African American woman,” Jones says. What resonates with her customers? “It’s simply how it makes her feel,” she says. “We don’t sell jewelry; we sell confidence.” Sassy Jones builds bonds with innovative methods such as livestreams, dinners — and even a cruise to the Bahamas. The company recently made its HSN debut, and Jones will also be appearing on the HBO Max show, “Stylish with Jenna Lyons,” which debuts in December.

Josh Levi
Josh Levi

Josh Levi

President, Data Center Coalition
Loudoun County

Josh Levi left a 20-year career with the Northern Virginia Technology Council in July 2019 to become inaugural president of the Data Center Coalition. The group was created to advocate for the data center industry in Virginia, which it says holds the world’s largest data center market. Levi, a graduate of Virginia Tech with a law degree from the University of Richmond School of Law, can draw upon his network built at the council, where he was vice president for policy. He has grown the association from six member companies to 14 data center owners and operators. In 2021, he says, the coalition will increase community engagement to focus on philanthropy, sustainability and workforce issues.

Haniel Lynn

CEO, Kastle Systems
Falls Church

In a year when security and safety were put to the test, Haniel Lynn responded with the launch of KastleSafeSpaces in May. It leveraged the company’s internet of things and smartphone services to offer such features as hands-free opening of elevators and office doors, health screenings, contact tracing, and occupancy monitoring to prevent overcrowding. Lynn, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania with an MBA from the Wharton School, joined Kastle Systems as CEO in November 2018. He came from a 16-year career at CEB, now Gartner, where he served as a group president. Kastle says it’s the largest managed security services provider in the country, maintaining security for more than 40,000 businesses.

Charles Merritt

Charles Merritt

Co-founder and CEO, Buddy
Richmond

Calling it “insurance for risk-takers,” Outside magazine named Buddy as one of “The Next-Gen Outdoor Innovations We’re Watching.” The on-demand accident insurance startup, founded by Charles Merritt and two fellow outdoor enthusiasts, is drawing attention for streamlining a typically burdensome process. Through the Buddy platform, customers can quickly purchase no-deductible, short-term insurance, with benefits paid directly to them. Merritt is a graduate of the University of North Carolina and the VCU Brandcenter. His company’s mission is “to help people fearlessly enjoy an active and outdoor life.”

Dr. William A. Petri
Dr. William A. Petri

Dr. William A. Petri

Professor of medicine and vice chair for research of the Department of Medicine, University of Virginia
Charlottesville

Virginia and other states are laying the groundwork for the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, understandably a topic of intense global interest. Dr. William Petri has been in the midst of vaccine research at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, where he studies immunology and molecular pathogenesis of infectious diseases. In a September article for The Conversation, in which he discusses his research and care for patients with the virus, he writes, perhaps presciently, that “it is likely that not just one but several of the competing COVID-19 vaccines will be shown to be safe and effective by the end of 2020.”

Michael Saylor
Michael Saylor

Michael Saylor

Chairman and CEO, MicroStrategy
Tysons

If you follow Michael Saylor on Twitter, you might know that he’s been tweeting nearly daily, and almost exclusively, about cryptocurrency since Sept. 15. That’s the day he announced that MicroStrategy, a business intelligence and mobile software company he co-founded, converted $425 million in cash holdings to bitcoin. In one tweet, he called it “the first true monetary network, spreading thru humanity like a cyberfire.” Saylor grew up in a military family, graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and joined the Air Force Reserve. He’s an inventor, author and philanthropist who draws audiences with his business ideas and outlooks. One of his latest perspectives, shared on Twitter: “The destiny of money is to be encrypted.”

Jeff Stover

Jeff Stover
Jeff Stover

Executive adviser to the commissioner,
Virginia Department of Health

Richmond

Have you downloaded COVIDWISE? Great, Jeff Stover says: “Now you need to tell all your friends and neighbors.” Available on the Google and Apple mobile platforms, the coronavirus exposure-notification phone app is one of Virginia’s sharpest public arrows aimed at the coronavirus. Stover is at the helm of the program and its awareness campaign, which launched Aug. 5. In October, downloads were approaching 725,000. No location or personal data is tracked, but users notify the app if they test positive. Other app users whose phones have been near yours are notified anonymously. A Page County native, Stover says 2021 will bring a continued fight against COVID-19 while balancing other public health goals. “That’s going to be a dance.”

Tom Walker
Tom Walker

Tom Walker

Founder and CEO, DroneUp
Virginia Beach

If you gazed upward in the Las Vegas area this fall, you might have seen one of Tom Walker’s drones delivering a COVID-19 self-testing kit from Walmart to a customer’s front porch. The pilot program, launched in September, completed about 500 deliveries by November. Walker, a U.S. Navy veteran, says DroneUp is the country’s fastest-growing drone company. Business, he says, has doubled, tripled, quadrupled and quintupled in the last four quarters. Walker worked with his wife, Dyanne, on their Web Teks software development company, which launched in 1999 and for which she serves as CEO. But 3½ years ago, Walker got into drones. Since the spring, DroneUp has helped governments and companies with delivery technology, adding to its service portfolio of inspections, analysis, property surveys and surveillance.

 

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100 People to Meet: Educators

Ranked as CNBC’s Top State for Business in 2019, Virginia earned the distinction in part for its “wealth of colleges and universities,” lauded by CNBC as the nation’s best. These are some of the educators and administrators who are helping to preserve and grow that reputation.

Read about the rest of our 100 People to Meet in 2021.

Touwanna Brannon
Towuanna Porter Brannon

Towuanna Porter Brannon

President, Thomas Nelson Community College
Hampton

It takes a unique set of skills to oversee a school like Thomas Nelson, says Towuanna Porter Brannon, who takes the reins of Virginia’s fifth-largest community college in January. A first-time president but longtime administrator, she’s served at various two-year and four-year schools, including the New York Institute of Technology and North Carolina’s Mitchell Community College. “Federal funding for community colleges has diminished,” she says. “Students are faced with so many competing priorities as parents and caretakers, working multiple jobs. The challenge is to prepare them with the best education using these limited resources.” Brannon, who holds a doctorate in education from Fordham University in New York City, will immediately focus on helping the approximately 11,000-student, multiple-location college work closer with local businesses to provide “the finest talent pool available.”

Jeannette Chapman
Jeannette Chapman

Jeannette Chapman

Director, The Stephen S. Fuller Institute, Schar School of Policy and Government, George Mason University
Arlington

Do facts still matter to you? Then, in the greater Washington, D.C., area, Jeannette Chapman is the wonk to know. The director of GMU’s Fuller Institute is one of the area’s most trusted analysts, crunching the data on a grand spreadsheet of regional concerns — housing trends, the growing technology sector, the area population base and the long-term economic effects of COVID-19. “I examine all of the factors that currently, or could potentially, affect the region’s growth,” she says. That doesn’t mean everyone listens. “We always hope there is more that is acted on with our research,” she says diplomatically. “Some people tend to focus on what’s in the next three months and not concentrate on the important structural changes.”

Lance Collins
Lance Collins

Lance Collins

Executive director and vice president, Virginia Tech Innovation Campus
Alexandria

Lance Collins knows how to connect academia with the technology sector, and how to unite people from distant communities. In his prior job as Joseph Silbert Dean of Engineering at the Cornell University College of Engineering, the new leader of Virginia Tech’s $1 billion Innovation Campus was responsible for spearheading Cornell University’s ambitious Cornell Tech campus in New York City. Collins not only diversified Cornell’s enrollment to include more female and minority students, he forged close ties between Cornell’s Ithaca, New York, campus and Cornell Tech, 234 miles away on Roosevelt Island — nearly the same distance between Tech’s Blacksburg location and the Innovation campus in Alexandria. Collins earned his bachelor’s in chemical engineering at Princeton, and master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Pennsylvania.

Marcia Conston
Marcia Conston

Marcia Conston

President, Tidewater Community College
Norfolk

Marcia Conston oversees Virginia’s second-largest community college. With 32,000 students, Tidewater Community College was founded in 1968 and is considered the biggest higher ed and workforce training provider in Hampton Roads. Conston became TCC’s sixth president in January 2020, having spent more than half of her 30-year educational career as the vice president for enrollment and student success services at Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte, North Carolina, where she grew student enrollment, expanded federal work study programs and established scholarship opportunities. The Jackson State University graduate holds her master’s from Hood Theological Seminary in North Carolina and earned her doctorate from the University of Southern Mississippi. She counts freelance writing as one of her hobbies and has authored two books about religion and spirituality.

Kristin Gehsmann

Kristin Gehsmann

Professor and director of the School of Education, Virginia Tech
Blacksburg

On the job since August, Kristin Gehsmann was previously a professor and chair of East Carolina University’s Department of Literacy Studies, English Education and History Education, where she fostered an inventive online master’s program, improved department rankings and raised millions for research projects. In addition to overseeing the Virginia Tech School of Education, which offers 18 master’s degrees, 20 doctoral degrees and 14 teaching licensure programs, the alum of Central Connecticut State University and the University of Vermont will also work in the classroom as a professor. The former elementary school teacher authored two textbooks on literacy development and assessment and has said that her focus at Tech will be on “equity and innovation in education. We need to put ladders in place so more people can reach their goals.”

Higginbotham
Carmenita Higginbotham

Carmenita Higginbotham

Dean, Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts
Richmond

The new head of VCU’s prestigious arts program says that she wants to keep true to the school’s success. “But my goal is a little different than most deans. I want to grow the school in ways that are about creative innovation, not just increasing the student body or building construction.” An art historian, Carmenita Higginbotham earned her bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from the universities of Minnesota, Massachusetts and Michigan, respectively, and was formerly the chair of the McIntire Department of Art at the University of Virginia. She’s also an expert on American popular culture — she dissected the oeuvre of Walt Disney for a recent PBS documentary and penned exhibition notes for the recent Edward Hopper exhibit at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. “What I do is a balance between popular culture and high art. It’s culturally important,” she says. “And fun.”

Mary Dana Hinton

Mary Dana Hinton
Mary Dana Hinton

President, Hollins University
Roanoke

Being a leader during COVID times is like running a marathon, says Mary Dana Hinton, who in August became president of the women’s liberal arts college, known for its English and creative writing programs. “You don’t know where it ends or where you are in the race,” she says. She’s used to big challenges. As president of the private College of Saint Benedict in Minnesota, Hinton oversaw a record $100 million fundraising campaign and $43 million in construction. The small-town, Kittrell, North Carolina, native recalls being discouraged by school counselors from seeking a higher education but didn’t listen, eventually earning a doctorate in religious education, a master’s degree in clinical child psychology and a bachelor’s degree in psychology. “Every human being wants to be seen, heard and valued,” she says, “so my leadership style is to see, hear and value each person I encounter.”

Nicole Thorne Jenkins
Nicole Thorne Jenkins

Nicole Thorne Jenkins

Dean, McIntire School of Commerce, University of Virginia
Charlottesville

Nicole Thorne Jenkins business career started early, as a bookkeeper for her parents Maryland waste removal business. “I was good at math but originally wanted to be an engineer,” the University of Iowa graduate recalls. Formerly a professor and vice dean of the Gatton College of Business at the University of Kentucky, she comes to the distinguished McIntire School, with its 700 undergraduate and 300 graduate students, having practical first-hand industry experience from working at PricewaterhouseCoopers. “There’s a gap between what you learn in the classroom and what you do day to day in business,” she says, adding that the pandemic is changing the ways business is being done. “Things are shifting. As the leading business school, we have to be responsive to that.”

Jerry Prevo
Jerry Prevo

Jerry Prevo

Acting president, Liberty University
Lynchburg

After several embarrassing scandals related to former Liberty president Jerry Falwell Jr., Tennessee-born Jerry Prevo is all about stability. He takes over Virginia’s largest university (one of the world’s largest Christian universities), having served as chairman of Liberty’s board of trustees since 2003. A University of Tennessee graduate, Prevo recently retired (after nearly a half century) as senior pastor for Anchorage Baptist Temple, which he essentially built from scratch into one of Alaska’s largest churches. A prominent evangelist and entrepreneur, Prevo has received criticism from the LGBTQ community for positions he’s taken over the years opposing gay rights. As chairman and CEO of Christian Broadcasting Inc., Prevo runs TV and radio stations in Alaska, where his church also offers preschool-to-high school education through Anchorage Christian Schools, the largest Christian educational network in the state.

Kenneth Randall. Photo courtesy George Mason University
Kenneth Randall. Photo courtesy George Mason University

Kenneth Randall

Dean, Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University
Arlington

GMU’s new Scalia Law dean isn’t just an accomplished academic leader, he’s an expert in distance learning, something every institution needs during a pandemic. In 2013, Kenneth Randall founded iLaw Ventures Distance Learning, a company that’s become an industry leader, partnering with 25% of law schools nationwide. He’s something of a legend at the University of Alabama where, during his two-decade tenure as dean of the law school, Alabama’s U.S. News & World Report law ranking jumped from No. 96 to 21. He was named one of the nation’s most transformative legal deans by Leiter’s Law School Reports. Randall holds doctoral and master’s degrees in international law from Columbia University; a master’s degree in law from Yale University; and a law degree from Hofstra University.

 

A. Benjamin Spencer
A. Benjamin Spencer

A. Benjamin Spencer

Dean and chancellor professor, William & Mary Law School
Williamsburg

The new dean of America’s oldest law school, A. Benjamin Spencer is steeped in trailblazing. His father, the Hon. James R. Spencer, was Virginia’s first Black federal judge, and grandfather Dr. Adam Arnold helped integrate Notre Dame University. “I’m learning that being dean of a law school is a lot like running a business,” says the younger Spencer, who became the first African American dean of any William & Mary school in July. The former Thurgood Marshall Distinguished Professor at the University of Virginia says that he’s coming to W&M as a change agent. “I wasn’t brought here to just manage the school; I was hired to take it to the next level.” The Hampton native and father of nine children holds a bachelor’s degree from Morehouse College, a law degree from Harvard Law School and a master’s degree from the London School of Economics.

Gregory Washington

Gregory Washington

President, George Mason University
Fairfax

GMU’s first African American president, Gregory Washington is a proven innovator in the field of dynamic systems, not just in the engineering sense but in the organizational. The first in his family to attend college, he earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in mechanical engineering from North Carolina State University and taught for 16 years at Ohio State University before becoming the first Black dean of the Samueli School of Engineering at the University of California, Irvine. During his tenure, Washington increased school enrollment, diversified the faculty, increased experiential learning and helped establish the Horiba Institute for Mobility and Connectivity. He also established OC STEM, one of the nation’s first initiatives to promote STEM education and careers in public schools.

 

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Chips on the table

On Election Day, Norfolk and Portsmouth voters will decide whether to hold ’em or fold ’em.

The two Hampton Roads cities will consider separate Nov. 3 ballot referendums on large casino projects that promise jobs, tax revenue, increased area tourism and funds for school construction.

“It’s new for Virginia, for sure,” says Jay Smith, spokesman for the Pamunkey Indian Tribe, which is proposing a 13.4-acre, $500 million waterfront casino resort next to Norfolk’s Harbor Park, with investor Jon Yarbrough, a Tennessee billionaire with close ties to the Indian gaming industry. “For years, people have been driving from Virginia across the Potomac to Maryland or Delaware or Atlantic City to spend their dollars. This is an opportunity to keep that money in Virginia and bring outside visitors here.”

Smith says the casino’s benefits are many and stresses that there is no public investment. “There’s not a dime of public money or tax incentives to do this. But what it means for education dollars is an estimated $50 million every year for public school construction and more than $30 million a year just for the city of Norfolk through gaming and sales taxes.”

Due to new legislation, the state will allow casinos in five economically challenged Virginia cities, including Norfolk and Portsmouth, but citizens have to vote “yes” to get in the game. To be added to the ballot, both the Pamunkey Tribe and Rush Street Gaming, the Chicago-based company behind the $300 million Rivers Casino project in Portsmouth, had to get the backing of their respective city councils and win preliminary certification from the state Lottery Board.

“The state legislature made sure that the minimum investment would be $300 million, to encourage the building of higher-end resorts and destination places rather than just places to gamble,” says Jared Chalk, executive director of the Norfolk Economic Development Authority. He points out that the Pamunkey casino would offer an adjoining hotel, restaurants, entertainment venue and spa.

About a 15-minute drive away across the Elizabeth River, the proposed 400,000-square-foot Rivers Casino Portsmouth is projected to generate $16.3 million in annual city tax revenue for the city, says Robert Moore, director of Portsmouth Economic Development, which estimates that the complex would produce 1,400 construction jobs and 1,200 permanent jobs.

Rivers Casino would also be one part of a larger entertainment district, Moore says. “It won’t just be a gaming facility but restaurants, a hotel, shops, an outdoor entertainment venue and convention meeting space.” Planned for 50 acres at the intersection of Victory Boulevard and I-264, the district would also be near Bide-A-Wee Golf Course.

“From the first time we saw the Victory Boulevard site, we knew it was the perfect place to build a casino,” says Jacob Oberman, senior vice president of development for Rush Street Gaming, which owns and operates resort casinos in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Illinois and New York. “We’re going to apply the best practices we’ve learned from operating our other casinos, which have been economic catalysts for their cities.”

The two Hampton Roads projects join similar local casino referendums up for voter consideration in Danville and Bristol on Nov. 3.  Caesars Entertainment Corp. and Hard Rock International, respectively, would front those potential projects. Richmond voters will consider a gambling resort on the November 2021 ballot, and Smith says that the Pamunkey Tribe, which recently purchased 270,000 square feet of warehouse space in Richmond’s Manchester district for $4 million, will be among the bidders for that casino, which will require Richmond City Council’s approval.

But can the coastal region sustain two large casino projects within about six miles of each other?

Oberman is sure it can, citing Rush Street’s research on Portsmouth. “We’re ready to move forward,” he says. Chalk cites the General Assembly, which commissioned a 2019 Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) report that reviewed the potential benefits of gaming in Virginia. “They found that two mega-casinos could coexist profitably in the region,” he says. “And now it’s up to the voters.”

 

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Festivals hit pause

The Hampton Roads region is known for its popular festivals, from Virginia Beach’s Pungo Strawberry Festival and Suffolk Peanut Fest to the Virginia Arts Festival and the star-studded Something in the Water.

“We’ve got more festivals than Nero had,” says Kurt Krause, president and CEO of VisitNorfolk. For Norfolk alone, tourism means more than $887 million in annual economic stimulus, according to 2018 Virginia Tourism Corp. data. For Virginia Beach, which saw $24 million in benefits from SITW’s successful first year, 2018 tourism brought in $1.6 billion.

Of course, COVID-19 canceled everything in 2020. But organizers are cautiously optimistic about the future. “We’re planning a full, vibrant 2021 season,” says Robert Cross, executive director of the Norfolk-based Virginia Arts Festival, which generated $20 million in 2019. “We’re also giving ourselves the ability to pivot and re-think how we can bring entertainment back in the safest way possible.” 

Krause says, “Organizations are planning events, booking performers, but there’s a huge asterisk attached,” adding that some traditionally indoor events may go outdoors. “The key word is caution, and we have to see where we are in May [2021], when the season heats up. But even with the Christmas in Smithfield show at the end of 2021, people are being tentative.”

 

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Hail to the … what now?

Under pressure from FedEx and other big sponsors, the Washington Redskins management announced in July that the NFL team will retire its name and mascot and rebrand itself away from divisive Native American imagery.

The $3.4 billion organization, the seventh-most valuable franchise in the NFL, is now known as the “Washington Football Team,” with a fresh name and look tentatively to be unveiled in 2021.

Branding experts in Virginia applaud the strategy. “I’m relieved that they didn’t just pop out with a new name,” says Kelly O’Keefe, founding partner and CEO of Richmond-based Brand Federation. “That would have been a billion-dollar mistake.”

O’Keefe served as brand adviser for the University of North Dakota when it changed its moniker from the Fighting Sioux to the Fighting Hawks in 2015. “We gathered input from everyone, including the tribal community of North Dakota, and the Redskins should do the same,” he says, although the research will likely take every bit of the year — and the rebranding will cost millions. “It’s barely enough time.”

Washington will have to do its own research and convene focus groups of fans and major stakeholders, adds Vann Graves, executive director of the VCU Brandcenter. “I consider this a cultural correction. It’s not just rebranding a sports team; it’s addressing the fact that the team helped for years to normalize a negative stereotype.”

Meanwhile, Rob Wooten, creative director at Charlottesville’s Convoy Branding Studio, advises the team to be bold: “I wouldn’t try to find a safer version of what they currently have, like the Warriors. I’d do something completely new.”

Graves and Wooten recommend a full refresh, including new team colors: “Get rid of the idea of red altogether. It ties the brand to its old history,” Wooten advises.

But O’Keefe, a professor and former managing director at the VCU Brandcenter, recommends that the team should follow focus groups’ advice. “I’d ask the Native Americans what they think of retaining the colors. Right now, I don’t think the colors are the issue.”

In any case, the old brand will never completely go away, O’Keefe adds. “It’s a passionate audience. If fans are attracted to a sports team, you’re going to see it everywhere: on license plates, stickers, clothing.”

 

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Delay of game

The COVID-19 pandemic has paralyzed one of Virginia’s growing economic drivers: sports tourism. But even amid mass cancellations and lost revenue, tourism officials hold out hope that, for the sports sector at least, there can be recovery.

“Over the years, sports tournaments and competitions have generally been recession-resilient,” says Joni Johnson, director of sales at Virginia Tourism Corp. “When the downturn in 2008 occurred, sports was still happening. A lot of families make it their family vacation and travel with their child competing in different sporting events. So, it tends to bounce back.”

The destination experience manager of Visit Virginia’s Blue Ridge, Irisha Jones-Goodman, echoes that sentiment. “Sports tourism has proven to be more resilient to an ever-changing economy,” she says.

Visit Virginia’s Blue Ridge, the official marketing organization for Roanoke, Salem and surrounding counties, established a special division in 2018 to capitalize on sports tourism events in the region, one of several tourism organizations in Virginia to recently shift its marketing focus to sports.

In Richmond, sports events normally account for 60% of bookings for area hotel rooms, says J.C. Poma, director of sports relations at Richmond Region Tourism, which serves the capital city and surrounding jurisdictions.

But with hotels across the commonwealth closed during social distancing and shelter-in-place orders, it’s been a far different story for the last couple months.

However, Poma says, “we aren’t concentrating on the negative. Let’s get through this and look forward to the latter half of the summer and see where we are.”

From b-ball to Quidditch

It’s understandable why Richmond Region Tourism is eager to return to normalcy. Last year, 83 sports events brokered by the not-for-profit destination marketing organization brought in more than 171,500 visitors, producing $62.5 million in direct visitor spending across the region.

“From Eastern Henrico to Southwest Chesterfield [counties], we cover a large area, and we attract a lot of different sports — archery, swimming, Quidditch,” Poma says. “That’s because we have a wide variety of venues at our disposal, from River City Sportsplex in Chesterfield to Glover Park in Henrico to Independence Golf [Club] in Powhatan County.”

In 2019, the consulting firms Huddle Up Group and Resonance Consultancy developed a master plan for Richmond Region Tourism that recommended a staffing shift in order to place a greater emphasis on attracting sporting events. “We are definitely an outdoor sports tourism destination,” Poma says. “The plan reflects that. And now Henrico County is building its indoor complex, and that should help to make us a year-round destination.”

In 2022, Henrico County plans to open a 220,000-square-foot, 4,500-seat indoor sports arena aimed at hosting amateur and high school sporting events. Rendering courtesy HKS Architects

Henrico’s 220,000-square-foot, 4,500-seat indoor sports arena is slated to open in 2022 on the site of Virginia Center Commons mall. The complex will be designed to accommodate amateur and high school basketball, volleyball and other indoor sports tournaments and leagues.

“Virginia is strong in amateur sports,” says Johnson of Virginia Tourism Corp. “We don’t have pro teams per se, so we are all about attracting amateurs. The good thing about those events is that, unlike a business conference, people bring their families too.”

The potential benefits aren’t lost on localities.

“The competition for a larger slice of the sports tourism pie has become increasingly fierce,” says Eric Kulczycky, national sales manager for Visit Fairfax. “Destinations across the country, often in cooperation with their local governments, have been entering into a sort of sports facilities ‘arms race’ to offer more tournament-capable venues with large clusters of outdoor fields, indoor courts and other facility types.”

Complex competition

Sports are a significant tourism revenue source for Fairfax County and other Northern Virginia localities, Kulczycky says. “We have a number of tournament-capable facilities that allow us to target a variety of sports from soccer, basketball and softball to equestrian, underwater hockey and esports.”

The St. James, a privately funded 450,000-square-foot sportsplex, opened in Fairfax in 2018. The county also set up a Sports Tourism Task Force, which recommended a public-private partnership to build an indoor skiing venue in Lorton, as well as a new turfed baseball complex at Patriot Park North and improvements to Fountainhead Regional Park.

In November, Virginia Beach plans to open a 285,000-square-foot sports center designed to accommodate amateur sporting events. Rendering courtesy Virginia Beach Convention & Visitors Bureau

“Throughout the state, people are looking at new venues to build or refurbish what they have,” Johnson says. “Virginia Beach is building their new sports center, set to open in November, and they designed that strictly for sports tourism and amateur sports.” The new center will be 285,000 square feet with 12 basketball courts, 24 volleyball courts and a 200-meter, hydraulically banked track. And, Johnson adds, Hampton is moving forward with a plan to construct an aquatic center.

But Norfolk won’t be entering the sports complex “arms race” any time soon.

“There has been an idea to turn the Norfolk Scope into a multiplex sports venue that can do the volleyball tournaments and compete with Richmond and Virginia Beach for those things,” says Kurt Krause, president and CEO of
VisitNorfolk. But for now, it’s just an idea.

VisitNorfolk attracts conference events such as North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) basketball tournaments to existing venues like the Scope, where the NEAC’s men’s and women’s tournaments have been held the last three years. “That amateur multiday event in March brings in $3 million from its five-day run,” Krause says, adding that in 2021 the city will be among the Hampton Roads localities hosting the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) Junior Olympics, attracting an estimated 18,000 people for a two-week period. Most of the track and field events will take place at Norfolk State University.

Norfolk concentrates on its own built-in sports tourism, he says. “We’re the only city in Virginia that has a Triple-A baseball team, the Tides, and they attract 5,000 people a night to their games. And we have the Admirals, an East Coast Hockey League team, that draws 2,000 to 3,500 to a game.” Next year, he says, Norfolk will be the site of the ECHL All-Star Game.

Don’t stop believing

VisitNorfolk also looks for emerging niche sports. “There is a phenomenon in the urban environment called street soccer,” Krause says. Players use plywood to delineate small, makeshift soccer fields in parking lots or under highway overpasses.

As many as 1,500 people will come to watch the matches, he says, and a Norfolk street soccer league has emerged.

Built in 1992, Salem’s James I. Moyer Sports Complex typically hosts sporting events 230 days a year, attracting about 250,000 people annually. Photo courtesy city of Salem – Visit Virginia’s Blue Ridge

“Sports tourism is big business for Visit Virginia’s Blue Ridge,” Jones-Goodman says, and that includes everything from nontraditional sports such as cornhole, pickleball and disc golf to more well-known pastimes like basketball. Salem, she says, is being branded as “Virginia’s Championship City,” having hosted 87 NCAA championships for basketball, football and softball. “Since many of our hotels are select service properties, meaning they don’t have significant meeting space for large conferences,” Jones-Goodman says, “we rely heavily on sports travel.”

Mostly, that’s softball. “It’s one of our biggest targets due to the large amount of softball facilities in our region,” she says. The Old Dominion Athletic Conference, the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association, USA Softball and Virginia High School League have held their tournaments in the region.

With the U.S. Olympics postponed because of the coronavirus, a much-anticipated scrimmage in Salem by the USA Softball Women’s National Team looks doubtful for June. “It was a big deal for Salem to have them come and play,” says Danish Saadat, Virginia Tourism Corp.’s national sales and marketing manager in charge of sports marketing.

“With all the cancellations, it’s been devastating,” adds Caroline Logan, director of communications at Virginia Tourism Corp. “We’re seeing such a massive hit to our economy right now. It just goes to show the important role that travel and tourism and the hospitality industries have on Virginia.”

Still, they won’t stop believing.

“I think once this is all over, it will increase demand in sports tourism,” Saadat says. “Because everything that people are missing out on right now, they’ll want again. Small jurisdictions might have a harder time getting out of [the downturn] … but I do think once everything settles, the demand for sports will probably go up, not down.”

“Do you remember when the Titanic was sinking, and the band kept playing?” Logan asks. “Well, we’re the band.”

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A good walk improved

The course at Kinloch Golf Club unfolds and reveals itself like an epic novel. Over the course of 19 holes — yes, 19 — its spectacular, elevated terrain clashes dramatically with its diabolical sporting challenges.

“Kinloch is wonderful,” says noted course designer Rees Jones, who has designed or restored more than 260 courses around the world. “It’s got as many shot options as any course in Virginia. It’s a place you enjoy playing over and over again, which is critical for a great course.”

“As you meander from hole to hole, the scenario changes,” confirms Vinny Giles, former U.S. and British amateur champion and co-designer of Kinloch, which opened in 2001. “Especially when you get to that sixth tee. All of a sudden, there’s a big lake that you didn’t know was there.”

The private course in eastern Goochland County, with its traditional caddy service and its faster bentgrass greens, was originally slated to be a daily fee course, but after a three-hour walk on the rustic, wooded property, Giles and builder Lester George recognized the land was special and deserved something different.

“I asked the owner if he’d consider a private membership club for golfers,” recalls Giles, a Lynchburg native who is the only amateur player inducted into the Virginia Golf Hall of Fame, which honors professionals. “Strictly golf, no swimming pools, no tennis court. He wanted to know why, and I told him this was a phenomenal piece of land that won’t be found this close to a metropolitan area, maybe ever again.”

Kinloch is ranked first on Golf Digest’s list of the best golf courses in Virginia and it takes the No. 2 slot on this year’s Virginia Business list of the commonwealth’s top courses (see Page 45). But it’s far from the only spectacular fairway layouts, public or private, to be found in the state. Virginia has many of the country’s best, most beautiful, most demanding courses and, even with challenges relating to changing demographics, high maintenance costs and marketing, they are ready for their closeup.

“I don’t know if Virginia properly advertises its golf, so many of its best destinations go unsung,” says Jones, who designed many courses in Virginia, including Stoney Creek at Wintergreen, The Club at Viniterra in New Kent County and Chesapeake’s Greenbrier Country Club. “I think the golf destinations of today are the ones that are really promoting themselves.”

The Golden Horseshoe resort in Colonial Williamsburg is home to one of the nation’s most celebrated tee palaces, the 6,817-yard Gold Course, designed in 1963 by Jones’ late father, renowned golf architect Robert Trent Jones Sr. The legendary Jack Nicklaus still holds the course record, at 67. 

“It was one of my dad’s favorites,” says Jones, who has twice touched up the narrow, water-featured fairway, first in 1998 and again in 2017. “The greens have all different angles, shapes, contours; some go right, some left. In a lot of golf courses, you’ll see a lot of similarity in the greens. What makes the Gold Course the Gold Course is that every hole has a different twist. … That’s probably why it keeps players interested.”

Jones built a companion 7,120-yard Green Course at the Horseshoe in 1991. “My dad had more of the top of the hill, and I had more of the valleys and more wetlands to work around. When we did the Green, we also had to be careful in case we uncovered any historic Colonial artifacts.”

At the Omni Homestead Resort in Hot Springs, which dates back to 1766, golfers can experience another world-famous 18, the William S. Flynn-designed Cascades, home of numerous national U.S. championships (and the finest mountain course in the world, according to Giles). Set against the majesty of the Allegheny Mountains, the resort also offers the venerable Old Course, said to be the longest-running continuous green in the U.S., with its origins dating to 1892.

“It started as a six-hole layout,” says Jones, who renovated the Old Course 25 years ago. “Even though the Cascades gets all the publicity, and for good reason, these shorter, 6,200-yard golf courses — finesse courses — are really resonating because people can manage them. They’re attractive to many different skill levels. I’m building many shorter golf courses now.”

A new approach

In Virginia, clubs are adapting to changing times as the marketplace transitions from baby boomers to millennials, says David Norman, executive director of the National Golf Course Owners Association Mid-Atlantic, which represents golf courses in Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia. “The courses have been hosting more nine-hole tournaments and making sure that there’s craft beer on the beverage cart. It’s a different way of marketing to a generation that can also jump in the car, drive to Topgolf or Drive Shack, [and] hang out for an hour drinking beer and hitting golf balls.”

“Golf has changed,” acknowledges Jonathan Ireland, Kinloch’s general manager, “but it’s always been changing. How to get new, younger golfers into the game has become every club’s focus, and each is responding in its own way, from junior programs to offering legacy memberships.”

There’s a general movement to make golf more fun for everyday players, Norman adds, “by making sure that people play from a distance that is good and fits their game.” He cites a new trend to set up tee markers based on how far golfers can hit their initial tee shots. “Courses are actually putting these markers on the fairways.”

But a great golf course is [about] more than the game, Jones says. “Golf is also an experience. The views are why the game has resonated throughout history. … You go to a Kinloch or a Golden Horseshoe or a Primland, and it’s a different experience every time you go. The experience is as important as the challenge of the game.”

On the spectacular Highland Course at Patrick County’s Primland resort, which looks like it may have been cut out of the Scottish countryside, Brian Alley is blunt. “Let’s face it, we’re selling views here,” says the director of golf and recreation. “It’s an expensive thing to maintain. We hand-mow the greens every day and the tees and surrounds a couple of times a week.”

The course grasses at Ballyhack Golf Club in Roanoke County require year-round maintenance, says Ian Sikes, Ballyhack’s general manager. Photo by Don Petersen
The course grasses at Ballyhack Golf Club in Roanoke County require year-round maintenance, says Ian Sikes, Ballyhack’s general manager. Photo by Don Petersen

Of the resort’s 300 employees, 25 to 30 work on the beautifully manicured 7,034-yard course at peak season.

In the Roanoke Valley, Ballyhack Golf Club’s 7,300-yard Scottish-style links are nestled snugly on historic farmland, with the Blue Ridge Mountains serving as a powerful backdrop. “Ballyhack’s course conditioning is world-class and a focal point of our national destination model,” says General Manager Ian Sikes. “The bent and fescue grasses for which Ballyhack is known require year-round agronomic practices [to maintain].”

Missed opportunity?

Citing data he’s culled from NGCOA Mid-Atlantic members, Norman says good course conditions are the “No. 1 thing that golfers love — upkeep, landscaping, water features. You can have a beautiful course, but if it’s in poor condition, nobody is going to want to play it.”

That includes handling water issues appropriately, Giles says. “You’ve got to use the creeks to make sure your water is running off properly. Water drainage is key to a good course. And the environmental concerns are a critical part of the process, too. You have to be careful.”

Primland’s golf course is Audubon-certified, and its buildings LEED-certified, Alley notes. “Golf courses can be really friendly to nature or not. Courses can use tons of water and put pesticides out there, so there are many things to watch out for. We reuse a lot of water here.”

From the rustic charm of The Olde Farm in Bristol to the novelty tees at Meadows Farms in Orange County, where one hole is designed like a baseball diamond and another is Guinness World Records-certified as the world’s longest, the strength of Virginia golf is its diversity. While some respected courses have closed in Virginia over recent years — one was King Carter in Irvington, which Golf Digest had named “the best new affordable public course” in 2006 — David Norman thinks the downturn in the local golf industry that started in 2009 has bottomed out.

David Norman, executive director of the National Golf Course Owners Association Mid-Atlantic, believes Virginia should do more to market the commonwealth as a great destination for golf tourism. Photo by Caroline Martin
David Norman, executive director of the National Golf Course Owners Association Mid-Atlantic, believes Virginia should do more to market the commonwealth as a great destination for golf tourism. Photo by Caroline Martin

“It’s all about location,” says Norman, who was the Virginia State Golf Association’s executive director from 1991 to 2005. “Properly marketed, [Virginia] could be more of a golf destination. Virginia has the mountains, the Piedmont and the coast. Having four seasons is also a plus. I mean, you can open a course in February.”

Williamsburg has succeeded where other areas have not, says Kevin        Brafford, executive director of Virginia Golf Ratings, an independent group that ranks the commonwealth’s top links. “Between Golden Horseshoe and Kingsmill, those are some of the top destinations in the country … but I don’t think Virginia as a whole has been in a position to market itself quite so well.”

Kinloch’s Ireland says it’s a missed opportunity.  “Whether they are country clubs or daily fee facilities or private clubs like us, it’s a state with a great topography combination with lots of different characteristics suitable to golf, all within a drive.”

Selected services, like Virginia Golf Vacations, offer regional tours, Norman says, but attempts at an official Virginia Golf Trail have puttered away.

“At one point, 20 years ago, Virginia Tourism [Corp.] actually devoted a lot of funding toward marketing golf in Virginia,” he says. “Since then, they’ve turned their interests into other areas, particularly the wine and beer industries. So how well are we marketing golf to Canadians and to the Northeast and Midwest? Not very good. But does Virginia have the product to be viewed as a great national golf destination? Yes.”

“According to the research we’ve done, golf is not a primary driver for the people who come to Virginia,” says Joni Johnson, director of sales at VTC. Virginia Tourism does specifically market golf destinations to Canadians, she adds, but not to the rest of the country.  Danish Saadat, a sales and marketing manager in charge of sports, says that VTC still promotes Virginia golf, pointing to several blog posts published on the Virginia Tourism website.

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The way forward

The daughter of Mexican immigrants, Amy Cortes always figured that she’d go to work as a day laborer like her parents after she graduated from Fort Defiance High School. But somewhere along the way, the Augusta County teen decided, “I wanted to push myself and go to college.”

Last year, Cortes, 18, was one of 31 students in the first cohort of high school seniors to successfully complete James Madison University’s Valley Scholars program. Begun in 2014, the program recruits potential first-generation college students from low-income backgrounds across the Shenandoah Valley.

Starting in middle school, students are mentored by JMU students and faculty and introduced to higher education and its various academic disciplines. The pupils can receive a full scholarship to JMU if they stay in the program through their senior year of high school and meet the university’s standards for admission. JMU partners with seven area school divisions — encompassing 22 middle and high schools — for the Valley Scholars initiative.

Now a JMU freshman, Cortes hopes to become an occupational therapist and is working toward a degree in kinesiology. “This may not have happened if I didn’t go through the program,” she says.

A new world

Valley Scholars was inspired by an initiative that JMU President Jonathan Alger helped to establish in 2007 when he was vice president and general counsel of Rutgers University. “One word that I would use to describe the intent of the Valley Scholars program is ‘hope,’” he says. “The idea is to be life-transforming by giving these students a chance at an age early enough when you can still affect the trajectory of their lives and educational careers, to tell them that finances are not going to be a barrier and that college is an option available and open to them … and that they’re not in this alone.”

There are residual benefits too, he adds. “We have JMU students that serve as the Valley Scholar mentors, and they are in the middle and high schools on a weekly basis. This is having an effect on the scholars, but also on JMU students, many of whom are interested in the field of education or want to be future teachers themselves.”

Cortes, a first-generation American citizen, says the Valley Scholars program opened up her world.

“In the beginning, in eighth and ninth grade,” she recalls, “I feel like they were more focused on developing our soft skills and introducing us to JMU’s campus. I like to call that the fun stuff. Once we got into high school, and AP classes were available, they started focusing more on academics. … They’d bring us to campus and I would learn about the majors here, and learn about [different] academic interests. There was a good support system, too. If there were times [when] high school got hard academically or emotionally, the staff was always available to us.”

Among the highlights of her study was the chance to travel with other scholars to Richmond and have lunch with the city’s mayor, Levar Stoney, a JMU graduate.

‘Bright and capable’

“This program fills a need in the community because we’re reaching students who otherwise may not attend college,” says Shaun Mooney, who has served as director for the Valley Scholars program since its inception. “In some cases, we’re improving outcomes. There are a lot of bright and capable kids living in rural areas, and if we provide that access and training and support from eighth grade all the way up to 12th grade, their outcomes are going to be better.”

Students apply for the program at the end of seventh grade. “They have to be low-income, and that would mean they are on free or reduced lunch in the public schools,” explains Mooney. “Their teachers and their principals and guidance counselors also have to identify them as having the academic ability and potential to pursue college education. And they have to be first generation … the first person in their immediate family to have attended a four-year college.”

Currently, 196 students from across the Shenandoah Valley in grades eight-12 are participating as Valley Scholars. Thirty-one of the first 35 participants completed the program and all 31 have entered college — 26 are attending JMU and five went to other institutions, leveraging scholarships and Pell Grant funding.

“And 10 of those [26] now participate in the JMU Honors program. That’s a huge deal,” adds Mooney.  “In another four years, we’ll see how many of those students persisted and graduated with their college degrees.”

Ten of the 31 students who make up the inaugural class of Valley Scholars are JMU Honors students. “That’s a huge deal,” says Shaun Mooney, director of the program. Photo by Norm Shafer

A helping hand

JMU is not the first Virginia college to start an outreach program for disadvantaged high schoolers or to recruit first-generation college students, for that matter. Other programs include George Mason University’s Early Identification Program, a college prep system for first-generation students that began in 1987. And, since 2007, the University of Virginia has offered a “College Guides” initiative in which U.Va. students advise in-need high school students statewide.

However, the Valley Scholars program is different, Alger argues, because it concentrates on the rural areas surrounding the university. “The emphasis on geography is important. We want to be a good neighbor and good partner with our local schools and the communities around us. And we saw that there was a significant need when we did the research. There were a lot of students in Harrisonburg and Rockingham and Page and Shenandoah and Augusta who clearly were not going to college because they came from disadvantaged backgrounds.”

The cost to fund JMU scholarships for the first five cohorts of Valley Scholars is divided between private donors and university funding, and is estimated to be around $7.5 million, officials say.

“I’m very impressed with the program,” says Bill Holtzman, the owner of Mount Jackson-based Holtzman Oil Corp., and a JMU philanthropist who has donated $650,000 to the Valley Scholars. “For the money spent, I get the biggest return that I can imagine.”

Holtzman’s alma mater is Virginia Tech, where he’s a generous donor. (Tech’s Holtzman Alumni Center is named for him.) But he also supports the school in his own backyard. “I live near [JMU] and my businesses are in Harrisonburg … and I like to pay back,” says Holtzman, who intends to keep supporting Valley Scholars. “It opens up the doors for children who, as they say, need a little help.”

A time for growth

Amy Cortes and her fellow cohort members feel lucky “knowing that there are people behind us, supporting us,” she says. “Once we get to college, they let go … but they still check up on us. It’s like a family that has been created.”

“I’m very impressed with the program,” says area philanthropist Bill Holtzman, who has donated $650,000 to the Valley Scholars initiative. Photo by Norm Shafer

“Four of our students graduated from the program last year and all four are at JMU now,” reports Michelle Swab, a guidance counselor at Stonewall Jackson High School in Shenandoah County. Her job is to coordinate between the school’s 23 current Valley Scholars and the university. “Not only is this a huge help financially, it also gets the students ready to handle college. Without this, I don’t know if they’d be able to go straight from high school to a four-year college.”

Hundreds of people — public school teachers and JMU faculty, student mentors and program officials — work with the students year-round. But the program also involves another important group: parents.

“We do family workshops where all of the families come in and tackle different issues that could be obstacles or barriers to the students. Very few programs do that,” Mooney says.

The first class of Valley Scholars is entering the university at a time of notable growth and expansion for James Madison. The school’s nursing program, housed in the state-of-the-art Health and Behavioral Sciences building, has recently begun admitting 23 additional students per semester for a cohort of 113, a 25% increase. And sounds of construction ring out across the grounds. A new 8,500-seat Atlantic Union Bank Center — designed for Dukes basketball games as well as concerts — is being readied for 2021, as is a new $72.1 million College of Business building.

“There’s a lot of work that we’re doing on our campus, in conjunction with the community, to live out this vision we have of being a national model of the engaged university,” says Alger. “One of our goals is to make sure we’re providing access and opportunities to students of all backgrounds — whether socio-economic, racial [or] ethnic.”

New GRTC chief sets Richmond transit priorities

After 25 years in the transportation industry, Julie Timm went back to school to get her MBA. “I wanted to understand the business world,” explains the new CEO of the Greater Richmond Transit Company (GRTC), the region’s municipal bus system. “Sometimes when transit people talk to our business partners, it’s like we’re talking a different language.”

Formerly the Nashville Metropolitan Transit Authority’s chief development officer, Timm has already identified her priorities, including revising the operating budget of GRTC, which is jointly owned by the city and Chesterfield County.

She’s also looking to open a dialogue with area business leaders about providing annual bus passes to employees, and not just to and from work. It’s a perk that helps with employee retention, she says, and cuts down on parking concerns.

GRTC is dealing with a revenue shortage problem. The Pulse, a 7.6-mile rapid transit line initiated in June 2018, employs a Metro-type system where on-bus enforcers spot check fares. GRTC boasted a 15% increase in ridership in the Pulse’s first year, but revenue was down by $1 million, leading many to question the open fare method.

“We could close the system,” the Virginia Beach native says. “We could make it so people can’t get on stations without paying, with turnstiles, or they pay as they get on … unfortunately, that would also decrease the efficiency and time of the service.” It’s a long-running dilemma for the industry, she adds.

Public safety concerns were raised when, in October, a woman was hit and killed by a bus on the Pulse line. “It was a tragedy,”  Timm says. “but the bus system has been involved in only two fatal accidents in the past 10 years. You can’t say that with the roads, or with the train network, or the air. The only way to have an accident-free system is to keep your buses in a maintenance facility, just as the only way to prevent having a car crash is never driving a car.”

Transit is on everyone’s mind, she says, referencing Virginia’s $3.7 billion agreement with CSX to increase commuter rail service throughout the state, but she advises business owners, “When you locate your business in a region, locate it near a transit line. Don’t expect transit to come to you. Transit isn’t well-funded. Putting it in areas where there isn’t current transit is hard for agencies to do.”