U.Va. breaks ground on Manning biotech institute
The University of Virginia began construction Friday on the $350 million Paul and Diane Manning Institute of Biotechnology. Paul and Diane Manning launched the institute with a $100 million donation in January. Paul Manning founded PBM Products, which became the world’s largest privately owned infant formula and baby food busi[...]
Brightpoint promotes Fiege to president
William “Bill” Fiege will be the eighth president of Brightpoint Community College, the Virginia Community College System announced Monday. Fiege will begin his new role on Jan. 2, 2024. Van Wilson has led Brightpoint as interim president since February 2023, after former President Ted Raspiller stepped down from t[...]
Sweet Briar College names alumna 14th president
Sweet Briar College will keep Mary Pope Maybank Hutson as its president permanently after serving as interim president since July, the private women’s college announced Thursday. Hutson is the 14th president of Sweet Briar and the Amherst County school’s first alumna president. A 1983 graduate with a degree in intern[...]
JPMorgan Chase gives $5.3M to DMV career pathways program
JPMorgan Chase has donated $5.3 million to TalentReady, a student career pathways program in Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C., the bank announced Thursday. The program, which is organized by the Greater Washington Partnership and Education Strategy Group, has a focus on ensuring students get work-based learning experiences, such as capstone projects and internships. TalentReady has […][...]
‘A world of opportunities’
From its founding as a two-year junior college designed to expand higher education opportunities in the Appalachian coal-mining country of Southwest Virginia, the University of Virginia’s College at Wise has expanded into a four-year liberal arts college with an influential impact on regional economic and workforce development[...]
Va. Tech hires CIO from Brown
Virginia Tech has named Sharon P. Pitt its vice president for information technology and chief information officer, the university announced Tuesday. Pitt will start her new role on Feb. 1, 2024. She returns to her alma mater from Brown University, where she is currently vice president for information technologies and chief info[...]
EVMS, ODU merger pushed to July 2024
The merger of Eastern Virginia Medical School into Old Dominion University has been pushed back six months, to July 1, 2024, instead of January as originally planned, ODU President Brian O. Hemphill announced Friday during his State of the University address. While that date still meets the deadline set by Gov. Glenn Youngkin an[...]
Making a federal case
Two business colleagues sharing thoughts over breakfast and a pot of hot coffee — that was the setting for the light bulb moment that led to George Mason University launching the nation’s first academic center focused on government contracting. “The idea for the center actually started in 2013 in a booth at the Silver Dine[...]
U.Va. biz school receives $50M donation from alum
A University of Virginia Darden School of Business alumnus and his wife, also a U.Va. graduate, have added $50 million to an earlier gift of $44 million for the business school, which adds up to the largest donation in Darden’s 68-year history. Philanthropists David and Kathleen LaCross made a $44 million donation in Octob[...]
Skanska tops off VSU academic commons building
New York-based development and construction firm Skanska USA held a topping-out ceremony this week for the $120 million Alfred W. Harris Academic Commons building being built at Virginia State University. The 175,000-square-foot building replaces VSU’s Harris Hall and Daniel Gymnasium and consolidates its College of Humani[...]
NNS funding helps launch ODU engineering program
Newport News Shipbuilding will be the lead industry sponsor of Old Dominion University’s program to graduate more engineers, the two organizations announced Tuesday. NNS, a division of Newport News-based Fortune 500 military shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls Industries, will make a five-year financial commitment to the Monarch Ac[...]
Virginia Tech receives $10M gift for endowed scholarship
Preston White, the founder of Virginia Beach-based concrete contractor Century Concrete, and his wife, Catharine, have donated $10 million to Virginia Tech to create an endowed scholarship, the university announced Tuesday. The Whites’ latest gift to Tech, the Preston and Catharine White Endowed Diversity Scholarship, will eve[...]