Education 2025: HEMPHILL, BRIAN O.

Old Dominion merged with Eastern Virginia Medical School in July 2024 to form the largest suite of health care programs in state higher education, with 56 academic programs. Macon & Joan Brock Virginia Health Sciences at Old Dominion University received a $20 million gift from Joan Brock and another $20 million gift from Dennis and Jan Ellmer for student scholarships.

This has been an equally big year for ODU, having celebrated groundbreakings for a $24 million baseball complex project, the $25 million Barry Art Museum expansion and a new $184 million Biological Sciences Building.

Under Hemphill’s tenure, which began in 2021, the university received R1 research classification, launched a $500 million capital campaign and received a $5 million Mellon Foundation Award to fund humanities internships.

Hemphill previously was Radford University’s president and led the creation of Radford University Carilion through a merger with the Jefferson College of Health Sciences. He also is a past president of West Virginia State University.

Hemphill has a bachelor’s degree from St. Augustine’s University, a master’s degree from Iowa State University and a doctorate in higher education administration and policy studies from the University of Iowa.

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