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SWCC to expand workforce development programs

Southwest Virginia Community College in Cedar Bluff is expanding its programs this year with the help of three totaling $307,142 from the Virginia Coalfield Economic Development Authority. These grants will support the college’s existing technology and workforce development scholarship programs and help launch a new electric vehicle and hybrid vehicle training program, all responding to burgeoning industry needs while lifting local job prospects.

One grant of up to $100,000 will fund emerging workforce scholarships for an estimated 40 students in 2025. The scholarships, which will offset tuition, testing and related fees, aim to stimulate enrollment in certification programs in high-demand, high-paying fields not eligible for federal Pell Grants. Since 2017, scholarships funded by VCEDA have helped more than 80 SWCC students get credentialed in varying fields like agriculture, renewable energy, transportation and logistics, medical services and unmanned aerial systems.

Another grant will provide up to $105,142 to expand the college’s automotive technology program to include a new two-year EV and hybrid vehicle technology certificate. The certificate, expected to welcome its first 24 students this fall, will help meet rising demand for EV and hybrid mechanics currently scarce in the Southwest Virginia region, according to Susan Lowe, the college’s vice president of institutional advancement. Funds have already been drawn down to procure equipment, including “trainer” cars designed to help students practice their skills; grant funds will also be used to cover instructor training and tuition assistance. Additionally, funding will help students in the new program gain other credentials sought after by local dealerships and repair shops.

Lastly, the college has already used a $102,000 grant to an additional tractor-truck and trailer to expand the college’s Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) training program. The equipment will allow the school to add a new cohort to its existing in-demand CDL program, increasing annual enrollment capacity by 48 students for a maximum of 144.

“We’ve seen that the workforce has become the preeminent factor in companies locating in an area, as well as existing companies being able to expand,” says VCEDA Executive Director Jonathan Belcher. “The in our region do a great job of preparing the workforce for the jobs that are here today while thinking proactively about the jobs of tomorrow, like EV and hybrid technology.”

 

Danville-Pittsylvania authority invests in history

Using a $1.89 million loan from the Virginia Financing Authority, and officials plan to about 289 acres adjacent to the .

Members of the (RIFA) unanimously agreed in January to move forward with purchasing the at 5981 Road, the site of the former Oak Hill plantation, from the estate of Waller Hairston.

The goal of the purchase isn’t to prep more acreage for a potential boom of development following the November announcement that Microporous, a Tennessee-based manufacturer of battery separators, plans to invest $1.35 billion to build a facility at the Berry Hill industrial park.

“This is not going to be part of the ,” Matt Rowe, director of economic development for Pittsylvania County, stresses.

The main home on the property, mostly destroyed by a 1988 fire, was believed to have been built in the first quarter of the 19th century and was owned by Samuel Hairston, who has been described as the largest enslaver in the South. The site includes the ruins of the home, as well as those of quarters for enslaved people and a terraced garden.

“There’s significant cultural elements on the property,” says Rowe. “Historically, only the plantation owners’ history has been told, and I know it’s very important to the RIFA board to tell all of the history.”

Purchasing the Oak Hill property also provides a solution to a problem the authority has wrestled with since the localities began developing the 3,528-acre megasite in 2008: what to do about two cemeteries, believed to be populated by former enslaved people and tenant farmers, who lived between 1870 and 1950, that are located on the park’s Lot 3. For RIFA members, the chief concern, according to Rowe, is that development of the megasite might somehow impede access to the graves.

In October, RIFA members approved plans to pay up to $353,533 to WSP USA, a New York professional services firm, to relocate more than 100 unmarked graves to another area of the megasite that’s close to the Oak Hill property.

“Our goal would likely be to do … a boundary line adjustment to put that entire consolidated cemetery all on the same property as that of the plantation home and the other … historic elements to create this one central cultural lot,” Rowe says.

 

STARTVIRGINIA April 2025 news roundup

Antithesis Operations, a Vienna software testing startup whose tools find bugs in computer programming code, announced in mid-February it had raised $30 million in new funding. The company aims to double its workforce and continue its expansion into new markets. Repeat investor Amplify Partners, a California-based venture capital firm, led the funding round, and San Francisco’s Spark Capital participated. The new funding came less than a year after Antithesis emerged from stealth in March 2024 with $47 million in fresh capital. The company had 40 employees then and now has 70 employees. (DC Inno)

Herndon startup Knostic has raised $11 million to expand its workforce and further develop its products that help companies adopting AI tools avoid disclosing sensitive internal information with need-to-know controls, the company announced March 5. Portugal-based venture capital firm Bright Pixel Capital led the round, which included participation from San Francisco’s Silicon Valley CISO Investments and California’s DNX Ventures. The fresh funding brings Knostic’s total outside investment to $14 million since its founding. Cybersecurity veterans Gadi Evron and Sounil Yu launched the company in 2023. (DC Inno)

‘s Lighthouse Labs revealed in mid-February the participants of its 18th accelerator cohort, selected from a field of nearly 100 applications. The cohort includes: Absurd Snacks, a Richmond food products company; Buckstop, a Richmond lifecycle services company for smart device manufacturers; EarthaPro, a Haymarket management software company; Sartography, a Staunton workflow tool company; Tow Ninja, a Mechanicsville fintech platform; Utrain, a company with an app for basketball trainers; and VroomBrick, a Hampton startup with step-by-step software for military families and veterans buying homes. (Richmond Inno)

Rune Technologies, an Arlington County defense tech company building software to enable military logistics in contested environments, announced on Feb. 26 it had raised $6.2 million in seed funding. Andreessen Horowitz led the round, with participation from Point72 Ventures and XYZ Venture Capital, as well as individual investments from several defense tech executives, including Gokul Subramanian, Anduril’s senior vice president of engineering (software programs); Vannevar Labs CEO Brett Granberg; Cape CEO John Doyle; and Scott Sanders, Forterra’s chief growth officer. The funding will allow Rune to scale its engineering and product teams to drive expanded development and testing of the company’s TyrOS software. (News release)

SpecterOps, an Alexandria-based adversary-focused cybersecurity solutions provider, raised a $75 million Series B funding round, the startup announced March 5. Global software investor Insight Partners led the round, which had participation from other investors like Ansa Capital, M12, Ballistic Ventures, Decibel and Cisco Investments. The funding will support SpecterOps’ rapid scaling of its BloodHound Enterprise platform for removing identity-based attack paths. The company launched BHE in 2021 to help organizations fortify their Microsoft Active Directory and Microsoft Entra ID platforms against this security issue. (News release)

PEOPLE

Brenda Boehm joined RiPSIM Technologies as its CEO, the Ashburn startup with a software-as-a-service eSIM platform announced in early February. The company’s co-founder, Chris Jahr, became chief strategy officer. Boehm has held leadership roles with Fortune 100 tech companies like Dell Technologies and Cisco, as well as with Starent Networks, Tango Networks, Cyphre and Underline Infrastructure. She was also chief strategy officer for the Telecommunications Industry Association for a little over a year. Boehm has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Louisiana and a master’s degree from Southern Methodist University. (News release)

Virginia Best Places to Work 2025 Experience Sponsor: CV International

At CV International (CVI), our vision is to be the most trusted partner in global . Headquartered in , CVI is Virginia’s preeminent “local” freight forwarder, with a long and proud history of serving shippers in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast region. As a subsidiary of CVI, Capes Shipping Agencies offers port agency and cargo forwarding services along the U.S. East and Gulf coasts. Capes’ unparalleled local expertise and strong relationships give us the “local advantage” and allow us to consistently exceed our customers’ expectations. Together, we strive to deliver personalized international logistics and shipping solutions through a values-based culture of service excellence.

We aim to differentiate ourselves with outstanding service, technology, professionalism, and deep subject matter expertise. Our people make the difference, so supporting their well-being and professional success is a top strategic priority. With a culture built around our Vision, Mission, and Core Values, we emphasize the growth and development of our team – an opportunity for everyone to reach their highest potential.

We are excited and proud to be recognized in the 2025 in Virginia program! This is a much-appreciated acknowledgment on our journey to make CVI and Capes Shipping Agencies a great place to work!

Pharma hub workforce training wins $3.9 million grant

The talent pipeline for the – region’s growing advanced pharmaceutical and biotech industries is getting a boost from a $3.9 million federal grant.

Announced in mid-January, the U.S. Economic Development Administration’s Good Jobs Challenge grant was awarded to the Community College Workforce Alliance in Disputanta, a shared division of Brightpoint and Reynolds community colleges.

The grant requires the creation of a workforce sectoral partnership intermediary to work with regional pharmaceutical manufacturers to determine their workforce needs and with community colleges and boards to systematically align workforce training programs with those needs and connect employers with job seekers.

The Richmond-Petersburg region has attracted more than 600 biotech and pharmaceutical manufacturers such as , and in recent years. Their needs are constantly evolving, so the intermediary and its partners will continually review, revise and update curricula, says Elizabeth Creamer, CCWA’s vice president of workforce development.

Currently, the grant will support five workforce programs, including a biotechnology laboratory technician associate’s degree at and a pharmaceutical manufacturing career studies certificate program at . It will also fund a pharmaceutical manufacturing associate’s degree that Brightpoint will launch this fall and a chemical technician program that will begin in spring 2026 at Reynolds.

In addition, the grant will provide on-the-job training opportunities through which employers can receive wage reimbursements for teaching new hires specific skills. Supportive services, such as transportation and child care assistance, will also be available to help individuals successfully transition into these jobs.

Demand for skilled workers is growing in the region, and a Reynolds Community College study estimates a need for 6,000 new hires over the next 10 years. The workforce initiative aims to enroll 280 people over three years, with a commitment to placing 228 of them in jobs, says Sean Terrell, Reynolds’ associate vice president of research, planning and .

Richmond resident Camille Jackson, then age 32, enrolled in Brightpoint’s nine-month pharmaceutical manufacturing career studies certificate program in June 2024 and began working for Civica, visually inspecting manufactured products, in September, before her December graduation. Her new job pays $20 an hour and offers benefits and a chance for advancement.

“It changes everything,” says Jackson, who saw no chance of moving up at her previous job at the Virginia Department of Health Professions. “It just opened up a lot more doors.”

 

Newport News aims for summer music festival

Newport News is preparing to launch a major this year to boost and support area businesses.

Mayor Phillip Jones says the city is currently trying to attract national talent and is reviewing applications from people and organizations wanting to help organize, partner with and promote the festival.

Although has “a very different setup” from Virginia Beach, which has hosted Something in the Water and other music events, his city’s festival would be “the largest possible event” that Newport News could safely host on its waterfront.

“The goal is to promote the brand of Newport News on the national scale, as well as leverage and access our waterfront in our downtown area,” Jones says.

The exact location — and date — of the festival has yet to be determined, but Jones says the city is eyeing a few spots in the downtown area. He hopes to launch a smaller-scale version of the festival this summer, with an expansion in subsequent years, likely held in the summer or fall, and potentially over several days.

“I know that there’s been a tremendous amount of buzz and energy around this,” Jones says. “Everyone is excited to showcase all that Newport News and the entire peninsula has to offer.”

Vice Mayor Curtis Bethany and Councilman John Eley will be liaisons involved in the planning process for the event.

“What we see is more than just a festival,” Jones notes. “We see a conference supporting small businesses, amplifying the voices of arts, culture, and everyone doing the work here on the peninsula.”

Right now, there aren’t any cost estimates for what it would take to put the festival together. Jones hopes the festival will eventually be eligible to receive tourism dollars and sponsorships from the state government.

In December 2024, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced $812,139 in matching grant funds for 81 special events and as part of the Virginia Tourism Corp.’s special events and festivals program. Newport News wasn’t ready to apply for a grant last year, but Jones says the city “would like to be on that list.”

“I would encourage everyone to come on down to Hampton Roads, come down to Newport News and check out our festival,” Jones said. “It’s going to be an amazing time.”

 

A second act for Roanoke’s Walker Machine and Foundry

Standing within hollering distance of the River, Gregory Kaknes points toward an empty, 10,000-square-foot building.

“That’s the bar and grill,” he says. He turns the other direction and motions toward a large expanse of covered in concrete. “The apartments are over there. … There’s where we’ll have outdoor music, pickleball courts, beach volleyball.”

Kaknes, a from Maine who lives part-time in Roanoke, has ambitious plans for a $50 million mixed-use commercial and residential development on about 8.4 acres of property where the former Walker Machine and Foundry made metal castings for 100 years before closing in 2019.

Kaknes, 64, discovered the foundry property while walking with his granddaughter along the Roanoke River Greenway, which passes the site. He was fascinated by the abandoned foundry in Roanoke’s Norwich neighborhood, which reminded him of New England towns where former industrial sites had been converted into living and dining spaces.

“I saw it not for what it was, or what it is, but what it could be,” says Kaknes, who started a successful organic recycling business in Massachusetts in the 1990s that he later sold.

His company, The Foundry Realty, plans for the property include eight pickleball courts, an indoor golf simulator and a sprawling restaurant that could host concerts, banquets and meetings.

On Jan. 21, Roanoke City Council approved rezoning the property from heavy and light industrial use to a recently created urban center district designation, which allows a mix of retail, office, residential and light industrial uses outside of the downtown area.

Kaknes says he will work with another developer, so far unnamed, on the residential component, and that he hopes to offset costs with funding from Virginia’s Industrial Revitalization Fund as well as Enterprise Zone and historic rehabilitation incentives. He expects to close on the property — which also includes an additional 10 parcels across Bridge Street where he hopes to build more housing — by March 31 and begin the project’s first phase this spring by developing the restaurant and outdoor sports sites.

Edward Moore, president of the foundry, which currently owns the site, gives the project his blessing.

“This area was mostly industrial, but that was in a world 50 years ago that’s no longer the case in Roanoke,” he says. “Roanoke is on a different path, a growing path.”

 

Our View: Trump charts chaotic course in trade wars

Since taking office on Jan. 20 for his second term, has steered the ship of state full speed on a seemingly chaotic course, mostly navigating an about-face from the Biden administration’s policies and only very occasionally zigzagging away from buffeting winds of public disapproval.

In support of making progress on the administration’s journey toward redefining the scope and structure of the , as well as its policies and alliances, Trump’s first mate, world’s wealthiest man , is fond of quoting the Silicon Valley ethos “Move fast and break things.”

And that’s certainly happened along the way: See the firings by Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency () of Ebola prevention experts, federal workers fighting bird flu, and engineers and technicians in charge of maintaining America’s stockpile of 5,000 nuclear warheads, many of whom were reportedly rehired following news reports and calls from alarmed lawmakers.

The most recent example of the Trump administration’s shock-and-awe approach came in early March as the stock market fell into a tailspin and the dollar weakened while Trump doubled down on his and refused to rule out the possibility of his policies causing the U.S. to go into this year.

When asked in a March 9 interview on Fox News about the possibility, Trump said, “I hate to predict things like that. There is a period of transition because what we’re doing is very big. We’re bringing wealth back to America. That’s a big thing.”

The following day, investors sold off stocks, bitcoin’s value fell, and the Dow and S&P 500 each had their worst days of the year. Between Feb. 19 and March 10, the S&P 500 lost $4 trillion in market value, walloping everyday Americans’ 401(k)s. Even Tesla was down 15.4%, in a hit to Musk’s own wallet. The next day, Trump placed on steel and aluminum imports worldwide, drawing retaliatory measures from Europe and likely giving migraines to some C-suite denizens as they hoped he’d reverse himself on this latest round of tariffs like he has with Canada and Mexico.

Trump is the hardly the first politician to say he wants to run the government like a business; to many, that’s seen as a plus. But while the models share similarities, government isn’t a business. It’s run on taxpayer dollars and most of its initiatives — ranging from the military to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to the postal service, Social Security and Medicare — aren’t profit-motivated ventures. They’re about delivering vital public services.

And the U.S. government is most definitely not a startup, no matter how much Musk and his DOGE bros treat it like one.

It’s folly to think that one can dismantle virtually overnight a nearly 250-year-old government and rewrite the hard-fought post-World War II military partnerships, relationships and foreign treaties that catapulted the United States into the world’s premier superpower without risking significant negative impacts for many of the nation’s 340 million citizens.

In service of this conservative policy blitz and its indeterminate end game, Trump has surrounded himself with yes-men and -women, prizing loyalty in Cabinet members and agency appointees over experience or even, in his critics’ view, competence. Similarly, Trump administration officials have been reported to have been questioning federal job applicants and currently employed civil servants about their alignment with MAGA values and how they voted in the presidential election.

Clearly, Trump’s White House is not seeking to emulate Lincoln’s team of rivals.

Sure, it’s good to have everyone in an organization rowing in the same direction. That’s your job as a leader. But you also don’t want people to be afraid to tell you if you’re about to plunge straight over a waterfall.

 

Virginia Best Places to Work 2025 Experience Sponsor: Norfolk Botanical Garden

Explore Norfolk Botanical Garden‘s 175-acre oasis, home to over 65 themed gardens. This diverse natural beauty can be discovered by foot, tram or boat, offering stunning plant collections and unique experiences like the WOW – World of Wonders: A Children’s Adventure Garden. The Garden’s largest expansion, The Garden of Tomorrow, includes the 26,000-square-foot Perry Conservatory, which will house and protect some of the world’s most threatened plants. Opening in the fall of 2025, this exciting addition will further elevate the Garden’s mission to preserve and protect global plant diversity.

Originally created by 220 African Americans hired during the Great Depression through the Works Progress Administration, the Garden’s history began with the clearing of and the planting of its first azaleas. Accredited by the American Alliance of Museums and a proud member of Botanical Gardens Conservation International (BCGI), the Garden is also recognized as a Virginia Historic Landmark, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and designated a Virginia Green attraction. Managed by Botanical Garden and supported by the City of Norfolk, the Garden’s mission is to immerse visitors in a world of beauty, lead through environmental action, and inspire through education and connection to nature. A visit to NBG is a must when in Norfolk—discover more at norfolkbotanicalgarden.orgnorfolkbotanicalgarden.org.

Biotech accelerator launches in Charlottesville

At the beginning of April, the area will enter a new phase in its journey to become a hub for innovation with the launch of the Commonwealth Bio Accelerator. The program will help early-stage biotech companies from the and others in the surrounding region and beyond move from the research stage to market viability.

The CBA is a project of and U.Va., with support and collaboration from many others. Founded in 2016, CvilleBioHub has supported more than 100 early-stage to date with advice, resources and connections. Opening the CBA boosts this support to a more intensive level, adding office and lab space, shared equipment, mentorship and an in-house community of . U.Va. is allocating space in the university’s North Fork discovery park with offices, labs and collaborative workspace.

“I believe passionately that this is a core function of a university,” says Michael Lenox, a professor at U.Va.’s Darden School of Business who is helping establish the program. “Our teaching mission is first and foremost, and our research mission is absolutely critical. But the question of how we get our discoveries out into the world is absolutely critical as well.”

The first six companies slated to participate include those working on a pulmonary fibrosis therapy, a solution for genetic epilepsy and non-opioid pain control, and a gene therapy for Type 1 diabetes, among others. Each cohort will participate for 12 to 18 months, and up to two years if some companies need more support.

CvilleBioHub and U.Va. are joined by Albemarle County, the City of Charlottesville, the Manning Family Foundation and other private donors in launching the accelerator. The state of Virginia is contributing a $4.3 million GO Virginia grant, which is partially matched by other partners for a total of $7.5 million.

The goal is to build a regional ecosystem of innovation while establishing a presence on a national scale for life sciences and biotech innovation.

“We want to build the next generation of those types of companies,” says Nikki Hastings, co-founder and executive director of the CvilleBioHub. “We are cultivating an end-to-end strategy for life sciences in Virginia. We are excited to take this community we’ve built to the next stage and continue to grow the great opportunities that these companies have ahead of them.”