Virginia’s housing market gave off mixed signals in May. Closings were higher than last year, but pending sales were flat, according to Virginia Realtors data released June 25.
In May, 10,715 homes sold in Virginia, up 423 sales or just over 4% from the same month last year.
“While sales activity has outpaced last year four out of five months so far in 2024, this level of sales activity is still below average,” said 2024 Virginia Realtors President Tom Campbell in a statement.
More than half of municipalities in the state had an increase in sales compared with May 2023. The markets with the strongest sales growth were in the Shenandoah and Roanoke valleys and in south Central Virginia.
The Virginia market had 17,712 active listings at the end of May, an increase of nearly 28% from the same time last year.
There were 14,056 new listings, up 15.8% from May 2023. New listings increased 5.6% between May and April, a typical seasonal increase, according to Virginia Realtors.
Chart courtesy Virginia Realtors.
Homes in Virginia stayed on the market for a median of seven days in May, one day longer than reported in May 2023.
“The supply of listings remains tight compared to the number of sales and the demand in the market, but there has been some notable improvement to the number of active listings,” Ryan Price, chief economist for Virginia Realtors, said in a statement.
The statewide median sales price in May was $425,000. That’s $15,000 higher than the median price last May, a 3.7% increase.
The statewide housing market had 9,729 pending sales last month, one fewer than May 2023.
Mortgage rates decreased for the fourth consecutive week, in the week ending June 20, according to Freddie Mac data. For that week, the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 6.87%.
“We’re still looking at a ‘sellers’ market’ here in the commonwealth,” Virginia Realtors CEOTerrie Suit said. “Houses are selling quickly, and in nearly all price brackets, sellers continue getting more money than the asking price.”
Sometimes the best decision a builder can make is not to build.
That’s the conclusion Lucas Thornton, managing partner at Hist:Re Partners in Roanoke, recently reached, although his plans for an office building may happen in the future.
Thornton’s downtown mixed-use development, The Bower, was set to open by late June with 90 one- and two-bedroom apartments atop first-floor retail space at 17 Campbell Ave. SW, the site of the former Campbell Court bus terminal. But he’s put the second phase — an 82,600-square-foot office building on Salem Avenue Southwest — on hold. Instead, Thornton intends to construct a $500,000 park where the office building would have gone. It should be ready later this summer, he says.
“The reality is that COVID has cast a long shadow over the office market. Multitenant office buildings now are difficult” to market, Thornton says, but demand for residential and retail remains solid. About 30% of the apartments in his $25 million project are pre-leased. He also has retail tenants lined up for three out of four spaces, though Thornton says he’s not ready to make those plans public.
As in the rest of the state, the office space market in Roanoke remains uncertain. In its 2023 annual survey, Poe & Cronk Real Estate Group estimated downtown Roanoke’s office occupancy rate at 86%, down a couple points from 2022 and below an ideal rate of 90%.
Poe & Cronk President Matt Huff has seen Roanoke’s occupancy numbers as low as 80% and as high as 94%.
“I think [Thornton] looked at the economic landscape and correctly decided it’s probably not the time,” Huff says, but both are confident offices have a future.
“As corporate America sort of settles on its priorities,” Thornton says, “a site like ours we believe will be very attractive because more traditional formats and footprints might not work as well.”
Making room for The Bower required the demolition of the Campbell Court Transportation Center, which Valley Metro, the Roanoke Valley‘s public transportation provider, had operated out of since 1987. Third Street Station, an open-air bus station, opened in June 2023 and serves as Valley Metro’s central transfer hub.
Thornton hopes The Bower’s park will give Roanokers and visitors another place to spend time. “I can imagine everything from an ice rink in the winter … to concerts in the summer.”
The Hard Rock Hotel & CasinoBristol‘s development team has pushed back the opening of the permanent casino, previously expected in July, and will instead open the approximately $515 million permanent casino resort in late fall.
The team — a joint venture between Hard Rock, Par Ventures President Clyde Stacy and The United Co. Chairman Jim McGlothlin — announced the change in plans June 5.
“I think sometimes people forget [Hard Rock is] not just a casino company,” says Allie Evangelista, president of Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Bristol. “And that’s why we’re not so focused on rushing into opening a casino floor, because we really want people to see us for who we are as an entertainment and hospitality business.”
The temporary Bristol Casino: Future Home of Hard Rock opened July 8, 2022, becoming Virginia’s first operating casino. The 30,000-square-foot casino in the
former Bristol Mall has about 900 slots, 29 table games and a sportsbook. It also has a restaurant, a sports bar and lounge, and a grab-and-go food outlet.
The permanent resort casino is expected to have a 303-room hotel, more than 1,500 slots, 75 table games, new dining venues and a 2,000-seat indoor entertainment venue.
“As a business, for us, this is a lot more exciting because we were opening a casino floor rather than opening the full Hard Rock experience,” says Evangelista, “and being able to open everything at once … allows us to really have a great first impression.”
Plus, she says, guests won’t experience construction-related disruptions.
Now that the full casino resort will open all at once, rather than in phases, “we believe the construction is redoing their timeline, because you don’t have to [put up] temporary wall things, [and] you don’t have to go around operations, so we believe we can pick up some time,” says Evangelista. The developers are waiting for the construction team — TN Ward and BurWil Construction — to provide a more specific timeframe.
The extended timeline follows a 2024-2026 state budget amendment that allowed temporary casino operators who met certain conditions to conduct gaming for six additional months past the previously codified two-year limit.
As of June 7, the Bristol Hard Rock had 619 employees, and 200 more people were set to onboard once they acquired their Virginia Lottery licenses. The resort’s full employment goal is 1,400 employees, Evangelista says.
For the fourth annual Women in LeadershipAwards, Virginia Business hosted a photo shoot at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, where eight of this year’s winners struck poses for Richmond photographer James Lee.
Given the surroundings, Lee took inspiration from the museum’s collection and other artwork in staging the photos. The results display a different side of these powerful and accomplished leaders.
Over the past four years, Virginia Business has introduced readers to many outstanding executives through the Women in Leadership Awards, including 2024’s impressive cohort of 38 women, chosen from a pool of more than 250 nominees.
All winners work in Virginia and hold C-suite or equivalent positions. They also have demonstrated extraordinary professional achievements, including breaking glass ceilings, mentoring others, engaging in civic work and bringing their leadership skills to nonprofit and company boards.
Most also have been willing to take risks in their careers. It takes guts, after all, to be a woman leader. Women still run just 10.4% of Fortune 500 companies, and, astoundingly, 2023 was the first year that there were more women CEOs of S&P 500 companies than S&P CEOs named John.
In the pages ahead, you’ll read about the fascinating journeys that this year’s cohort of Virginia executives took to leadership and success. Please join us in congratulating the 2024 winners of the Virginia Business Women in Leadership Awards!
LARGE EMPLOYER
YVONNE ALLMOND Executive vice president and community financial engagement officer, TowneBank, Norfolk
MELODY BARNES Executive director, University ofVirginia Karsh Institute of Democracy, Charlottesville
SAGE BOLTE President and chief philanthropy officer, Inova Health Foundation, Fairfax
CAPRICE BRAGG Chief strategy officer and deputy director for strategic planning, government and board relations, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond
ERICA CARTER Regional leader and principal, Kimley-Horn, Reston
RUTH ANN CLARK Managing director, mid-Atlantic region and aerospace, defense and government services industry manager, JPMorgan Chase, McLean
PAT DAVIS-HAGENS Market president, Bon Secours Mercy Health Hampton Roads, Suffolk
MELODY DICKERSON Senior vice president for hospital operations and chief nursing officer, VHC Health, Arlington County
MELISSA FRYE Senior program director, General Dynamics Information Technology, Reston
CANDICE LING Federal sector leader, Microsoft Federal, Arlington County
LYN McDERMID Secretary of administration, Commonwealth ofVirginia, Richmond
The Virginia Cannabis Control Authority (CCA) received 40 complete applications for conditional permits to operate as the state’s sole licensed pharmaceutical processor of medical cannabis for a region including the Shenandoah Valley, as well as Charlottesville, Fredericksburg and the counties of Spotsylvania and Stafford.
Applications were due April 30, and the state authority planned to announce the selected company at the end of June, according to CCA Chief Officer Jeremy Preiss.
Each company paid an $18,000 fee for the opportunity to be granted the sole medical marijuana license to serve the CCA’s health service area 1 (HSA 1), which has been tied up in litigation for years. HSA 1 has not had a licensed medical marijuana dispensary available since the state began issuing pharmaceutical processor licenses for its five HSAs in September 2018.
“This is a pay to try-to-play,” says Eric Postow, Fairfax County-based managing partner for Holon Law Partners. “That really just kind of demonstrates the interest in the business community wanting to service the cannabis sector.” Postow led a team that helped put together an application for Albemarle County-based Integra Vertical.
The competition also reflects the lucrative nature of the license, which allows licensees to open and operate dispensaries within their designated HSA. While the CCA doesn’t track sales revenues, the state’s dispensaries made 3.4 million medical cannabis dispensations in 2023. Virginia patients paid an average $14 per gram for medical cannabis flower at dispensaries, compared with $10 in Florida and Pennsylvania, according to a November 2023 market study conducted for the authority.
Along with multiple out-of-state businesses, Pure Virginia, a company connected to Elkton-based CBD and hemp products business Pure Shenandoah, applied for the conditional permit. Pure Virginia CEO Tanner Johnson says 40 applicants was on the higher end of what he’d expected, but he’s optimistic about his family business’s chances.
“To us, it didn’t really come down to the competition we were against but how good of an application we could put in, and I think that we put in a really, really good one,” he says.
Greenwood-based Jackpot 777 Farms, the company behind applicant Integra Vertical, currently produces hemp flower and CBD-infused products. “When the opportunity came up and Virginia decided to put HSA 1 up for application,” says Integra Vertical CEO Mike Tabor, “it seemed like an opportune time to make the shift into cannabis.”
One of the most disrupted sectors in Northern Virginia since the pandemic has been office space, as many white-collar workers work remote or hybrid schedules, leading to less demand.
On top of that, in Arlington County’s Rosslyn corridor, WeWork clients have had to deal with the coworking company’s uncertain future. Although WeWork was set to exit Chapter 11 bankruptcy in mid-June, it’s been unclear whether it will remain a tenant at the 1201 Wilson Blvd. building, which CoStar Group purchased for $339 million in February as its new corporate headquarters.
In recent months, CoStar has been in court, trying to get WeWork to vacate and claiming WeWork didn’t pay rent promptly. That could leave room for WeWork competitors offering more stability.
At nearby Office Evolution Arlington-Rosslyn, owner Trey Hardin’s phone has been busy. “We have been contacted by several WeWork members recently — all who want out and a new, reliable home for their business,” he says. “The common sentiment we are hearing is that, ‘WeWork has given up and is checked out.’”
Hardin also notes that coworking demands have evolved. “Customers are no longer seeking an office for a week or a hot desk for a day. They either want true commercial space with unprecedented flexible terms and pricing, or they want dedicated offices in coworking centers on longer term agreements with specialized member services.”
Office Evolution client Ron Prater, chief operating officer of Alexandria-based technology business Bent Ear Solutions, says he and his colleagues “looked at many coworking spaces. Many had tons of frills — tons of open space, networking events at night, etc. — but were not conducive for our work.”
Arlington Economic Development Director Ryan Touhill says the CoStar-WeWork dispute, which the two sides’ attorneys declined to comment on, is a “private matter between a landlord and tenant and does not reflect broader commercial real estate market trends.”
However, Touhill also sees change in the market. “We are observing a trend toward ‘flight to quality,’ which bolsters the appeal of premium office buildings,” Touhill says. “This trend is driving strategic investments in various forms: renovating and repositioning existing office spaces, planning full redevelopments into alternative uses, and constructing new high-end office buildings. Arlington is actively developing guidelines for adaptive reuse, where building owners convert office spaces into alternative uses such as residential units or hotels.”
Richmond City Council this spring pitched a bit of a curveball on financing of the city’s new baseballstadium.
On May 8, councilors approved a plan that they say would save the city money and get the replacement stadium — part of the proposed Diamond District — completed in time to meet the Richmond Flying Squirrels‘ 2026 season deadline.
Davenport & Co., the city’s financial adviser, recommended issuing $170 million worth of general obligation bonds to finance the Diamond District‘s stadium and first-phase infrastructure work, rather than community development authority bonds, as planned.
That would put the city on the hook for paying off the bonds if projected revenue falls short, although the new structure would also have economic benefits, including a lower interest rate that is expected to reduce costs by $215 million over the next 30 years. Also, if the bonds were issued by July 1, the state would have chipped in $24 million through its sales tax incentive program, but Richmond missed that deadline.
“When cities take on the role of developer, they are assuming risk for taxpayers,” Terry Clower, director of George Mason University‘s Center for Regional Analysis, says. “In this case, there are compelling reasons for the change in financing that recognizes market conditions and a particular state tax incentive.”
However, attorney and activist Paul Goldman filed a lawsuit in May, challenging the city’s plan to issue the bonds without a November ballot referendum.
“It’s the public’s money; it’s not the politicians’ money,” and residents should get a vote, Goldman argues, but his lawsuit was tossed out in June by Richmond Circuit Court Judge W. Reilly Marchant. The only way to force a referendum without a court order was to have roughly 11,000 Richmond voters’ signatures within 30 days of the city’s notice of the ordinance’s adoption, published May 12.
That’s a “task worthy of Hercules,” Goldman says. “It can’t be done unless you’re going to spend a fortune.” On June 28, Goldman said he wouldn’t appeal the court’s decision.
However, for Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney, the Squirrels’ new stadium is on deck.
“We are full speed ahead on delivering a world-class baseball stadium and an exciting new neighborhood for ALL to enjoy,” Stoney said June 10 in a statement. “The Flying Squirrels are here to stay in Richmond!”
Virginia’s largest industrial employer, Newport News Shipbuilding, hopes to grow its 26,000-person workforce by 3,000 this year to tackle its backlog of projects.
NNS, a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries, is building modular components for 12 Columbia-class subs and then handing them off to partner General Dynamics’ Connecticut-based Electric Boat, and the two companies have a similar construction-sharing agreement to build Virginia-class subs. Meanwhile, NNS continues overhauling Nimitz-class aircraft carriers and building a Ford-class aircraft carrier expected to be delivered in September 2029.
According to an April report from the Navy, the completion of subs and carriers are now delayed between one to three years. With these setbacks, the Navy has postponed some purchases, which weighs on NNS and other shipbuilders.
In the meantime, though, NNS is focusing on recruiting skilled workers to complete existing Navy contract work worth billions. Xavier Beale, the shipyard’s vice president of human resources, says NNS is focusing its recruitment efforts within a 100-mile radius of Hampton Roads, as far west as Danville, and within the next two years, the company plans to extend its outreach into other states.
It’s more than just a “Help Wanted” sign, Beale says.
To make it easy to apply, the shipyard holds “Walk-in Wednesdays.” Each week, those interested in skilled-trade positions can apply at the Newport News Shipbuilding employment office at 5200 W. Mercury Blvd. in Hampton without an appointment, Beale says. For professional positions ranging from human resources to engineering, the shipyard has 200 college internships and recruits recent graduates from William & Mary and Christopher Newport, Hampton, Norfolk State and Old Dominion universities.
To attract experienced professionals, shipyard recruiters attend industry conferences year-round.
The Hampton Roads Regional Workforce Council plays a significant role with the Regional Maritime Training System, a collaborative initiative focused on filling approximately 11,000 skilled maritime job openings across Hampton Roads, council President and CEO Shawn Avery says.
NNS salaries are competitive, Beale says, although amounts are not made public, and full-time employees receive medical benefits and access to job training, an on-site health center and financial literacy programs. He also points to proximity to the beach and other amenities, as well as an affordable cost of living compared with other Virginia regions, although home prices statewide have risen in recent years.
“We want our employees to have a healthy mind, body and wallet,” he says.
Virginia Business’ July issue cover art represents a significant amount of time and thoughtful planning — especially in considering what image we want to convey to you, the reader.
From our viewpoint, the Women in Leadership cover should express strength and confidence — attributes that this year’s 38 award winners demonstrate daily as executives. A still photograph, of course, must achieve this without words, so we have to consider facial expressions, body language and wardrobe.
Work should be different, though, because in our jobs we should be judged solely on our merits. Unfortunately, life doesn’t usually work this way, and many women are judged on their looks, even when we’re unconscious of such bias.
Most women can probably point to a time when “pretty privilege” either penalized or benefited them, but let’s focus on women in high positions at work. They’re expected to look powerful and serious, as well as approachable and attractive in a traditional sense. But not too attractive, because that’s distracting. This cliche even applies to women in the C-suite and those who aspire to it, and it costs time and money.
If you picture an average CEO, chances are you’re thinking of a white man of a certain age. He may have gray or thinning hair and a few wrinkles. He’s not young, and no one expects him to look particularly young.
But women — including CEOs and presidents — often feel pressure to pay for expensive hair treatments, skin care regimens and other beauty treatments to diminish signs of aging. What’s more, they aren’t aiming to look like J.Lo at age 54; that’s just to achieve normal “maintenance.”
Although conventionally attractive men and women outearn their peers by about 20%, according to a 2016 study by sociologists Jaclyn S. Wong and Andrew M. Penner, women considered attractive spend more money on grooming products than attractive men do, the study found.
On average, U.S. women spend $877 per year on their looks — including hair products, skin care, makeup and manicures — compared with men’s average spending of $592 a year, according to an Advanced Dermatology study in 2023.
Anecdotally, we all know women who spend a lot more than $877 on beauty, adding Botox injections and anti-aging facial creams to their regimens. Black women, according to multiple studies, spend much more on hair treatments than most white women do.
I am not going to denigrate any woman who has treatments that make her feel good. But it is a problem when a woman is spending money on beauty because she’s worried about her job.
Plus, older age isn’t the only difficulty women encounter in the workplace. A 2023 survey of 913 women leaders conducted by Harvard Business Review found that many experienced ageism throughout their careers. Dubbed the “never-right” age bias, women under 40 are often deemed underqualified for executive roles, and older women sometimes get tagged with perceptions of being out of date or overly strident. Middle-aged women get skipped over for promotions because hiring authorities assume they have too many family responsibilities to contribute fully at work.
Looks play into these stereotypes, too. If a woman looks younger than she is, she may be treated like an inexperienced girl, and what about a woman who wants to grow out her gray hair and forgo expensive coloring treatments every eight weeks? There’s a reason many women ages 50 and older talk about feeling invisible as they age, and that certainly extends to the workplace.
Nearly everyone says they want to be judged on their abilities versus what they look like. So, let’s get a move on.
When Alondra Rodriguez considered which school to attend for pre-med, she found herself puzzled by Old Dominion University — and why it didn’t have an affiliated medical school.
“U.Va. has their own med school,” she thought. “Why don’t they just do that?”
Rodriguez, who already had a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Liberty University, ultimately decided to become a Monarch anyway. Norfolk is within driving distance to her parents in Northern Virginia — but not so close she has to visit every weekend.
Happily, when the 26-year-old started classes at ODU in fall 2022 to earn a bachelor’s degree in biology with a major in biomedical sciences/pre-health, she learned plans were in the works to integrate Norfolk-based Eastern Virginia Medical School into ODU.
Now, following her 2025 graduation, Rodriguez plans to apply to EVMS at ODU, along with several other medical schools, after taking a gap year. “I’m definitely excited,” she says. Even if she ends up learning how to be a doctor somewhere else, Rodriguez adds, she’s already benefited from the two schools joining forces.
EVMS and ODU were slated to formally merge July 1 — the deadline Gov. Glenn Youngkin set in 2022 for the merger to be completed.
As one of only a few stand-alone medical schools in the country, EVMS already had close ties with Old Dominion prior to the merger; its students and residents frequently showed up for meetings at ODU’s Pre-Health Club for undergraduates interested in health care careers. At one of those gatherings, Rodriguez mentioned she planned to apply to six medical schools.
“They’re like, ‘Oh no, honey, you have to apply to more than just that,’” Rodriguez says. “I was shocked. They told me it’s very hard to get into med school as it is. When you narrow down your options, it’s harder to get into one.”
Now, Rodriguez thinks she’ll apply to at least 15 medical schools.
While undergraduates will surely benefit from new opportunities to collaborate with EVMS medical students and residents, they’re not the only ones who will reap rewards from the integration of EVMS into ODU, proponents say.
A 2022 report commissioned by ODU from Missouri-based consulting firm Tripp Umbach predicted that combining EVMS and ODU would create “a full-scale urban powerhouse university with a closely aligned health care system that will drive the Virginia economy through the mid-century and transform the delivery system in the Hampton Roads region.”
By 2030, the report estimates, the total economic impact of integrating EVMS and ODU, along with a stronger partnership with long-time EVMS supporter Sentara Health, will reach $730 million for the state and approximately $600 million for the Hampton Roads region. That would come from “commercialization of research through startup companies and existing companies attracted to the region” by growth in merged academic programs and research, the report’s authors wrote.
In 2021, ODU earned R1 research classification, a designation held by only 146 universities nationwide and the top research ranking awarded by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. Even so, Tripp Umbach analysts found, the Norfolk university earns five times less research revenue when compared with similar universities that have integrated medical schools.
Tripp Umbach also predicted the integration would boost the health care workforce in Hampton Roads “by expanding numbers of highly qualified graduates in the health professions who have regional connections and interests.”
A 2017 study on mergers in higher education points out that by joining forces and leveraging economies of scale, schools are sometimes able to reduce administrative and infrastructure costs.
Brian Weinblatt, founder and principal of Florida-based Higher Ed Consolidation Solutions, a consulting firm focused on higher education mergers, says any stand-alone school, whether a school of medicine or law, faces mounting financial pressures and can miss out on opportunities for synergy by failing to join forces with a larger university. “It’s harder than ever for these institutions to stand on their own,” Weinblatt says.
When independent medical schools merge with universities, undergrads have more opportunities to participate in graduate-level research, and faculty members enjoy greater research options and other professional development possibilities, Weinblatt notes. Of EVMS, he says, “If it was already a shining star, it [now has] the potential to be shining much more brightly, not just in their region, but nationally.”
A new structure
ODU President Brian O. Hemphill unveiled the name of the Macon & Joan Brock Virginia Health Sciences program at a June 7 event celebrating the EVMS-ODU merger. Photo by Mark Rhodes
The merger is more complicated than simply absorbing the medical school under the ODU banner, says Brian Hemphill, the university’s president.
ODU has created a health sciences center, Macon & Joan Brock Virginia Health Sciences at Old Dominion University, that will serve as the overarching structure for all health sciences programming, including the medical school.
The name recognizes a $20 million gift from Virginia Beach philanthropist Joan Brock, who earned a master’s degree in humanities from ODU and is the widow of Macon Brock, a co-founder of Chesapeake-based Fortune 500 discount retailer Dollar Tree.
The health sciences center will serve as an umbrella organization overseeing the Ellmer College of Health Sciences, the Ellmer School of Nursing, the EVMS Medical Group, the EVMS School of Health Professions, the EVMS School of Medicine, and the Joint School of Public Health.
Through this reorganization, ODU will grow its roster of 2,541 employees and 22,541 students.
“We’re bringing on 2,000 new employees [and] 1,400-plus new students,” Hemphill says. “And so, when you look at the size and the scale and the scope, on day one, we become a $1.7 billion operation.”
The change means that EVMS, which was founded in 1973, will cease to exist as a legal entity July 1, according to Dr. Alfred Abuhamad, the former president, provost and dean of EVMS, who is now ODU’s executive vice president for health sciences. But most students, faculty and staff members won’t see major differences, he says.
“We will continue to operate as we do today, [but] within ODU,” Abuhamad says. “So, for the majority of staff, students and faculty, nothing will change, really. They will come to [the Norfolk] campus of EVMS, and for the majority — if not all — of the students, staff and faculty of ODU, they will continue to go to their campus.
“We’ve worked hard enough over the last three years to ensure that the culture of both institutions is represented and respected in the process, and ensured that as we come together, we’re building something special for the community,” he says.
There will be no immediate change in the number of medical students enrolled at EVMS due to the merger, according to ODU spokesperson Jonah Grinkewitz. EVMS had 1,278 students enrolled in fall 2023, according to data from the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia.
Tuition also won’t change for medical school students under the merger, according to Grinkewitz. However, the merger will bring some new opportunities for assistance. In June, ODU announced the Brock Opportunity Scholarship, which will support medical school students. Also in June, ODU announced a $20 million gift from Priority Auto Group CEO Dennis Ellmer, a member of ODU’s board of visitors, and his wife, Jan. Those funds will support the creation of scholarships for students pursuing health sciences degrees at ODU or at the EVMS School of Health Professions.
To prepare for the merger, ODU and EVMS set up 10 staff and faculty committees to iron out details on everything from branding to financial aid to human resources, according to Abuhamad.
A new board of directors has been created to oversee Macon & Joan Brock Virginia Health Sciences at ODU. Both Hemphill and Abuhamad will be nonvoting members. Additionally, there will be seven members appointed by members of the EVMS Foundation, four members appointed by the rector of ODU’s board of visitors and four members appointed by Virginia lawmakers, according to Grinkewitz.
Speaking in May, Hemphill felt confident that ODU would receive approval for the integration from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges. The association was expected to grant that approval in mid-June, after this issue’s press deadline.
Dr. Alfred Abuhamad (left), ODU’s executive vice president for health sciences, and ODU President Brian O. Hemphill field media questions at a June 7 event providing new details on the EVMS-ODU merger. Photo by Mark Rhodes
Many players in merger
The Virginia General Assembly and Gov. Glenn Youngkin also had to give their blessing to the ODU/EVMS union.
State Sen. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, and Del. Barry Knight, R-Virginia Beach, carried bills during the 2023 Virginia General Assembly session ratifying the merger, and in last year’s budget negotiations, lawmakers allocated $14 million to cover merger-related startup costs.
In May, Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed off on the 2024-26 state budget, which included about $136.7 million for EVMS for fiscal years 2025 and 2026, with $65 million earmarked for operations at the health sciences center.
“The merger is poised to strengthen positive health outcomes in the region and help address the critical nurse and doctor shortages,” Gov. Glenn Youngkin said in a statement.
ODU could “not be more pleased,” with the support of Virginia’s lawmakers, Hemphill says.
Another organization that’s been supportive of EVMS over the years is Sentara, the Norfolk-based health care system with 11 hospitals in Virginia and one in North Carolina.
In 2022, Aubrey Layne, executive vice president and chief administrative officer for Sentara, said that the health system gave EVMS about $60 million each year for education and training, and Sentara wanted to see the medical school receive “state funding parity with other Virginia schools.”
Sentara administrators are happy that goal has come to fruition. “We feel like we have a partner in this, in terms of [ensuring] the long-term sustainability of EVMS,” Layne says.
But even with state support for the health sciences center and EVMS at ODU, Sentara has not closed its pocketbook to health sciences students in Norfolk. Sentara has agreed to contribute $350 million in dedicated funding to support the ODU-EVMS integration over the next decade, ODU announced in June.
“Sentara is committed to health care education and training and looks forward to what this merger will bring,” Sentara President and CEO Dennis Matheis said in a statement.
A long road
Things haven’t always been this rosy between ODU, EVMS and Sentara.
In November 2020, EVMS’ board held a vote of “no confidence” in a study commissioned by Reinvent Hampton Roads, an economic development organization, to identify opportunities “to strengthen the Hampton Roads health care ecosystem in partnership with EVMS, Sentara, ODU, the Commonwealth of Virginia and other key stakeholders.”
In 2020 and 2021, the medical school reportedly paid Vienna-based public relations firm Tigercomm $497,000 for crisis communications and community support work in what Tigercomm President Mike Casey has said was a bid to avoid a potential EVMS-ODU-Sentara merger “being pushed by Sentara.”
After that rocky start, however, new leadership at ODU and EVMS paved a path toward a merger.
Three different individuals served as EVMS board rector during summer 2021 with little explanation. Dr. Richard Homan, who had served as president, provost and dean of EVMS for nearly a decade, announced he was retiring in August 2021. (Homan declined an interview request.)
Hemphill took over as ODU’s president in summer 2021, coming from Radford University, where, as that university’s president, he guided the creation of Radford University Carilion through a merger with the Jefferson College of Health Sciences.
In August 2021, the leaders of Norfolk State University, ODU and EVMS signed a memorandum of understanding creating the ONE School of Public Health. Now, the school, which is awaiting accreditation, is known as the Joint School of Public Health and will offer a master and doctoral program in public health as well as continuing education opportunities.
And in December 2021, Sentara joined ODU and EVMS in signing an agreement to explore how “closer alignment or affiliation” could improve health care in Hampton Roads and educational research.
By June 2022, Hemphill put his cards on the table, stating in a letter to ODU’s faculty and staff that the university had a goal “to develop a comprehensive plan to integrate ODU and EVMS in 2023.”
And now, after many meetings involving state lawmakers, community stakeholders and employees of the two schools, Macon & Joan Brock Virginia Health Sciences at Old Dominion University is ready to go live.
Hemphill says he doesn’t expect the integration will suddenly make ODU known primarily for its health care curriculum, because the university has a reputation for many things — including its maritime and cybersecurity programs and its distance-learning offerings.
But he does believe the merger will produce significant health sciences research, with EVMS having conducted hundreds of clinical trials and other research, in addition to ODU’s research capabilities that led to its R1 classification.
By merging the expertise of the best minds at the two schools, Hemphill says, Virginia Health Sciences at ODU will be able to compete successfully for larger grants from the National Institutes of Health and other organizations.
“This does add another significant piece to who we are.”
At a glance
Founded Old Dominion University was founded in 1930 as a two-year college to train teachers and engineers as an extension of William & Mary and Virginia Tech. It gained independence in 1962 as Old Dominion College and began offering master’s degrees in 1964 and doctoral degrees in 1971. It was renamed Old Dominion University in 1969.
Campus ODU has seven academic colleges and three schools. Its 337-acre Norfolk campus is bordered on two sides by the Elizabeth and Lafayette rivers. The school also operates regional higher education centers in Virginia Beach, Portsmouth and Hampton. ODU is designated by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching as an R1 Research Institution.
Enrollment1
Undergraduate: 17,736 Graduate: 4,805 In-state: 19,559 International: 758 Students of color: 11,448
Employees
890 full-time instructional faculty
3,557 total employees
Tuition and fees2
In-state undergraduate tuition and fees: $12,750
Out-of-state undergraduate tuition and fees: $33,780
Room and board: $13,7383
Average financial aid awarded to full-time freshmen seeking assistance: $15,6904
1 Fall 2023 enrollment statistics
2 2024-25 rates
3 Varies: number based on silver meal plan and a shared dorm room
4 2022-23 data
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