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Connolly says this will be his last term in Congress

U.S. Rep. Gerry announced Monday that he will be stepping back as ranking Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Oversight Committee and that this will be his final term in , as his cancer has returned after a brief remission.

In an email to constituents, the Democrat wrote, “The sun is setting on my time in public service, and this will be my last term in Congress.” In November 2024, he announced he had esophageal cancer.

The 75-year-old Connolly was first elected to Congress in 2008, and he served on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors from 1995 to 2009, resigning to assume national office. Connolly was named the ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in January, and he has served on the Committee on Foreign Affairs since 2009.

Connolly currently represents Virginia’s 11th congressional district, which includes the city of Fairfax and most of Fairfax County.

“When I announced my diagnosis six months ago, I promised transparency,” he wrote. “After grueling treatments, we’ve learned that the cancer, while initially beaten back, has now returned. I’ll do everything possible to continue to represent you and thank you for your grace.”

U.S. Sen. Mark Warner issued a statement shortly after Connolly’s announcement: “Throughout his career, Gerry Connolly has exemplified the very best of public service — fiercely intelligent, deeply principled and relentlessly committed to the people of Northern Virginia and our nation.

“Whether it’s standing up for federal workers, advocating for good governance, or now confronting cancer with the same resilience and grit that have defined his life of public service, Gerry is one of the toughest fighters I know. I have no doubt that Gerry will continue to fight — for his health, for his community, and for the causes he believes in.”

Norfolk airport taps new COO in leadership shuffle

The Airport Authority announced last week that Melinda Montgomery will become its new and a , starting in early June.

Montgomery will be tasked with overseeing regulatory compliance and ensuring that various day-to-day operations at are efficiently run. She currently works at New Jersey’s Trenton-Mercer Airport, where she’s held various executive roles for more than 25 years, including the past 13 years as airport manager. She plans to retire from the position shortly before joining Norfolk.

“I’m extremely excited to enter this new chapter of my career at an airport that’s experienced tremendous growth in passenger volume while also improving and expanding its physical infrastructure,” Montgomery said in a statement. “The authority’s organization is also adapting to meet future needs, and I look forward to playing a role in effecting those changes for the team’s continued success.”

In her new role, Montgomery’s duties will include oversight of its operations, field maintenance and security and public safety departments. She will also lead developing and maintaining operational documents such as the airport certification manual, airport security program, wildlife hazard management plan and airport emergency plan. She will also ensure compliance with some Federal Aviation Administration requirements.

Montgomery’s new job is the result of a shuffling of positions at the airport. Executive Vice President and Chief of Staff Steve Sterling will retire at the end of June,  spokesperson Chris Jones said, and his duties are being reassigned. Shelia Ward, vice president and chief operations officer, will assume some of Sterling’s duties and will take on a new role as chief administrative officer. The position she’s leaving will be filled by Montgomery.

Jones said some of Sterling’s other duties will be absorbed by Steve Djunaedi, vice president and chief commercial officer. He joined the organization at the start of the year.

Montgomery has a bachelor’s degree in aeronautics and management from New York’s Dowling College, and later obtained a MBA from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

The airport announced earlier this year that it recorded a third consecutive year of record-breaking passenger traffic last year, with 4.86 million passengers in 2024, up from 4.55 million in 2023. Allegiant, American, Breeze, Delta, Frontier, JetBlue, Southwest, Spirit and United currently offer service from the airport.

Commanders and Washington agree to a deal to build at RFK Stadium site

WASHINGTON (AP) — Washington’s franchise is set to return to the nation’s capital as part of an agreement between the organization and the District of Columbia government to build on the site of the old .

Mayor Muriel Bowser said Monday the District of Columbia and the -based Commanders reached an agreement to construct a new home for the football team in the city at the place the franchise called home for more than three decades. The agreement is pending D.C. City Council approval.

The team and the mayor announced the move in a video posted on social media, narrated by Super Bowl-winning quarterback Joe Theismann, who spoke about his experience playing at RFK Stadium and how the new one will benefit the city.

“The time is now,” Theismann said. “Let’s bring Washington back to D.C.”

Further details on timing and funding are expected later in the day. Bowser and team officials are scheduled to hold a news conference at 11 a.m. EDT.

Commanders ownership, led by Josh Harris, has been considering places in Washington, Maryland and Virginia since buying the team from Dan Snyder in 2022. The most recent progress came when  passed a bill transferring the RFK Stadium land to D.C. that was signed by former President Joe Biden in early January, after lobbying on Capitol Hill by Harris and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell late last year.

Washington has played in Landover, Maryland, since moving there in 1997. The Commanders’ lease at Northwest Stadium in Landover runs through 2027. Harris has called 2030 a “reasonable target” for a new stadium.

The team played at RFK Stadium, 2 miles (3.22 kilometers) east of the U.S. Capitol, from 1961-96 before moving to Maryland. Harris and several co-owners, including Mitch Rales and Mark Ein, grew up as Washington football fans during that era, which included the glory days of three Super Bowl championships from 1982-91.

Virginia lieutenant governor candidate stays in race, defying Youngkin

SUMMARY:

  • Virginia says he will stay in race despite allegations of “disturbing content” posted on social media
  • called him to request he step down Friday
  • Openly gay Reid says he didn’t post nude images on Tumblr; they are part of “coordinated” attempt to force him off statewide ticket
  • Reid says he plans to consult attorneys

In a video posted on X Friday, John Reid, a former conservative radio talk show host and candidate for Virginia’s lieutenant governor, called allegations that he posted nude images on a Tumblr account attributed to his Instagram handle “a total fabricated internet lie,” adding that Gov. Glenn Youngkin called him to demand Reid step down from the GOP statewide ticket.

He does not plan to leave the race, Reid said in the five-minute video posted on his X account late Friday afternoon. He also accused Youngkin of demanding his resignation “without even showing me the supposed evidence or offering me a chance to respond. I did not accept that, and I deeply resent it.”

He alleged that other, unnamed conservatives had staged a “coordinated character assassination attempt to force the first openly gay candidate off the Republican statewide ticket,” and that someone had used Reid’s Instagram handle to create a page on Tumblr, where Reid said someone posted photos of nude people — not including him.

“It’s not my place to judge others, so I won’t, but I haven’t publicly performed or publicly posted anything pornographic,” he said. “Have I seen porn? Yes. Have I had one-night stands? Yes.”

The Times-Dispatch and The Washington Post shared a statement from Youngkin’s PAC: “The Governor was made aware late Thursday of the disturbing online content. Friday morning, in a call with Mr. Reid, the Governor asked him to step down as the Lt. Governor nominee.”

Standing in front of framed photos of Youngkin and the current lieutenant governor and GOP candidate for governor, Winsome Earle-Sears, Reid said this wasn’t the first time he had been targeted, referring to a post on Facebook that alleged he “likes little boys” that he fought to have removed from the social media platform. He said that Republicans and Democrats had attacked him over the years.

Reid noted that since his opponent for the Republican nomination, Supervisor Pat Herrity, dropped out of the race this week due to a heart ailment, Reid has experienced “nonstop harassment.”

A former WRVA radio talk show host, Reid alleged that earlier in the week “a local religious activist” contacted him to say that they had seen photos of Reid watching a downtown Richmond drag show — saying the pictures would tank his campaign, as well as “destroy his life,” and that Reid should drop out of the race.

While saying that drag shows aren’t for children, Reid said that he was an adult and that adults have freedom to watch drag or similar entertainment.

“I will not bow down to the establishment,” Reid said in the video. He closed the video by saying that he would be consulting with lawyers and that he would have more to say in the future. The Richmonder, a Richmond-based online news outlet, broke the story Friday afternoon.

According to Earle-Sears’ campaign website, she is slated to appear with Youngkin, Reid and Attorney General , who is seeking a second term, in a rally April 30 at Atlas 42 in Glen Allen. The “Ever Forward” rally promotes the debut of the “2025 statewide slate” for the .

Youngkin’s office and his Spirit of Virginia PAC did not immediately respond to Virginia Business’ requests for comment Friday, and nor did Earle-Sears’ campaign.

Flood insurance costs rise with newer risk rating

SUMMARY:

  • Change to rating standard for National Program in 2021
  • Critics think it drove up prices
  • Lawsuit challenged rising flood insurance rates but was dismissed
  • Virginians will see a 45% increase in flood insurance rates

Joshua Carroll owns Valley Auto Spa in , one of the many businesses and homes in impacted by .

The storm was Category 4 when it hit the Florida coast and blew north, causing at least $800 million in damages in seven states, according to a recent Federal Emergency Management Agency report.

“Before I knew it, it was about a foot deep,” Carroll said. “And then the foot turned into two, and two turned into three in some places, and I got all of the stuff I could out before we had to leave.”

Carroll traveled to Asheville, North Carolina to help victims after seeing social media posts about extensive flood damage. His first interaction was with an elderly couple whose generator was stolen, and the woman left without electricity for her oxygen supply, he said. He helped get her a new generator through a church.

“This place was decimated,” Carroll said.

The damage was so extreme in Asheville that Carroll shut down his business for a month to go help more affected victims. Flood insurance is an important safety net, but only three percent of Virginia homeowners have it, according to the state’s Department of Conservation and Recreation, or DCR. Federal changes to the evaluation parameters of flood insurance could make it more expensive, and at a time when a growing number of housing units are at risk of flooding.

manages the National Flood Insurance Program, or NFIP, which supplies flood insurance to the public and businesses through a network of insurance providers. The agency began implementing a rating standard known as 2.0 in October 2021, and completed its implementation in April 2023.

Risk Rating 2.0

The previous system relied on measurements of elevation within flood zones to determine rates, according to FEMA. The new rating uses a property’s structure, home value and location to determine rates. The new rate uses “industry best practices” and “cutting-edge technology” to better determine rates for flooding insurance, with FEMA saying it has decades more information to utilize.

The new rating intended to more appropriately spread the risk across purchasers of the policies, according to planning director Sarah Stewart with the regional planning commission Plan RVA. It factors in how a larger, very costly home may have a higher burden to pay than a smaller, less costly home.

“It was an attempt to better factor that in, to better share the risk across policies,” Stewart said.

Virginia residents can join the Community Rating System through NFIP to help reduce the cost burden on policyholders, according to Stewart.

Communities that implement flood protection policies beyond minimum NFIP participation requirements get “points” which can improve the rating and help with policy discounts. Examples of activities include citizen-education programs, preserving open space in the floodplain, requiring higher standards and enforcing stormwater regulations, according to DCR.

Critics think the new rating failed to show how it would reduce premiums, and that it drove up prices.

“It didn’t sufficiently reward proactive protection,” Carroll said. “I watched it destabilize entire neighborhoods because everything became extremely unaffordable, even more unaffordable than it already was.”

Virginia Attorney General , along with other state attorney generals agree. Miyares in 2023 joined Louisiana v. Mayorkas, a lawsuit that states FEMA is no longer living up to its promise of affordable insurance if states, local governments and citizens undertook “expensive flood mitigation projects.”

Policyholder premiums “are dramatically increasing,” by 1,000% in some areas, the lawsuit stated. Additionally, the new policy method disrupts the housing market and drives up prices.

The court dismissed the lawsuit in November last year, two months after Helene struck. The court acknowledged potential mitigation costs for states, but did not think there was enough evidence to prove the claim.

“Everyone I spoke to seemed to have experienced a large increase in their flood insurance,” Carroll said.

The increase was sometimes up to 15% higher, which doesn’t help people who need insurance, Carroll said. Nor does a “one-size-fits-all” approach.

“There’s so much fine print, there’s nothing that’s just cut and dry anymore,” Carroll said. “You’ll try to file a claim and they’ll be like, ‘on page 300, section four, sub code B, we can’t cover this.’”

Cost of Flood Protection

Virginia residents will see a 45% increase in flood insurance rates with the new method, according to the insurance broker Policygenius. The average cost is $743 annually, and could rise to an average of $1,077. Virginia’s housing count was 3.7 million in 2023, according to the U.S. Census. Over 28% of homes in the state could face some level of flood risk in the next 30 years, according to a 2020 First Street Foundation report. The organization studies flood risks across the U.S.

Flood risk is especially heightened in the area, where sea level rise could help drive a 60% increase in flood vulnerability over the next 30 years, according to First Street.

Local leaders have worked to address and mitigate flood risks, although a $20 million Environment Protection Act grant to help a Hampton neighborhood be more flood resilient could be canceled as part of the federal government efforts.

Community Support After returning from helping in Asheville, Carroll received help from the Savage Freedoms Relief Organization and the Love Thy Neighbor organizations. Eight car loads of people showed up to rebuild his business.

“I had people come from my community and pressure wash the building out and in the blink of an eye, I was once again reminded how incredible the Appalachian culture is and the Appalachian people are,” Carroll said.

Carroll has no regrets about the days spent helping others, working on logistics and collecting donation money.

“I just really wanted to continue to help and prepare for whatever disaster may come next,” he said.

Capital News Service is a program of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Robertson School of Media and Culture.

FiberLight to acquire York County-based fiber provider

Georgia-based networks provider announced last week it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire -based Metro Networks.

The companies did not disclose financial terms. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of the year, once customary requirements have been met.

Metro Fiber is a fiber provider serving carriers and public institutions, with an underground network spanning over 200 miles from , near , to the major subsea cable landing station in . The Virginia Beach cable landing station supports transatlantic and United States-Latin American traffic.

FiberLight says the transaction will strengthen its existing network in Virginia.

“This transaction marks a significant milestone for FiberLight as we expand our network to reach Virginia Beach, which hosts the largest defense installation outside of the Pentagon and the largest [cable landing station] in the U.S.,” FiberLight CEO Bill Major said in a statement. “The MFN assets are a natural extension of our existing network and will allow us to provide customers with reliable, high-speed connectivity services to various organizations in Virginia.”

Virginia Beach is one of a few East Coast landing spots for subsea high-speed internet transmission cables, with a data center and cable landing station where subsea telecommunications cables MAREA, BRUSA and DUNANT connect Virginia to points in Europe and South America.

FiberLight was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Alpharetta, Georgia. It has more than 19,000 route miles of fiber optic network throughout the United States, including locations in Washington, D.C., as well as in Virginia, Maryland, Georgia and Texas. It provides service at Mexican border crossings as well as the Latin America gateway.

The Breeden Co. completes $43M apartment complex in Norfolk

Virginia Beach-based real estate development firm announced April 24 that it has completed of a 198-unit multifamily community in , located near .

Breeden was the general contractor on the $43 million project, located at 1060 Kempsville Road. Known as Lake Taylor Pointe , the development has carriage house-style buildings as well as a resort-style pool, outdoor meeting areas, a fitness center, arcade room and bark park for dogs.

“We are incredibly excited to be a part of the Lake Taylor community,” Breeden CEO Tim Faulkner said in a statement. “Lake Taylor Pointe evokes feelings of serenity and seclusion while also providing residents with the convenience of easy access to employers, local retailers and more.”

Breeden Construction President Brian Revere said in a statement the project was delivered “on time and on budget.”

According to the Lake Taylor Pointe website, the units range between 723 and 1,383 square feet.

Headquartered in and founded in 1961, The Breeden Co. has a portfolio of over 25,000 apartments and 2 million square feet of retail and office that have been owned, managed and developed.

McLean business leader’s foundation gives $20M to George Mason University

SUMMARY:

  • Foundation gives $20 million to
  • School of Computing to be renamed in Duong and her husband’s honor
  • Gift will have an estimated impact of $36 million
  • Duong and husband gave $5 million to university in 2009

A businesswoman has made a $20 million donation to George Mason University, the university announced Friday.

The Kimmy Duong Foundation made the donation to support a department in the university’s College of Engineering and Computing; it will be renamed the Long Nguyen and Kimmy Duong School of Computing, according to the announcement.

Long Nguyen and Kimmy Duong, who both were born in Vietnam, are husband and wife and live in McLean. Nguyen founded Pragmatics, a Reston-based IT company, in 1985, and Duong joined the company in 1994. She worked as vice chair and CFO. In November 2024, Integral Federal in McLean acquired the company for an undisclosed amount, and the couple has now retired.

However, retirement hasn’t slowed Duong down.

In 2015, she established the Kimmy Duong Foundation, which supports health, education and welfare initiatives in the United States and Vietnam. It has given more than $4 million toward programs with endowments to universities in the Washington, D.C., area.

“I have a foundation, and my husband also has another foundation,” Duong said in an interview Friday. “So maintaining those foundations is a lot of work itself.”

In 2009, George Mason University’s College of Engineering and Computing named an engineering building in honor of Nguyen, who made a $5 million gift.

Duong had the jitters Friday morning about speaking later in the day during a formal announcement of the gift at George Mason’s Nguyen Engineering Building. “I’m not that good in public speaking,” she said.

That said, Duong has proven over the years that she can do hard things.

Coming from Vietnam

Born in Nha Trang, Vietnam, in 1945, Duong earned a degree in economics and law from the University of Saigon and went to work at IBM in 1968.

During the 1975 fall of Saigon, Duong fled the country. She arrived in the United States with $30 to her name and speaking little English. After moving to Bethesda, Maryland, Duong began working for IBM stateside. Later, she married Long Nguyen, also a native of Vietnam, and raised seven nephews and nieces.

Duong is drawn to give to universities, she said, because without an education it can be hard to get ahead.

“My main goal is to encourage the student to do well for themselves, helping their family, [and] then, after that, they have to think about others,” she said. “They need to know about others, and they need to support others, and that is my goal.”

Duong received the Mason Medal, George Mason’s highest honorary award, in 2023.

With the most recent gift, the university will establish three endowments: two within the College of Engineering and Computing to support scholarships and student success initiatives and one for University Life to provide scholarships through the Long Nguyen and Kimmy Duong Scholarship . Those scholarships have a preference for students majoring in nursing, education or journalism.

A portion of the gift is eligible for matching funds through the Tech Talent Investment Program, a Virginia effort to increase the number of graduates with computing degrees. George Mason expects the impact of Nguyen and Duong’s gift to be around $36 million.

In 2023, the university launched a $1 billion comprehensive fundraising campaign.

“Kimmy Duong and Long Nguyen have been good friends to George Mason, recognizing the opportunity our university provides for students to succeed,” George Mason President Gregory Washington said in a statement. “Kimmy came to this country with very little and climbed her way to success, not unlike how many of our students who — whether they are first generation or come from difficult socioeconomic circumstances — overcome their own challenges.”

Although the university’s board of visitors approved the school’s name change April 1, it will become official upon receiving approval from the State Council of for Virginia (SCHEV). That is expected to be granted over the summer, according to the university.

Wall Street’s rally fades as more CEOs talk about uncertainty because of Trump’s trade war

SUMMARY:

  • edges higher, but most stocks decline
  • Intel, Eastman, Skechers drop on weak forecasts
  • Trade and tariff uncertainty rattles markets
  • Alphabet, Nvidia gains help buoy stocks

NEW YORK (AP) — ‘s big three-day rally is running out of steam, and U.S. stocks are drifting in mixed trading Friday as they near the end of another roller-coaster week.

The S&P 500 was 0.4% higher in afternoon trading, though the majority of stocks were falling within the index. The Industrial Average was down 83 points, or 0.2%, as of 12:53 p.m. Eastern time, while the composite was 0.8% higher thanks to gains for a handful of influential Big Tech stocks.

Intel weighed on the market after the chip company said it’s seeing “elevated uncertainty across the industry” and gave a forecast for upcoming revenue and profit that fell short of analysts’ expectations. Its stock fell 7% even though its results for the beginning of the year topped expectations.

Eastman Chemical fell 5.6% after it gave a forecast for profit this spring that fell short of analysts’ expectations. CEO Mark Costa said that the “macroeconomic uncertainty that defined the last several years has only increased” and that future demand for its products “is unclear given the magnitude and scope of tariffs.”

Skechers U.S.A., the shoe and apparel company, pulled its financial forecasts for the year due to “macroeconomic uncertainty stemming from global trade policies” even though it just reported a record quarter of revenue at $2.41 billion. Its stock fell 4.9%.

They’re the latest companies to say the uncertainty created by President Donald Trump’s  is making it difficult to give financial forecasts for the upcoming year.

Stocks had rallied earlier in the week on signals that Trump may be softening his approach on tariffs and his criticism of the Federal Reserve, which had earlier shaken markets. The hope is that if Trump rolls back some of his stiff tariffs, he could avert a recession that many investors see as otherwise likely because of his trade war.

But Trump’s on-again-off-again tariffs may nevertheless be pushing households and businesses to alter their spending and freeze plans for long-term investment because of how quickly conditions can change, sometimes seemingly by the hour.

“Business owners scrambling to figure out their supply chains and exposure to tariffs is more than just a distraction,” according to Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management. “It could be an existential threat, especially for smaller businesses that don’t have the scale or resources to have the same supply chain flexibility as larger firms.”

Helping to keep lift the market was Alphabet, which rose 1.9%. Google’s parent company reported late Thursday that its profit soared 50% in the first quarter, more than analysts expected.

Alphabet is one of the biggest companies on Wall Street in terms of size, and that gives its stock’s movements extra influence on the S&P 500 and other indexes. Another market heavyweight, Nvidia, also helped push the S&P 500 index upward after the chip company rose 3.7%.

In stock markets abroad, indexes rose modestly across much of Europe following more mixed movements in Asia. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 jumped 1.9%, but stocks in Shanghai slipped 0.1%.

In the bond market, Treasury yields eased some more, and the yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.26% from 4.32% late Thursday.

It’s been generally falling since approaching 4.50% earlier this month in a surprising rise that had suggested investors worldwide may be losing faith in the U.S. bond market’s reputation as a safe place to park cash.

Yields have dropped as several reports on the U.S. economy have come in weaker than expected, raising expectations that the Federal Reserve may cut later this year to support growth.

A report on Friday morning said sentiment among U.S. consumers sank in April, though not by as much as economists expected. The survey from the University of Michigan said its measure of expectations for coming conditions has dropped 32% since January for the steepest three-month percentage decline seen since the 1990 recession.

The value of the U.S. dollar meanwhile strengthened against the euro and other rival currencies. It’s been recovering some of its sharp, unexpected losses from earlier this month that rattled investors.

___

AP Writers Jiang Junzhe and Matt Ott contributed.

Averett names next president, to be installed May 1

SUMMARY:

Averett University announced Friday it will install its next president May 1, after the sudden resignation of its previous president April 11, who cited his wife’s serious medical issue as his reason for stepping down.

Thomas H. Powell will be the Danville private university’s 16th president. He is the former president of Mount St. Mary’s University in Maryland, where he served from 2003 to 2015, and he was also president of Glenville State University in West Virginia from 1999 to 2003.

Powell succeeds David Joyce, who stepped down after three months on the job after his wife received a serious medical diagnosis. Venita Mitchell, Averett’s for student engagement, is serving as interim president until Powell joins the university.

Powell comes to Averett at a challenging time. In January, longtime president Tiffany Franks retired after nearly 17 years at the school, amid reports of significant financial woes, and Joyce succeeded her.

In March, Averett filed a federal lawsuit against its former chief finance officer, Donald Aungst, and an investment firm the university hired, Arizona-based Global Strategic Investment Solutions. The lawsuit claims that Aungst and GSIS colluded to “surreptitiously” drain close to $20 million from the university’s , allegations GSIS denied in a statement.

On Jan. 3, U.S. Bank Trust issued a notice that Averett was in default on more than $14.57 million in bonds issued in 2017 because its debt service coverage rating was too low, and it had not provided proof of insurance policies, although the university was not behind on bond payments. According to the lawsuit, GSIS and Aungst had recommended that the university open a margin loan account, which is not appropriate for a nonprofit university. Franks signed an application for the loan in April 2022, the complaint says.

To address its financial issues, Averett in November 2024 announced it would eliminate five undergraduate majors, a criminal justice master’s degree and the symphonic band program. It also has instituted staff furloughs, and according to a Danville Register & Bee article this week, Averett is putting its president’s home up for sale later this year, as well as hosting a benefit auction for household items there and at another recently sold property, the Conway House.

According to Averett’s announcement Friday, Powell was president of St. John’s Catholic Preparatory School in Frederick, Maryland, from 2015 to 2021, as well as interim president of Frederick Community College in 2021-22. Earlier in his career he was a faculty member at Montana State University-Billings and the University of Connecticut, and dean of Winthrop University’s College of Education and dean of MSU-Billings’ education and human services college.

He received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in special education at MSU-Billings and a doctorate in special education at Vanderbilt University.

“Though this search and appointment came upon us quickly, I know that it has yielded an outstanding and experienced individual to lead Averett University into the future,” Daniel Carlton, chair of the Averett Board of Trustees, said in a statement. “Dr. Powell’s enthusiasm for this position, along with his well-known and established record as an outstanding leader in the field of , made him the right choice for this university.”