Professor Frederick Schauer of the University of Virginia School of Law was elected a “corresponding fellow” of the British Academy on July 23 in recognition of his distinguished contributions to academic thought.

Schauer is a world-renowned expert in the areas of constitutional law, evidence, legal reasoning, freedom of speech, and jurisprudence and the philosophy of law.

The British Academy comprises more than 1,400 academics, who are elected from the United Kingdom and around the world based on their outstanding contributions to the humanities and social sciences. Corresponding fellows are scholars of distinction who reside outside of the U.K. and have “attained high international standing in any of the branches of study which it is the object of the Academy to promote.”

Schauer said he is honored to receive the award, which is a rare distinction among Americans, both in law and in other fields. Fewer than 10 American legal scholars are fellows, and Schauer was the only American elected in law in 2020.

“The U.K. has been a big part of my academic life for over 40 years, in terms of visiting appointments at both Oxford and Cambridge, lectures over the years at many U.K. universities, and publication of some of my books and articles,” he said. “I am truly flattered by this unexpected and unusual honor.”

New members are named at the conclusion of a lengthy secret-ballot process culminating at the Annual General Meeting of Fellows, held each July.

Schauer, a David and Mary Harrison Distinguished Professor of Law at UVA, is among the most recognizable names in the legal academy. His expertise has been demonstrated in hundreds of books, book chapters, articles, essays, classes and personal appearances.

Among his other accolades, he is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, and has chaired the Section on Constitutional Law of the Association of American Law Schools and of the Committee on Philosophy and Law of the American Philosophical Association.

UVA Garners Another ‘Best Value’ Ranking

The University of Virginia has been selected No. 1 in Virginia in SmartAsset’s Best Value Colleges study.

In June, the New York-based financial technology company released its sixth annual study on the colleges that give students the best return on their educational investment. To find the best value colleges in Virginia, SmartAsset measured several categories, including scholarships provided, starting salary, tuition, living costs and retention rate.

UVA topped the list, followed by Virginia Military Institute, Washington and Lee University, Virginia Tech and the College of William & Mary.

Five UVA Children’s Specialties Nationally Ranked by U.S. News & World Report

Five UVA Children’s  specialties are ranked among the top 50 nationally in the 2020-21 U.S. News & World Report “Best Children’s Hospitals” guide.

The five ranked specialties are pediatric cardiology and heart surgery (37^th), pediatric diabetes and endocrinology (tied for 40^th), pediatric orthopedics (43^rd), pediatric urology (43^rd) and neonatology (49^th).

“Providing high-quality, specialized care for our youngest patients requires a tremendous team,” said Dr. James Nataro, who chairs UVA’s Department of Pediatrics. “I’m proud to see their commitment recognized nationally by U.S. News.”

The U.S. News “Best Children’s Hospitals” guide evaluates which hospitals provide high-quality care for seriously ill children. Measures used to compile the rankings include patient outcomes, patient safety and a survey of pediatric specialists.

UVA Places a Record 496 Student-Athletes on ACC Honor Roll

The 64th annual Atlantic Coast Conference Academic Honor Roll, recognizing academic excellence by student-athletes during the 2019-20 academic year, was announced June 18 by Commissioner John Swofford, and UVA placed a school-record 496 student-athletes on the list – including 47 Cavaliers who were recognized for the fourth time during their careers.

In 2019-20, 496 Cavalier varsity student-athletes earned at least a 3.0 grade-point average. (Photo by Sanjay Suchak, University Communications)

“Congratulations to all of our outstanding student-athletes for this honor,” UVA Director of Athletics Carla Williams said. “We are very proud of their achievements, especially given the unprecedented challenges they faced during the spring semester.”

The Honor Roll comprises student-athletes who participated in a varsity sport and registered a grade-point average of 3.0 or better for the full academic year. The conference recognized a total of 5,609 student-athletes – another record-breaker – for their achievement in the classroom during the 2019-20 academic year.

During the course of the 2019-20 academic year, UVA had 77 student-athletes named to ACC All-Academic teams and five were named Scholar-Athletes of the Year for their respective sports. (Due to sport cancellations in the spring, the ACC did not recognize ACC All-Academic selections or Scholar-Athletes of the Year for those programs.)

Complete list of UVA’s honorees.

Doctor-Authors Named to Fashion Mag’s ‘Badass 50’ List

InStyle, a monthly women’s fashion magazine, recently named two UVA Health physicians, Dr. Leigh-Ann Webb and Dr. Ebony Jade Hilton, among “The Badass 50: Healthcare Workers Who Are Saving the Day.”

“We see photos of these workers with their faces obscured by PPE. But they are real people, often women, who have families and enjoy fashion and beauty as much as we do,” the editors wrote.

Drs. Leigh-Ann Webb and Ebony Jade Hilton co-wrote a free children’s book geared toward communities that have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19. (Webb by Sanjay Suchak, University Communications; Hilton photo contributed)

The magazine cited Webb and Hilton’s authorship of a free children’s book, “We’re Going to Be O.K.,” geared toward communities of color that have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19.

Engineering Professor Selected for Academic Leadership Development Program

Devin Harris, an associate professor of engineering systems and environment, on July 21 was named a fellow in the second cohort of the IAspire Leadership Academy, a leadership program aimed at helping STEM faculty from underrepresented backgrounds ascend to leadership roles at colleges and universities.

The leadership academy – part of Aspire Alliance’s Institutional Change Initiative, led by the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities and the University of Georgia – provides professional development to its fellows in an effort to broaden participation in academic leadership. Fellows learn effective executive leadership skills for increasingly complex higher education environments, as well as strategies for influencing institutional transformation in their current and future leadership positions.

The academy targets mid-career individuals from traditionally underrepresented groups interested in serving in college or university leadership roles in STEM fields. The 24 participating faculty and administrators were selected through a competitive, blind holistic review of their applications.

Engineering professor Devin Harris has been identified as a potential future higher education leader. (Photo by Dan Addison, University Communications)

“The second cohort of IAspire Leadership Academy fellows represent a broad diversity of STEM fields and leadership experiences across higher education sectors,” said Howard Gobstein, director of the Aspire Alliance and executive vice president at the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities. “More inclusive college and university cultures require diversity in faculty and university leadership, and this academy helps to support the next generation of university faculty and leaders.”

UVA Earns High Marks in National Breastfeeding Care Review

The UVA Medical Center and UVA Children’s have earned excellent scores for their support of breastfeeding in a nationwide survey of hospitals conducted by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

UVA received a 91 out of 100 on the Maternity Practices in Infant Nutrition and Care survey, far exceeding the Virginia average of 81 and the national average of 79. 

As health care providers have embraced the importance of breastfeeding in recent years, increasing attention has been paid to how hospitals and health systems can support new mothers with breastfeeding their babies. Current guidelines call for exclusive breastfeeding for a baby’s first six months, when possible, followed by breastfeeding along with other foods until at least 12 months of age. Improving support practices in the hospital has been shown to improve the success of the more than four out of five mothers who desire to breastfeed.

The survey evaluates hospitals on several measures that help support breastfeeding, including:

• Providing immediate skin-to-skin contact between mother and baby after birth.
• Keeping mothers and their infants together throughout their hospital stay.
• Educating and supporting new mothers to help them overcome challenges with breastfeeding.
• Supporting mothers before and after discharge from the hospital, including in-person follow-up visits for lactation support.
• Having written policies and special training for all hospital staff to support the management of breastfeeding.

The survey results are a product of dedicated effort over several years by a large team at UVA Children’s and UVA Medical Center, said UVA pediatrician Dr. Ann Kellams, a board-certified lactation consultant who helped found the UVA Breastfeeding Medicine Program. 

“These results are only possible thanks to tremendous collaboration from team members in our prenatal clinics, our maternity and postpartum inpatient units and our Breastfeeding Medicine Program, along with the departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Family Medicine, Pediatrics and Anesthesiology,” she said.

Nursing Professor to Use Fellowship to Study Pediatric Sepsis

Jessica Keim-Malpass, an associate professor of nursing, is one of 11 American nurse scientists selected to receive a Betty Irene Moore Foundation Fellowship for Nurse Leaders and Innovators. With the $450,000, three-year fellowship, Keim-Malpass will develop novel computational approaches to understand how and why certain hospitalized children with sepsis recover, while others grow worse.

Nursing researcher Jessica Keim-Malpass is receiving support to advance her use of data science to seek out the causes of deadly sepsis in infants. (Photo by Jenn Fariello)

The World Health Organization estimates as many as 3 million newborns and 1.2 million children suffer from sepsis – a blood infection caused by a bacteria, virus or fungus – globally each year. Though roughly a third of pediatric ICU deaths are due to sepsis, factors that lead to it remain poorly understood and understudied.

The new work builds on Keim-Malpass’s existing expertise in predictive analytics developed with partner Randall Moorman and UVA’s Center for Advanced Medical Analytics that crunches data to forecast decompensation in critically ill adult patients.

UVA School of Nursing Dean Pamela Cipriano applauded Keim-Malpass’s new fellowship, calling her “an emerging major figure in the world of big data.”

In addition to the project, Keim-Malpass and her fellow grantees will take part in a hybrid online and classroom curriculum designed and taught by University of California-Davis’s Graduate School of Management that aims to enhance leadership, strengthen strategic thinking and collaboration skills, expand professional networks, develop entrepreneurial thinking and propel innovation.

Keim-Malpass’s UVA team will include mentor and co-principal investigator Moorman, a physician scientist who leads the Center for Advanced Medical Analytics; public health science professor Jenn Lobo; medical statistician Doug Lake; and physician scientists Mike Spaeder and Brynne Sullivan.

Law Student Named Tillman Scholar

Rising second-year law student Sam Long, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, has been named a 2020 Tillman Scholar.

The Tillman Foundation’s scholarship recipients are “military service members, veterans and spouses with a high potential for impact as demonstrated through a proven track record of leadership, the continued pursuit of education and the commitment of their resources to service beyond self,” according to the foundation’s website.

The newly selected scholars will receive funding to pursue higher education and continue their service in the fields of health care, business, law, public service, STEM, education and the humanities.

Long, whose five siblings are all also veterans, was commissioned in the Marine Corps after earning a B.S. in political science from the U.S. Naval Academy. After two deployments as an infantry officer and platoon commander, he volunteered for recruiting duty at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, becoming deputy director of Marine Corps Recruiter School. He is also a volunteer with Service to School, a nonprofit that provides free college and grad school application counseling to veterans and service members.

At the recruit depot, he connected three recruiters with the U.S. immigration office to help 14 applicants become Marines who otherwise may have been excluded because they didn’t have green cards.

“Anyone hoping to contribute to our country certainly deserves a chance to be an American,” Long said. “As a lawyer, I will especially help those interested in military and public service obtain lawful residency.”

At UVA Law, the Newnan, Georgia, native is president of Virginia Law Families, and a member of the Virginia Tax Review editorial board and of Virginia Law Veterans.

In addition to his bachelor’s, he earned an M.S. in accounting from Liberty University.

Long said he hopes to become a lawyer in Houston after graduating.

The Tillman Foundation was created by family and friends of Pat Tillman, an NFL player who enlisted in the Army after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and was killed in Afghanistan in 2004.