Craig Kent Talks Ranching and Running UVA Health During the Pandemic

February 17, 2022 By Jane Kelly, jak4g@virginia.edu Jane Kelly, jak4g@virginia.edu

Audio: Inside UVA: Craig Kent(18:25)

UVA President Jim Ryan interviews Craig Kent, the chief executive officer of UVA Health and executive vice president for health affairs at the University of Virginia.

Transcript

Craig Kent, the chief executive officer of UVA Health and executive vice president for health affairs at the University of Virginia, had a rustic start in life. He was raised on a ranch in Nevada.

“Growing up on a ranch was really fantastic. It’s almost a perfect childhood,” Kent said in the latest episode of “Inside UVA,” President Jim Ryan’s podcast that seeks to lift the veil on the inner workings of the University.

“Some of the features of [ranch life] that made it so great were the freedom of our life, living outdoors, tremendous people – ranchers, farmers are just really good people,” Kent said. “They’re good because they work really hard and they have a lot of pride in what they can accomplish.”

Kent brought that work ethic to UVA when he took up his duties on Feb. 1, 2020 –  just one month before COVID-19 overtook the world and placed UVA Health squarely in the middle of efforts to tamp down the virus locally.

The executive vice president praised the team at UVA Health for being “very nimble” during the ongoing pandemic. “Going back to tremendous people – we’ve navigated the pandemic extremely well and one of the reasons is, we just have great people. They’re devoted, they’re on the front lines, they’re giving everything they can,” he said. “We’ve vaccinated the community; we’ve tested the community. And we’re still there in the middle of doing that. And I think we’ve done that better than most health care organizations around the country. And again, it’s because of the really wonderful people here at UVA Health.”

Ryan’s conversation with Kent was posted Thursday morning. “Inside UVA” can be streamed on most podcast apps, including Apple PodcastsSpotify and Google Podcasts.

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Jane Kelly

University News Senior Associate Office of University Communications