More than three decades ago, a young second-year resident at the University of Virginia was caring for a touch-and-go patient in Room 25 of the coronary care unit. He was teamed with a nurse he’d never met.
The patient pulled through. The doctor and nurse hit it off and eventually married at the UVA Chapel. The patient they saved attended the wedding.
After a Board of Visitors vote Friday, that doctor, Mitchell Rosner, was officially tasked with leading UVA Health as its executive vice president and chief executive officer. The move is the capstone to Rosner’s career at UVA, which has taken him from intern to faculty to UVA Health’s top doc, serving a community where he has raised three children with that nurse, Michelle (who also has a degree from UVA).
“It’s an incredible honor,” Rosner said. “I’ve devoted my career to UVA and UVA Health, so this is the opportunity of a lifetime to be able to serve my colleagues, my friends and the community that I have lived in so long.”
‘The right person for this role …’
The three-year appointment comes 21 years after Rosner first joined the School of Medicine faculty and seven months after former President Jim Ryan asked him to serve as the health system’s interim leader. The previous top executive, Dr. K. Craig Kent, resigned in February.
Rosner brings decades of local experience to the role. He began his career as an intern, then a faculty member and now as the executive vice president and CEO of UVA Health. (Photo by Matt Riley, University Communications)
Typically, a resignation would be followed with a national search for a successor, but more than two dozen chairs and leaders at UVA Health sent a letter to the University president and rector imploring them to remove “interim” from Rosner’s title.
“During his brief tenure as Interim EVP for Health Affairs, Dr. Rosner has gained and fostered the trust and respect of our faculty and lent needed stability to a tumultuous period for UVA Health,” the leaders wrote.
After reading the universal acclaim for Rosner, UVA interim President Paul Mahoney suggested waiving the search, and board Rector Rachel Sheridan, with the board’s backing, made it official Friday, near the conclusion of the Board of Visitors’ recent meeting.
“In the short time I have been privileged to work with Mitch, I have been impressed with his judgment and inspirational leadership,” Mahoney said. “He is the right person to lead UVA’s health system forward. I look forward to our continued work together.”
Dr. Taison Bell, interim chair of the Department of Medicine and one of the letter’s signatories, said Rosner is tailor-made for the position.
“Mitch is the kind of leader you read about in leadership books,” Bell said. “His communication style is approachable, open and honest. He listens carefully while bringing people together to make thoughtful, inclusive decisions.
“He deeply considers how his decisions will impact others, and he consistently seeks ways to empower others around him to lead,” Bell continued. “Beyond his vision and integrity, it is this genuine commitment to people that sets him apart. I can say without hesitation that he is the right person for this role, and UVA will be fortunate to benefit from his leadership.”
An ‘opportunity to give back’
Rosner, who still makes rounds and sees patients, said he’s always strived to be a servant leader, a criterion the University values.
“I’ve been fortunate and blessed to build a fulfilling career here at UVA,” he said. “I’ve achieved everything I could ask for and more in my development as a physician and as a faculty member here. So, the opportunity to give back and serve and help others attain their potential is just a great gift.”
As the interim leader, Rosner said his focus was on shoring up the institution.
“The first stage was moving us to a point of having people feel stable, comfortable and knowing that this is a place moving forward,” he said. “The core elements here are great, and they are things we need to celebrate. So it was just focusing on those elements, making people feel this is home, and recapturing the excellence and the potential of this place.”
Rosner, raised in Roslyn, New York, earned an undergraduate degree from Harvard University and his medical degree from the Medical College of Georgia. He attended UVA for his medical residency and fellowship in nephrology, the study of the physiology and diseases of the kidneys. He has published seven books and more than 200 journal articles.
‘It’s gratifying to know people trust me’
Rosner said he is heartened that – rather than considering an outside candidate – his colleagues, the interim president and the board entrusted him to lead UVA Health.
“It’s a recognition that people who know this place, the city and the University – that is valued by the board and President Mahoney,” Rosner said. “Oftentimes, there is a tendency to go outside and bring new people in. But I think this is a time when having that deep institutional knowledge really helps.
“And on a personal level,” he continued, “it’s gratifying to know people trust me. That’s something I will not forget.”
He plans to serve in this role for the next three years and use the leadership position to bolster the health system’s core strengths and to support the doctors, nurses and medical staff that, he says, make UVA Health “a gem, a world-class institution.”
“When patients walk into our doors, I want them to recognize that there is a sacred obligation to care for them, and we take that seriously,” he said. “They are entrusting themselves to people who not only care about them deeply, but have the skill and the expertise as good as any place in the world. They’ll get excellent care by people who are devoted to doing it.
“That,” he continued, “is what I hope the community recognizes.”
