In an era of viral digital disinformation, eroding governance norms and increased political violence, the same old campus “civic engagement” programs no longer seem sufficient. So now colleges are rethinking their efforts. In June, the University of Virginia announced that a new Institute of Democracy is in the works. … Laurent Dubois, who directs democracy programs at UVA, takes it back further, to the period he studies, the Age of Enlightenment. “The idea that you could study humanity, understand humanity – and therefore contribute to better societies, better systems, better government – suf...
Even in normal times, many patients don’t get rigorous, routine, and comprehensive care, says Dr. Margaret Tracci, a UVA Health vascular surgeon. Even those who know they need care and hope to receive it face obstacles. Distance to an expert center is one issue, but lack of access is “not just a matter of miles,” Tracci says. If a patient can’t take time off work or get transportation to an appointment, or the strain on family caregivers is too much, it’s hard for patients to receive the care they need, she says.
In urban areas across the U.S., low-income neighborhoods and communities of color experience an average of 28% more nitrogen dioxide pollution than higher-income and majority-white neighborhoods. The disparity is driven primarily by proximity to trucking routes on major roadways, where diesel trucks are emitters of NO2 and other air pollutants. “In terms of environmental justice, one of the things we have lacked is these observations across an entire city that also have temporal variability that we can use to understand the sources [of pollution],” said Sally Pusede, a UVA atmospheric chemist ...
When it comes to flu shots and the COVID-19 vaccine, “the simple answer is they can be administered at the same time or shortly before or after one another,” according to Dr. Debbie-Ann Shirley, a pediatrician heading UVA’s Division of Pediatric Infectious Disease.
The self-described “world’s premier space exploration company” is not SpaceX, Blue Origin, or Virgin Galactic. Nor is it Boeing, Lockheed Martin, or any of the old-school aerospace firms. Instead, it is Space Adventures – a mysterious company with a surprisingly successful history of sending paying customers to space. Space Adventures is the brainchild of Eric Andersen, a former intern at the space agency NASA. Andersen graduated from the University of Virginia in 1996 and immediately started trying to recruit investors from his home in Arlington.
If Melanie Frank’s career at banking conglomerate Capital One was a person, it would be old enough to buy a drink. Following her first job as a software test manager at Honeywell, she moved to Capital One, the McLean-based financial services company, take on a software testing position in 2000. Along the way, she’s moved from the director of quality services to take on a senior director role in enterprise customer management. In the years following, she’s held leadership roles in retail bank technology, card technology and associate experience all the way up to her current role: managing VP of...
Try to imagine public reaction around rural western Albemarle county to a brief news note in the Daily Progress in the summer of 1909: “Dr. A.B. Wayland has in course of construction a handsome hospital, situated on a high hill overlooking the town [of Crozet] and facing the picturesque Blue Ridge mountains.” Alfred Bledsoe Wayland (1874-1915) was a product of old Crozet. Young Bledsoe received his academic education at Fishburne Military Academy at Staunton, before entering the University of Virginia, where he graduated with a degree in medicine in 1897.
(Press release) Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, the 2020-21 chairman of the Devitt Award, the highest honor that is bestowed upon an Article III federal judge in the country, has announced today that Judge Julia Smith Gibbons of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit is the 39th annual Edward J. Devitt Distinguished Service to Justice Award recipient. Gibbons received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Vanderbilt University in 1972 and a Juris Doctor from the University of Virginia School of Law.
The newly elected president of the International Council of Nurses has said she hopes to “increase the influence of nurses” across the world. Dr. Pamela Cipriano, who is from the U.S. and has served as vice president of the ICN since 2017, has become the 29th president of the global nursing organization. Dr Cipriano, who also serves as dean of the University of Virginia School of Nursing, replaces current ICN president Annette Kennedy, who is from Ireland.
Beyond the clamor, political scientist Larry Sabato, a professor at the University of Virginia, believes that one year before the midterm elections, this ballot will be a good test of the ability of Republican and Democratic forces to mobilize. Traditionally, he said, when a party takes control of the White House and Congress, it loses a feather in the midterm elections, and he wouldn’t be surprised if that happened in Virginia.
Lois Shepherd, Wallenborn Professor of Biomedical Ethics and co-director of the Studies in Reproductive Ethics and Justice at the Center for Health Humanities and Ethics of the University of Virginia, said that, for both ethical and legal reasons, medical information about specific employees should be kept confidential. “According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Americans with Disabilities Act ‘requires an employer to maintain the confidentiality of employee medical information, such as documentation or other confirmation of COVID-19 vaccination.’ While employers may ask em...
According to Dr. Meredith Clark, a UVA assistant professor of media studies, the concept of having “made it” is imperative to many Black people. These discussions about Black people becoming more upwardly mobile, she adds, have become more nuanced. “You’ve got a group of people who are left behind. But technology has flattened things so we have this conversation about how things are working out for those left behind at the same time as we’re having conversations about how it’s working out for people who were in the Black middle class,” Clark says.
The first American test tube baby was born here in Virginia 40 years ago, but the state is lagging when it comes to regulating fertility clinics. Naomi Cahn, who teaches family law at UVA, says would-be parents trust these places to protect their health and their future. Unfortunately, she says, some clinics have had catastrophic equipment failures where temperatures rose in freezers, and thousands of eggs or embryos were lost.
There may appear to be a spike in shootings on school campuses now because of the recent surge in gun violence nationally, Dewey Cornell, a UVA professor of education and a school threat assessment expert, said. Cornell used the analogy of a “flood” that covers every building in a town, pointing to the fact that murders rose by 30% in the U.S. in 2020, the highest increase since 1960. “The water is going to go everywhere in a flood zone,” Cornell said. “Every building, indiscriminately, but schools are somewhat protected.”
A local social media expert explains just how dangerous he thinks Facebook is. Dr. Siva Vaidhyanathan, a UVA professor of media studies, says the company disconnects people and undermines democracy. He wrote about this extensively in his book “Anti Social Media.” But now, he’s seeing his fears play out in real-time.
(Podcast) Facebook is hauled over the coals by Congress on a semi-regular basis, but this week has been especially damaging. Former employee Frances Haugen has blown the whistle on the company, leaking internal documents that reveal that it knew it was harming its users. Today on The Signal, what exactly has Facebook been keeping from the world? And what does the company have to say for itself? Featured: Siva Vaidyanathan, professor of media studies at the University of Virginia.
(Co-written by Kathryn Laughon, associate professor of nursing) We voted for Joe Biden with the expectation that the Biden administration would keep its promise to build a “fair and humane” immigration system, ending repressive immigration policies that keep children in cages, expel asylum applicants and restrict citizenship. … Instead, we woke up last week to see Border Patrol agents on horses chasing Black people with what looked like whips. We saw the Biden administration continuing anti-Black, anti-immigrant Trump administration policies. We saw them continuing to block asylum-seekers from...
Culpeper’s hospital just got a new and shorter name. Effective Oct. 1, the in-patient facility and ER on Sunset Lane will be known as UVA Culpeper Medical Center. UVA Haymarket and UVA Prince William, formerly part of Novant Health, have also been similarly renamed to align with UVA Health, its sole owner since July 1.
Gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe made a stop in Charlottesville Wednesday to meet and talk with doctors about the coronavirus pandemic. Some of those doctors work at the University of Virginia, treating COVID-19 and pediatric patients. “It was eye-awakening in there to listen to these infectious doctors talk about how serious this is. That’s why from day one I’ve said everyone needs to be vaccinated,” McAuliffe said.
UVA Health is dedicating more than $30 million in fiscal year 2022 for increased compensation as a way to reward and retain staff. This will include market pay adjustments for a large portion of the organization’s workforce.