UVA Health University Medical Center has been named to Becker’s Hospital Review’s list of “,” highlighting a slew of recognitions UVA Health recently received.
In its introduction to the list, the national health care publication said “these hospitals stand out for their exceptional clinical performance, unwavering focus on patient safety, and dedication to innovation, research and education.”
Dr. Mitch Rosner, chief executive officer of UVA Health and executive vice president for health affairs at the University of Virginia, said he witnessed the extraordinary care provided at UVA Health long before he took the helm as the health system’s leader in 2025.
“As their colleague for 20 years, I’ve seen firsthand the incredible care our team members provide to patients each and every day,” said Rosner, former chair of 鶹ƽ Department of Medicine. “This honor from Becker’s reflects our team’s dedication to our patients and our communities.”
Becker’s also highlighted the medical center’s graduate medical education program, and noted several new initiatives to improve access to care, including a , an expanded , orthopedic and a .
The honor was one of many UVA Health received in recent weeks, including:
- The Virginia Department of Health redesignated UVA Health University Medical Center as a Level I Adult Trauma Center. These centers offer the highest, most comprehensive trauma care and research programs. The three-year designation follows an in-person site visit in the fall from a review team that included specialists in trauma surgery, emergency medicine and critical care nursing.
- National business publication Forbes ranked UVA Health No. 232 nationally – and No. 9 among public academic health systems – on its list of America’s Best Large Employers. UVA Health ranks 11th among all Virginia-based companies and second among Virginia health systems.
- UVA Health Children’s is the first hospital in Virginia to earn national recognition as a Pediatric Sedation Center of Excellence from the Society for Pediatric Sedation for safely managing children’s pain and anxiety during procedures. The designation is based on criteria that include high-quality patient outcomes, a commitment to quality-improvement initiatives to enhance patient access and specialized sedation training for physicians and nurses.
Trade group honors Athletics communicator’s distinguished career
Jim Daves, who retired in 2025, is set to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the College Sports Communicators. (Virginia Athletics photo)
Jim Daves, who retired in 2025 as 鶹ƽ assistant athletics director for athletic communications, will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the College Sports Communicators.
Daves arrived at UVA in 2005 and served Virginia Athletics for 20 years. In addition to managing the Cavaliers’ communications team, Daves was the main contact for the Cavaliers’ football and men’s and women’s golf programs.
The Virginia media relations operation is a past recipient of the Football Writers Association of America’s “Super 11” Award, presented to 11 NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision media relations departments deemed consistently exemplary. Daves received a special commendation from that association in 2022.
Daves led athletics communications at the University of Washington from 1992-2005. He was an assistant and associate sports information director at the University of Notre Dame from 1986-92, and the director of communications for the Midwestern Collegiate Conference in 1985-86.
He will be honored in June at the association’s 69th annual convention in Las Vegas.
Yale honors Ryan for leadership
President Emeritus Jim Ryan is among the honorees of the Yale School of Management. (Photo by KK Ottesen)
President Emeritus, UVA Law professor and professor of education Jim Ryan received the Jan. 27 at the Yale Higher Education Leadership Summit at the Yale School of Management for dedicating his career “to expanding access to educational opportunity.”
The award recognizes individuals “who offer inspiring legacies of contributing creativity, character, and commercial impact across cultures, industries, countries, and continents,” according to the Chief Executive Leadership Institute.
Three from UVA Engineering earn fellow status
The UVA School of Engineering and Applied Science’s latest national fellows are, from left, Zongli Lin, American Society of Mechanical Engineers; Rupa Valdez, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society; and Jing Yang, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. (UVA Engineering photos)
Three faculty members from 鶹ƽ School of Engineering and Applied Science have recently been tapped as fellows in academic organizations.
Zongli Lin, Ferman W. Perry Professor, has been named a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
The award honors longtime society members who have made significant achievements and contributions to the engineering profession. Fewer than 5% of members are ASME Fellows.
Lin’s research focuses on control theory, which uses mathematical models to regulate the behavior of complex systems in our homes, our vehicles and even our bodies.
Lin has spent nearly three decades at UVA Engineering, where he also serves as associate chair for graduate studies in electrical engineering.
Rupa Valdez, a leading advocate for people with disabilities, has been elected a Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Fellow, the society’s highest recognition. Valdez is a professor of systems and information engineering with a joint appointment in the School of Medicine’s Department of Public Health Sciences. She is one of only four fellows the organization named this year.
Writing in support of her nomination, mentors and collaborators lauded her pioneering research and innovation, her national advocacy to elevate the visibility of human factors engineering more broadly, and her impact on the field through students – her own and those involved in the society.
The writers also highlighted her trailblazing work to create and develop the new subfield of patient ergonomics, with one noting her promulgation of “essential tools for its research and application.”
Jing Yang, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, was named an IEEE Fellow, the highest honor bestowed by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. As few as 0.1% of IEEE’s voting members receive the honor annually.
Yang was recognized for her pioneering research on energy-harvesting wireless communications and her contributions to “Age of Information” optimization. The former enables devices in places with limited power and connectivity, harvesting energy from environmental sources, such as the sun, vibrations or radio waves. The latter refers to how current information is when a computational decision is made – a critical factor for applications such as patient monitoring, autonomous vehicles and power-grid operations.
National Academy of Engineering elects two from UVA Engineering
Michael L. King, left, a professor of practice in the Department of Chemical Engineering, and alumna Anne Aunins, a board member of the UVA Engineering Foundation, are among the newest inductees to the National Academy of Engineers. (UVA Engineering photos)
Two people with ties to the UVA School of Engineering and Applied Science have been elected to the National Academy of Engineering’s Class of 2026, among the highest professional honors in engineering.
Michael L. King, a professor of practice in the Department of Chemical Engineering, was recognized for his leadership in the commercialization, manufacturing and supply of vaccines and pharmaceuticals. During his tenure at Merck, he worked in both the research and manufacturing divisions, developing and commercializing many important pharmaceuticals and vaccines. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he worked with the Gates Foundation and COVAX (a global initiative led by Gavi, Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation, the World Health Organization and UNICEF) designed to ensure equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines for all countries.
King came to UVA in 2007 as after a 32-year career at Merck and Co, Inc., where he retired as senior vice president and adviser to the chair, president and CEO. At the end of that appointment, he continued as a lecturer at UVA and was appointed professor of practice in 2013.
The academy recognized alumna Anne Aunins, a chemical engineering graduate and board member of the UVA Engineering Foundation, for leadership and innovation in bioprocess engineering and biopharmaceutical manufacturing, with a career dedicated to translating engineering advances into scalable, life-changing technologies. As a senior leader in the biopharma industry, she has shaped modern biologics development and manufacturing, advancing therapies that improve health outcomes worldwide.
During the global COVID-19 crisis, Aunins served as program leader for Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine program, overseeing efforts on regulatory approval, booster strategies and variant response – critical components of the pandemic response.
Aunins has remained connected to UVA Engineering as a board member of the Engineering Foundation, drawing on decades of industry experience to provide strategic insight.
Aunins and King will be formally inducted during the academy’s annual meeting this fall, joining three other UVA Engineering doctoral alumni who also made their contributions in the pharmaceutical industry: , .
History professor’s book earns legal scholarship award
Historian Andrew Kahrl’s book is a sweeping account of discriminatory taxation practices and their lasting impact on Black wealth and property rights. (University Communications photo)
Andrew Kahrl, a professor of history and African American studies, received an Order of the Coif 2025 Book Award for his work, “The Black Tax: 150 Years of Theft, Exploitation, and Dispossession in America.”
Kahrl’s book provides a sweeping account of discriminatory taxation practices and their lasting impact on Black wealth and property rights. It was selected as one of two national winners from a list of nine finalists.
The Order of the Coif is an American honor society for law school graduates.
Legal historian to edit Supreme Court history journal
UVA legal historian G. Edward White is the new editor of the Journal of Supreme Court History. (UVA Law photo)
School of Law professor G. Edward White, an award-winning legal historian, has been named editor of the Journal of Supreme Court History, a publication of the Supreme Court Historical Society.
The role is the latest full-circle moment for White, who clerked for Chief Justice Earl Warren and has since focused his research on legal history, including a book on the Marshall Court and biographies of Warren, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. and Justice Robert H. Jackson.
A member of the UVA Law faculty for more than 50 years, White is a David and Mary Harrison Distinguished Professor of Law. He has been a Guggenheim Fellow and twice a senior fellow of the National Endowment for the Humanities. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, a fellow of the Society of American Historians, and a member of the American Law Institute.
White’s 20 published books have won numerous honors and awards, including a final listing for the Pulitzer Prize in history for his first book, “The Eastern Establishment and the Western Experience.” He is the author of the three-volume “” series, which he completed in 2019, and a co-written with UVA colleague Kenneth S. Abraham.
In addition to legal history, he has written histories of baseball and soccer.
UVA No. 4 among law schools in finance scholarship
From left, 鶹ƽ Michal Barzuza, Mitu Gulati and Paul G. Mahoney are among 40 law professors to be published in any of the three most selective peer-reviewed finance publications. (UVA Law photos)
The University of Virginia ranks No. 4 among law schools for faculty published in the world’s leading finance journals.
found professors Michal Barzuza, Mitu Gulati and Paul G. Mahoney were among only about 40 law professors to be published in any of the three most selective peer-reviewed finance publications. Mahoney was published twice in the Journal of Financial Economics, and Barzuza and Gulati in The Review of Financial Studies once each.
With the journals rejecting 94% of submissions, law professors having their work accepted “is a genuine accomplishment,” according to University of Southern California law professor Michael Simkovic, the report’s author.
Barzuza researches and teaches corporate law, corporate governance, corporate finance, regulatory competition, and law and economics. Gulati is the Warner-Booker Distinguished Professor of International Law and Joseph C. Carter Jr. Research Professor of Law. Mahoney is a David and Mary Harrison Distinguished Professor of Law and recently served as 鶹ƽ interim president.
