Our future is bright
Our unyielding focus allows us to reimagine the 21st-century university. Our future is bright as we welcome new leadership, create new environments for new experiences and embark on new initiatives that embody our values and move our mission forward.
New leadership
Shawn Brixey
Shawn Brixey was named dean of the School of the Arts and provides leadership in education, research, community outreach and fund development activities. Brixey previously served as dean of the School of the Arts, Media, Performance and Design at York University in Toronto.
Peter F. Buckley, M.D.
Peter F. Buckley, M.D., now leads the VCU School of Medicine as dean and serves as VCU Health System’s executive vice president for medical affairs, overseeing the 600 physician-faculty group practices of the academic health sciences center. Buckley came to VCU from Augusta University in Georgia where he was dean of the Medical College of Georgia and executive vice president for medical affairs and integration.
Jay Davenport
Jay Davenport joined the VCU community as the university’s vice president for development and alumni relations. Davenport previously served as associate vice president of individual giving and campaign management at Wake Forest University.
Montserrat Fuentes, Ph.D.
Montserrat Fuentes, Ph.D., joined the VCU team of deans to lead the College of Humanities and Sciences. Fuentes previously served as the head of the Department of Statistics and James M. Goodnight Distinguished Professor of Statistics at North Carolina State University.
Mike Rhoades
Mike Rhoades joined the Rams to lead the men’s basketball team as head coach. Rhoades spent the past three seasons as the head coach at Rice University, where he was credited with a highly successful turnaround job that culminated in the second-most wins in a season in Rice University’s history.
Facilities on the horizon
VCU and VCU Health have both embarked on master site plans that will reinforce the concept of one VCU by providing a cohesive blueprint for the future development of the Monroe Park and MCV campuses. Here are just a few updates of recent capital construction projects.
Gladding Residence Center
Gladding Residence Center is a $96 million project that will create a 12-story, 360,000-square-foot residence center to house 1,524 students. It is slated to open at the beginning of the 2018 academic year.
VCU Police headquarters
VCU Police headquarters relocated to be equidistant from the university’s two Richmond campuses. The renovated building provides more work and training space for staff, better technology and centralized emergency operations space for Virginia’s largest campus law enforcement agency.
Institute for Contemporary Art
The Institute for Contemporary Art will open in spring 2018 with nearly 41,000 square feet of flexible space and will feature a dynamic slate of changing exhibitions, performances, films and interdisciplinary programs.
Allied Health Professions Building
The Allied Health Professions Building broke ground in spring 2017 and will bring all 11 of the school’s units into one 154,000-square-foot building, scheduled to open fall 2019.
Initiatives underway
Planning is underway for VCU’s new strategic plan. Scheduled to launch in fall 2018, the new plan will build off the success of the current Quest for Distinction, which has been in place since 2011. Early themes have emerged out of universitywide conservations, focused on VCU’s national prominence, local impact, student success, diversity and inclusion, and enhancing the university’s work culture.
In 2017, VCU approved its five-year Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Action Plan, an outgrowth of the president’s strategic diversity actions, and the university’s core value and commitment to create a diverse, equitable and inclusive environment. This plan provides overarching institutional guidance for VCU’s focused work on strategic priorities. The plan is organized around four themes — institutional commitment; climate and intergroup relations; recruitment, retention and success; and education, scholarship and research — connected by an extensive assessment plan. The plan and report was informed by universitywide diversity and inclusion input sessions and information shared by VCU faculty, staff, students, alumni and other constituent groups.
Also in 2017, VCU launched the Center for Urban Communities, the university’s hub for community engagement to connect, coordinate and align VCU and VCU Health’s teaching, research and clinical resources more intentionally on a few key community-identified city and regional issues: preK-12 education, health equity and literacy, and workforce development. The center’s first initiative — a health and wellness center adjacent to a new grocery store — is a collaborative effort to improve the overall health and economic vitality of the community living within the Nine Mile Road corridor in Richmond’s East End.