Distinguished Professionals

Vice President and Chief Student Affairs Officer

• Developed the “What’s After High School?” Program, a K-12 college access startup initiative for the Alamance-Burlington School System in North Carolina. The program was subsequently recognized by the National School Boards Association.
• A successful author and entrepreneur, her efforts were recognized by the White House and US Department of Education as a “Champion of Change” in 2012.
• A first-generation college student, Ms. Hadley attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as a Morehead Scholar. She played basketball for the Tar Heels for two years.
• Upon graduation with a degree in public policy analysis, she went on to study political science as a graduate student and Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University.
• Her interests include staying in touch with her large extended family, traveling, listening to music and reading.

Vice President and Chief Student Affairs Officer

• Downs’ comments: “I have met Malo so a few things to emphasize that are not included on a traditional webpage. He has the best smile and laugh. Malo, originally grew up in Oakland, California and shared how during his PhD training at MIT in Boston, that he personally saw how the healthcare system advantaged and disadvantaged certain individuals. Malo, and I didn’t know each other but were both in the Boston area at the same time (I was at BWH/Harvard). We were both well aware of the disparities in the predominantly African-American neighborhoods. Professionally, Malo spent his early faculty years at UC Berkley where he worked with Professor John Powell, at the Othering and Belonging Institute, an internationally recognized center. Recently Malo, had been at Columbia University and his work on the ‘Built Environment’ and Urban Planning with Social Justice is synonymous with our work on the Social Determinants of Health.”

Dean and Professor of Practice of Public Policy the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy

Ian H. Solomon is dean of the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, where he leads a multidisciplinary faculty of scholars and practitioners who are committed to creating new knowledge, developing ethical and effective leaders, and advancing solutions to humanity’s greatest policy challenges. Trained as a lawyer, Solomon is a devoted student and teacher of both negotiation and conflict resolution. Over the course of his career, he has dedicated himself to improving the lives of people across the globe by integrating insights from his experiences in higher education, government, the private sector, and international organizations.

John A. Griffin Dean of the MacIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia

Nicole Thorne Jenkins is the John A. Griffin Dean of the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia. A Certified Public Accountant, Jenkins is an expert in financial reporting failures, share repurchases, and the effect of social networks on performance outcomes. As an award-winning educator, she has focused her instructional experience on financial reporting topics in both executive education and graduate and undergraduate programs. As a result of her ability to make both accounting and finance topics accessible, Jenkins is frequently called upon to instruct corporate professionals on related complex topics.

Athletic Director, University of Virginia

• Williams’ appointment at Virginia in October of 2017 made her the first female African-American athletics director (AD) at a Power Five conference institution (ACC, SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 and Pac-12). At the time, she was the fifth active female athletics director at that level.
• Williams was named to the executive committee of the recently formed Black AD Alliance, which was established to promote the growth, development and elevation of Black athletics administrators at the Division I level.
• This story highlights how Carla Williams, as the first African-American Female Athletic Director, was also taking the position of now retiring Craig Littlepage, UVA Athletic Director for 16 years and the first African-American Athletic Director at UVA:

Johnson and Higgins Professor of Business Administration and Senior Associate Dean and Global Chief Diversity Officer

Martin N. Davidson is the Johnson & Higgins Professor of Business Administration at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. He currently serves as senior associate dean and global chief diversity officer for the School. His thought leadership has changed how many executives approach inclusion, diversity, and equity in their organizations. He teaches, conducts research and consults with global leaders to help them use difference strategically to drive high performance. His research on the impact of culture and ethnicity on career development and on conflict management appears in top academic and practitioner publications including Administrative Science Quarterly, Harvard Business Review, Research on Negotiation in Organizations, Journal of Personality, Review of Educational Research, and the International Journal of Conflict Management. He has also conducted research on four continents identifying the critical competencies for managing effectively across national boundaries.

Professor of Practice

• Academic area: Leadership and Organizational Behavior)
• Board Member of the University Physicians Group (UPG).
• Dr. Downs’ comment: “I met Laura on my second visit to UVA and she was a key person to help in my decision-making process. Laura’s is the daughter of a physician (her dad) and grew up in Gary, Indiana. Her father and family were the bedrock of that community. What I didn’t know was that Laura, while in her studies at U of Michigan, has done extensive research on the experience of Black Medical Students. As we shared our insights around being a URM in medical school and academics, it was very clear she is both someone I can learn from in the future, as well as partner with on future areas to improve the experience of students and trainees of color.”

Below are links to some of her publications and talks on the following topic areas:

•  Women of Color Get Less Support at Work
• Freedom at Work. Lecture Fall 2021 at University of Michigan Interdisciplinary Committee on Organizational Studies
• Race, Work and Leadership: New Perspectives on the Black Experience

Assistant Dean, UVA College of Arts and Sciences and Associate Professor, Department of Psychology

Active in multiple organizations within the Charlottesville area including Charlottesville Live Arts, City of Promise, The Women’s Initiative, African American Authors Book Club, Charlottesville Chapter of the Links, Inc. and Charlottesville Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.

UVA Staff Senate Senior Learning & Development Consultant, Chief Human Resource Officer

Creating a passion for personal and professional leadership transformation has been the brand identity of Lisa’s career. Lisa has worked at Ford Motor Company, American Express, as an adjunct professor teaching business courses to undergraduate and graduate students, and owned her own business. Throughout her career she achieved business results, nurtured and built long-term relationships/partnerships, and developed leaders across the public and private sectors. She enjoys coaching, motivational speaking and working with young adults and college students. She has a BA from Hampton University in Hampton, VA and an MBA from Northwestern University, Kellogg Graduate School of Management, in Evanston, IL.

Director of Diversity and Community Engagement, UVA Health

Melody holds a Bachelors in Social Work from Eastern Mennonite University (EMU), a Masters in Social Work from Fordham University as well as a Masters of Divinity and Masters in Christian Education from the Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology at Virginia Union University, along with a Graduate Certificate in Restorative Justice from The Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at EMU. Melody has served as a Resilience Educator and Mental Health Therapist for The Women’s Initiative here in Charlottesville and has facilitated seminars on radical self-care, racialized trauma, holistic healing and community resilience. She is also an Adjunct Professor in the undergraduate Sociology and graduate Psychology department at Bridgewater College. Throughout Melody’s career she has served as the Chairperson for the Diversity and Inclusion Committee and Vice President of the Faculty Senate and Director of Multicultural Services at Eastern Mennonite University.