There are two more high-level departures coming at UVA Health following CEO Craig Kent’s resignation in February.
Kent’s resignation earlier this year came amid several allegations from physicians and faculty, and these latest exits will leave UVA Health with vacancies in three of its most senior roles.
From The Cavalier Daily: Two senior U.Va. Health leaders quietly take new jobs without formal announcement
Melina Kibbe, dean of the UVA school of medicine, is leaving at an undisclosed future date after being named as the sole finalist for the role of president of The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, The Cavalier Daily reports. You can also read a report from CBS 19 here, and subscribers to The Daily Progress can read more coverage here.
Separately, Wendy Horton, CEO of UVA Medical Center, is stepping down, according to the Progress. Horton will leave in September of this year to take on a new job as senior vice president and president of adult care services at the University of California.
In September 2024, 128 UVA doctors and faculty members signed a letter of no confidence, accusing Kent and Kibbe of fostering a “negative environment,” “using explicit and implicit threats and retaliation,” and compromising patient safety.
From Feb. 26: UVA Health CEO resigns after allegations from faculty
​​The letter, which was published in full by The Cavalier Daily, went on to accuse them of prioritizing spending on executive positions over addressing clinical staff shortages, overlooking fraud and misconduct in billing and records, and intimidating staff when they raised concerns.
The letter prompted the UVA Board of Visitors to hire Williams & Connolly, a D.C.-based litigation firm, to investigate the claims.
Following a Feb. 25, 2025 confidential briefing on the results of the investigation, Kent resigned and the Board and then-UVA President Jim Ryan said they believed there was “no basis for corrective action as it relates to healthcare billing or other regulatory compliance issues,” according to a letter sent to UVA Health employees.
The Progress reported earlier this year that physicians and staff were not satisfied with Kent’s resignation and said the Board of Visitors needed to do more to address safety issues, noting “specific cases of patient endangerment, patient harm and patient deaths that have occurred due to the stripping away of the very policies and protocols that were designed to protect our patients.”
In March, a fake resignation letter claiming to be from Kibbe circulated online and caused confusion among UVA Health staff. Mitchell Rosner, interim executive vice president for health affairs at UVA, told the Progress at the time that the letter was a “hoax,” and that Kibbe remained in her role. Subscribers to the Progress can read more background here.
According to a statement about the recent departures shared with Charlottesville Tomorrow on July 17, Rosner credited Kibbe with playing “a vital role in crafting and advancing UVA Health’s 10-year strategic plan” and added, “we are excited that Dean Kibbe has been named the sole finalist for the presidency of The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, and we wish her well as the hiring process moves forward.”
The statement did not include an exact date when Kibbe will leave UVA, but according to the announcement about her appointment at the University of Texas, Kibbe can officially start her new role in Houston after a state-mandated 21-day waiting period.
For Horton’s role, Rosner said in the statement that UVA expects to have an interim candidate in place when she departs in September.
Stay safe and take care of each other,
Akash Sinha, Managing Editor
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