Interim UVA Health CEO Rosner appointed to 3-year term

Mitch Rosner (Res class of ’00, Fellow class of ’02), who had served as UVA’s interim executive vice president for health affairs since Craig Kent resigned the position in February, was appointed in September to a three-year term in the role.

Interim UVA President Paul Mahoney suggested waiving the search for a CEO and appointing Rosner, who was endorsed by about 30 department chairs and other UVA Health leaders in a letter sent to then-acting President J.J. Wagner Davis and Rector Rachel Sheridan (Col class of ’94, Law class of ’98) on Aug. 1.

Rosner said he was in favor of conducting a search and was grateful and honored that colleagues endorsed him. His charge as interim CEO had been to “improve the culture” of the organization, he said.

“I don’t want to speak too negatively of the past, but it was really about kind of resetting the focus of the organization to say we’re listening, and we understand that there are issues, and we want to make this better,” he said.

“Tactically what that meant was a lot of one-on-one meetings with individuals, physicians, staff to really hear what their concerns were, to identify changes that we could make pretty immediately that would really show that this was a different day and was going to be an organization where people were going to feel empowered and that their voice really did matter.”

Because UVA is without a permanent president, Rosner said he was also in favor of his appointment being for just three years. Previous EVPs have been appointed to five-year terms under permanent presidents—Kent under Jim Ryan (Law class of ’92) in 2020 and Rick Shannon under Teresa Sullivan in 2013. 

“I wanted to give the next president flexibility and not lock him into something long-term, not knowing who I was and what I was doing,” he said. “I also felt that this is a job I wanted to be able to prove myself in, and one way to make that clear was that the term was going to be shorter.”

Rosner said he also accepted a shorter initial term when taking over as chair of the Department of Medicine, a position he ultimately held for 14 years. He said he was “incredibly comfortable and happy” in that role and was surprised when Ryan asked him to step in for Kent, who resigned after the Board of Visitors heard the results of an independent investigation into allegations made in a letter of no confidence by faculty members.

Leading UVA Health was never a goal of his, Rosner said.

“I’ve been very fortunate,” he said. “I’ve really exceeded beyond my wildest imagination in my own personal career.”

A practicing nephrologist, Rosner continues to see patients with kidney disease, as he has since coming to UVA’s medical center in 2004.

Aside from Kent, two other UVA Health leaders have left in 2025. Melina Kibbe, dean of the School of Medicine, who was also named in the letter of no confidence, and Wendy Horton, CEO of the University Medical Center, took on other roles outside the commonwealth this summer. Radiology and Medical Imaging Chair Colin Derdeyn (Col class of ’84, Med class of ’88) is serving as the interim dean, and Terrie Edwards, a longtime Sentara Health executive, is serving as the interim CEO of the University Medical Center.