UVA Board of Visitors to meet this week for first time under interim President Mahoney

The University of Virginia Board of Visitors with fewer members than usual will begin their two-day business meeting today. The schedule and the live stream are available here.

Several members appointed by Governor Glenn Youngkin were not confirmed by the Virginia Senate Privileges and Elections Committee. All eight Democrats voted to decline to advance the nominations while all six Republicans voted to do so.

The action comes at a time when the Virginia Supreme Court will take up a lawsuit over a similar denial on June 9 when the committee declined to confirm the appointment of former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli.

Current Attorney General Jason Miyares had advised fellow Republicans and University Rectors that the Senate committee action was not valid. Go back to the August 30, 2025 podcast edition for more details or read this article by Nina Broderick in the Cavalier Daily.

In all, five members appointed by Youngkin are no longer on the Board of Visitors. They are:

• James Donovan of Upperville, Vice Chairman, Goldman Sachs
• John F. Harris of Charlottesville, private investor
• H. Eugene Lockhart of Palm Beach, Florida, former CEO, Mastercard; Co-Founder, Mission OG
• Calvert Saunders Moore of Locust Valley, New York, President, Ivor & Co., LLC
• Ken Cuccinelli, former Virginia Attorney General

This will also be the first meeting for interim UVA President James Mahoney who was appointed in early August following the sudden resignation of James Ryan in late June to attempt to stave off an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Other general highlights from the two-day meeting:

• The Health System Board will get a presentation from Dr. Jeffrey M. Sturek, associate professor of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, on his work on understanding pulmonary fibrosis (learn more)
• The BOV’s Advancement Committee will learn that the Honor the Future campaign surpassed its $5 billion goal by over $1.1 billion (learn more)
• The Academic and Student Life Committee will get an update on the Civic Cornerstone Fellowship, a recently renamed initiative of the Karsh Institute of Democracy. The program is intended to gether students together for conversations on hard topics.

Before you go: The time to write and conduct research for this article is covered by paid subscribers to Charlottesville Community Engagement. In fact, this particular installment comes from the September 10, 2025 edition of the program. To ensure this research can be sustained, please consider becoming a paid subscriber or contributing monthly through Patreon.