Seeking a cure
Nursing shortage has health systems scrambling
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Ashley Apple has advice for those hoping to understand the burden nurses face as COVID-19 surges once again while hospitals suffer staff shortages. “Think of the worst day you’ve ever had at work. Then add in poor staffing and multiple human deaths. Then repeat it every day for 18 months,” she says. “That’s sort of
Catching up
ODU’s effort to create wind energy hub in overdrive
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As he completed his senior project last spring at Old Dominion University’s Batten College of Engineering & Technology, Kristal Sunuwar researched the development of the global offshore wind industry. Learning how China, South Korea, Japan and European nations had developed their offshore wind programs, Sunuwar reached an unexpected conclusion: “I was surprised that the USA
The Great American Labor Shortage
Desperate employers, wary workers and big incentives
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At Dough Boy’s Pizza, summer typically brings a steady stream of job applicants seeking work at one of the restaurant’s three locations on the Virginia Beach Oceanfront. But “this year, it’s next to nothing,” says owner George Kotarides. For Kotarides and other restaurant owners, a season that had been anticipated as the triumphant closing act
Weathering the storm
Charlottesville small businesses persevered through pandemic
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Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Angelic Jenkins was working toward opening a brick-and-mortar restaurant serving updated versions of the soul food staples she grew up with. On weekends, Jenkins and her husband catered parties and drove the Angelic’s Kitchen food truck they bought in 2018 to festivals around Virginia. And on weekdays, she worked at her
Petersburg grows pharma manufacturing hub
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A cluster of recent investments by pharmaceutical companies in Petersburg could set the city up to rebuild its manufacturing sector as a major player in U.S. efforts to create and secure a domestic supply chain for producing essential medicines at risk of shortages. The development centers around the AMPAC Fine Chemicals plant in Petersburg, which
‘An awakening’
Providers say pandemic proved case for expanding telehealth
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The headaches of getting to a doctor’s appointment in traffic on Northern Virginia roads drove the Virginia Pediatric Group to invest in telehealth capabilities years before anyone had heard of COVID-19. “I felt it was a way to improve access and to conduct follow-up visits with adolescents who were busy with after-school activities,” says pediatrician
Harrisonburg’s first-ever downtown master plan in progress
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Kirsten Moore opened Magpie Diner in downtown Harrisonburg in August 2020. Despite pandemic dining restrictions, she’s regularly had customers willing to wait up to two hours for a table on weekends. As a nearly lifelong Harrisonburg resident, Moore says that level of activity — especially along downtown’s newly developing north end — shows the progress
The heart of the region
NOVA supplies in-demand tech, health care, military workers
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When the first class of Northern Virginia Community College’s cloud computing program graduated in spring 2020, its members may not have had the trappings of an in-person, pre-pandemic graduation, but they did get something with even more long-term value. Every graduate who sought employment after earning their associate degree landed a job. Chad Knights, provost
Changing course
Business schools take active role in fostering equity and diversity
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For the first time, James Madison University’s College of Business offered spring 2020 students in its MBA program an elective course focused specifically on diversity. By the end of the semester, JMU had hired the course’s instructor, visiting professor Demetria Henderson, as the business school’s director of diversity, equity and inclusion. The appointment was a
The mother of innovation
Pandemic sparks creative teaching, outreach at UMW
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Don’t try to be something you’re not. That’s one way to sum up the approach that Troy Paino has taken to guiding the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg since assuming the school’s presidency in July 2016. “I knew as an outsider that Virginia had a crowded and competitive marketplace for higher education,” says Paino,