On first day of classes, EVMS announces abrupt change in leadership after special board meeting
Eastern Virginia Medical School announced its president and provost of the past decade, Richard V. Homan, will no longer lead the institution and a temporary appointee has been tapped to take his place.
The switch followed a special meeting Wednesday morning of the Board of Visitors, for which the school published no agenda. After the announcement, The Virginian-Pilot requested a copy, which indicated an officer election and a closed session to discuss business related to operations and finances.
The circumstances surrounding Homan’s departure aren’t clear. A news release Wednesday afternoon lauded his achievements, such as record enrollment and academic performance levels, and framed the move as his decision to retire. The news coincided with the first day of classes for students.
EVMS’s top post isn’t the only leadership change. In a phone interview Wednesday afternoon, new board rector Bruce Waldholtz said he slid into the role from vice rector after Marcus Martin said he could no longer fulfill the duties due to health reasons. That makes Waldholtz at least the third board leader in less than a month, he said.
An upcoming board retreat with Sentara Healthcare, Old Dominion University and state leaders, along with a new solicitation for proposals for a consultant, prompted them to act quickly. The retreat will include a guest speaker on the benefits of academic health centers. That meeting will be open to the public, Waldholtz said.
“Quite honestly, we were going into closed session (today), and the purpose was to have a decision on who was going to be the rector and vice rector,” he said. “That’s why there’s no agenda. We knew why we were coming here — to make that decision.”
The moves come on the heels of more than two years of turbulence at the community-based medical school, starting in February 2019 with the discovery of a racist photo on Ralph Northam’s 1984 yearbook page of a person in blackface and another in a Ku Klux Klan robe.
The incident resulted in calls for the governor’s resignation, which he resisted, and an intense probe of the school’s culture and history. Through that scrutiny, other photos and accounts surfaced of insensitivity in the school’s past, including three yearbook photos in 2013 of students dressed in Confederate uniforms. An independent investigation by a Richmond law firm found other content offensive to women and minorities.
This summer, the medical school faced more criticism for its hiring of a public relations firm with ties to a blog that publicized negative stories about its hospital partner, Sentara Healthcare. EVMS hired Tigercomm in early November 2020 when it clashed with Sentara over the future of the quasi-public school, which receives a majority of its funding from the not-for-profit hospital system.
The feud became public as a consultant, hired by a third-party think tank, prepared to make recommendations on how the standalone medical school could instead be run by ODU.
The school paid Tigercomm close to $500,000 for its services and didn’t disclose that its PR vendor shared a founder with Checks & Balances Project, a blog that tried to attract media attention to its negative stories about Sentara. The school also didn’t reveal the blog’s financial backer, Renew American Prosperity.
A request for comment from Homan through an EVMS spokesman was not immediately returned.
“Having recently turned 65, it is now time for me to embrace change personally as well,” Homan said in an email to students Wednesday. “The success we have achieved together at EVMS demonstrates this is an appropriate time for me to retire and provide the opportunity for new leadership to shape a future vision for our institution.”
Stepping into the role is Dr. Alfred Abuhamad, chair of obstetrics and gynecology and a 29-year veteran of the school. He will serve as interim president, provost and dean, effective immediately.
Abuhamad is recognized internationally for his expertise in maternal-fetal medicine, ultrasound, prenatal diagnosis, global outreach and patient safety.
He received his medical degree at the American University of Beirut and continued his postgraduate training at the University of Miami, where he completed his residency in obstetrics and gynecology and fellowship in maternal-fetal medicine. Abuhamad also pursued a second fellowship at Yale Medical School in ultrasound and prenatal diagnosis.
Waldholtz said the medical school is seeking a new “nationally recognized consultant” to help it develop a plan for the next three to five years.
Homan came to EVMS in 2012 from Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia, where he was president and dean.
During his tenure, the school added 18 graduate degree programs. Enrollment increased from 877 students in fiscal 2010 to 1,472 students in fiscal 2021. The school also added several residencies and fellowships and 10 clinical specialty programs in partnership with Sentara.
The board apparently voted Wednesday in support of giving Homan the title of president emeritus.
The school held a townhall meeting with faculty, staff and students Wednesday to discuss the changes and notify everyone of a new policy requiring everyone to wear masks indoors while on campus, regardless of COVID-19 vaccination status.
“Today, we’re trying to have transparency,” Waldholtz said.
Elisha Sauers, 757-839-4754, elisha.sauers@pilotonline.com
