HEALTH CARE DR. DANNY TK


NANCY HOWELL AGEE PRESIDENT AND CEO, CARILION CLINIC, ROANOKE


Agee leads Carilion Clinic, a nonprofit integrated health system that serves more than 1 million people in Virginia and West Virginia and is the Roanoke Valley’s largest employer. Agee began her career in health care as a nurse, then moved into leadership roles at Carilion. As executive vice president and chief operating


officer, she remodeled Carilion from a group of hospitals to a physician-led, clinic-based organization focused on integrated care. The health system also partners with Virginia Tech in the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, and in 2018, Carilion and Radford University merged with Jefferson College of Health Sciences, forming Radford University Carilion, which offers degrees in health sciences. Like many other health care systems, Carilion


saw ambitious plans hamstrung by COVID-19 last year. The health system had to pause the $500 million renovation of its flagship hospital, Roanoke Memorial, and it lost around $150 million in revenue because of the pandemic. Nonetheless, Carilion accelerated the adoption of telehealth, and Agee says that at one point during the pandemic, more than 70% of patients were reached through technology. In October 2020, Carilion received a $1 million U.S. Department of Agriculture grant to fund virtual care centers.


AVULA VIRGINIA VACCINATION COORDINATOR, RICHMOND


As director of the Richmond and Henrico County health depart- ments, Avula had spent most of 2020 working hundred-hour weeks as he battled COVID-19. No sooner had he taken a vaca- tion than Gov. Ralph Northam’s office called: Would Avula lead Virginia’s vaccination efforts? Avula said yes. He took the


job in January 2021 — when the state was among the slowest vaccinators in the nation and


people were complaining. Under his oversight, the process got smoother and by mid-July, more than 72% of Virginia adults had received at least one vaccine dose. Avula’s work was far from over, however. Some parts of the state reported lagging vaccination rates below 40% as of mid-August, even as the highly conta- gious delta variant spread. Avula, a practicing pediatric hospitalist, graduated from the University of


Virginia when he was just 19. He attended the VCU School of Medicine and completed residencies at VCU and Johns Hopkins University, where he also received a master’s degree in public health. As Richmond’s health director, he established mini-clinics in low-income neighborhoods and pushed outreach to Spanish-speaking communities. Once his state job is done, Avula says he is excited to return to his local work.


ANTHONY ‘TONY’ BAKER EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF PLANT MANAGEMENT, ELKTON VACCINE OPERATIONS LEADER, MERCK & CO. INC., ELKTON


As executive director of Merck’s Elkton plant, Baker helps carry out the company’s mission of delivering lifesaving medicines and vaccines to patients around the world. The global sprint to produce COVID-19 vaccines “helped reinforce my commitment to vaccine manufacturing and accessibility,” Baker says. It also gave him hope that in the future, the development and approval process might be expedited for vaccines treating other conditions. In February, Merck partnered with Johnson & Johnson to produce more of its erstwhile rival’s vaccine to speed up distribution, earning praise from President Joe Biden.


Baker has been with Merck & Co. since 2008 and moved to Rockingham County in 2015. Merck has operated a plant there for 80 years and is investing $1 billion to expand the plant’s production of its human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines. Baker is known for mentoring junior staff at the company — “trying to pay it forward,” he says.


His passion is scuba diving, and he and his wife, Katie, recently took their 13-year-old twins on their first diving trip off the Caribbean island of Bonaire.


SEAN T. CONNAUGHTON PRESIDENT AND CEO, VIRGINIA HOSPITAL AND HEALTHCARE ASSOCIATION, GLEN ALLEN


Connaughton has served as president and CEO of the VHHA since 2014, but his work took on new urgency during the COVID-19 pandemic. The association, which partners with the Virginia Department of Health to run the Virginia Healthcare Emergency Management Program, was involved in almost every facet of the state’s pandemic response.


Among the organization’s duties were helping hos- pitals get personal protective gear and ventilators in the early days of the pandemic, regularly updating a dashboard tracking hospitalized COVID patients in Virginia, and facilitating vaccine distribution. That’s in addition to the


100 VIRGINIA 500


VHHA’s advocacy efforts on behalf of hospitals for reimbursement of pandemic-related revenue losses. Through it all, Connaughton has continued to focus on the VHHA’s mission of improving statewide health care access, safety and quality. Connaughton previously served as Virginia’s transportation secretary from 2010 to 2014, and he was administrator of the U.S. Maritime Administration from 2006 to 2009. Connaughton served as a commissioned officer on active duty with the U.S. Coast Guard and later joined the Naval Reserve, retiring with the rank of commander.


Dr. Danny TK Avula photo by Caroline Martin


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