Inside UVA

Dr. Stephanie Rowley joined the School of Education and Human Development as Dean in 2022. She is an alumna of the Education school and leading expert in the development of children's racial and gender identities. She returned to UVA to serve as dean following her time as a Provost, Dean and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Teachers College at Columbia University. In this episode she talks about her research, how she met her husband at UVA, and some surprising family ties to Charlottesville.

Dean Tab Enoch is sometimes known as the university’s unoffocial hype girl. As the director of Orientation, she is one of the first people many new students meet at UVA. She and her team work hard to help every new student at feel excited and supported for their time at the University. In this episode, she and President Ryan share how their own experiences as first-generation college students have shaped their careers in student affairs.

UVA Law Professor Leslie Kendrick is a podcasting pro. She’s spent many hours behind the mic with Dean Risa Goluboff exploring how law shapes society in their podcast, Common Law. In this episode, she talks about the ways in which her years studying English literature led her to become a free speech expert, her upbringing in Kentucky and her time serving as Vice-Dean of the UVA School of Law.

Our first guest of the season truly needs no introduction. She is a journalist, who, among other assignments, has been co-host of the Today Show, anchored the CBS Evening News and was a correspondent for 60 Minutes. She's a producer, a path breaker, an author, a performer, a guest star on episodes of Glee, Sesame Street, Austin Powers and Murphy Brown. She is a parent, wife, entrepreneur, genuine icon, and daughter of the University of Virginia, the inimitable Katie Couric.

A 2016 Vogue magazine headline called our guest the "George Clooney of March Madness". He is a former NCAA and NBA sharpshooter, coaching legend, and national champion. If you haven't guessed yet, it's UVA's Head Basketball Coach, Tony Bennett. In this interview he talks about his very early start in basketball and going into the family business of coaching. We also get some snacking tips.

Ian Baucom has led a very eventful life. He grew up in South Africa, left a burgeoning acting career for military school in South Carolina, and even wrote a children’s fantasy novel! These unique experiences eventually led him to UVA, where he served as the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences for over 7 years, and recently became the Provost of the University. In this episode, you can hear Baucom discuss his unusual upbringing and share what he wants to accomplish in his new role at the University.

Dr. Ken Ono says his greatest strength is his curiosity. That curiosity has taken him to the 100 year-old manuscripts of Srinivasa Ramanujan, to the US Olympic swimming team, to astronomical queries into black holes and even to Hollywood. Tune in to hear more about those adventures and why Dr. Ono says theoretical math is an art form.

Abel Liu wasn't planning on getting involved in Student Council when he started at UVA. But when he got here, he was excited about student self-governance and the opportunity to make a difference for his peers. Then COVID hit and he got that opportunity. Even before Abel was elected president, he was involved in lobbying for a credit/no credit option for students during the height of the pandemic in Charlottesville. Abel now serves as UVA's first ever Chinese-American Student Council President and the first University Student Council President in America to be transgender at the time of their election. In this interview, he talks about why he choose to make a cross-country move for college and some of his proudest accomplishments from his four years on Student Council.

Carla Williams says college athletics is the reason she was able to go to college. In high school, she was a star basketball player and her teachers helped her go to basketball camps and travel to play in front of college scouts. Once she made it to the University of Georgia she excelled on and off the court, eventually earning her doctorate and building her career in coaching and then athletic administration. When she was appointed as Director of Athletics at UVA in 2017, she became the first Black woman to be Athletic Director of a Power Five Conference.

Kayvon Samadani is a fourth year at UVA studying Public Policy and Environmental Science. He is also currently the president of the Inter-Fraternity Council at UVA, an organization that oversees the activities of 1,700 students across 32 chapters. In this epsiode he talks about his experience at UVA and how he got involved in Greek life and Greek leadership.