VCU news

William B. Moskowitz, M.D., vice chair, clinical operations, Department of Pediatrics; chief, Division of Pediatric Cardiology; director, pediatric cardiac catheterization; professor, pediatrics and internal medicine, School of Medicine

William B. Moskowitz, M.D., was honored with the Elinor Bloom Marshall Humanitarian Award, presented by the Richmond Chapter of Hadassah and Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU. The award is given every other year to an outstanding person who has been unselfishly devoted to causes that benefit society.

Moskowitz has been a faculty member at the VCU School of Medicine since 1984. He is director of the Pediatric Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory and the pediatric heart transplantation program and has expertise in interventional catheterization procedures in infants, children and adults. His research, in addition to congenital heart disease, focuses on the effects of childhood passive smoking on coronary artery risks and his work has been cited in the Surgeon General’s Report and the Environmental Protection Agency report on “Respiratory Health Effects of Passive Smoking.”

He is past president of the Virginia Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics and served six years on the national American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Federal Government Affairs. He currently serves as an advisory board member of the Children’s Health Information Network and is a member of the National Committee on Pediatric Workforce.

He has been recognized as a “Top Doc” by Richmond Magazine and Castle Connolly’s “America’s Top Doctors” in pediatric cardiology. He was selected to membership in the American Pediatric Society, a prestigious academic honor from the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Moskowitz is an active member in the Richmond-based World Pediatric Project, a nonprofit that provides diagnostic and surgical care to children in Central America and Caribbean, and founder of Mended Little Hearts, Virginia Chapter, a support group for families with children with congenital heart disease.

The Richmond chapter of Hadassah hopes to raise $40,000 in Moskowitz’s honor to purchase a transesophageal echocardiography probe, a test that uses sound waves to create high-quality moving pictures of the heart and its blood vessels, to care for Hadassah Medical Center’s youngest patients.

Stephanie Bailey, Ph.D., senior research associate, Department of Healthcare Policy and Research, School of Medicine

The American Association for the Advancement of Science selected Bailey for its Science and Technology Policy Fellowship program, for her achievements in health policy and outcomes research. During this year-long fellowship, she will act as tuberculosis adviser in the Infectious Disease Division of the Bureau of Global Health at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Bailey’s research interests cover a range of health outcomes and diseases, including breast cancer, child welfare, obesity, HIV and sex trafficking. Her research at VCU helps develop population-based computer simulation models to inform decision-making in health outcomes and diseases.

During her tenure as tuberculosis adviser, she will work with a team to formulate further analysis and identify problematic policy approaches regarding TB, multidrug resistant TB and TB and HIV co-infection. Her duties will include monitoring and analyzing trends, conducting program evaluations and providing technical advice to ensure USAID programs are consistent with current medical practice and international standards and recommendations.

“Being selected for this program is an honor and I’m looking forward to learning firsthand about policymaking and implementation, while providing scientific and technical expertise and analytic capabilities to inform policy,” Bailey said. “I hope to contribute to USAID’s mission of saving lives and preventing the spread of tuberculosis.”

For centuries, TB has been one of humankind’s most challenging diseases, according to the USAID’s website. Today, it is the second-leading cause of death from an infectious disease worldwide.

Christopher Ritrievi, senior associate vice president for campaign leadership and constituency relations, Office of Development and Alumni Relations

Ritrievi started May 5 as a new senior leader in the Office of Development and Alumni Relations. He previously worked in fundraising at universities such as Princeton, Stanford and Michigan State. Most recently, he helped to plan a $1 billion campaign at Indiana University's Bloomington Campus. He holds an M.B.A. from Lehigh University and a bachelor's degree in economics from Princeton.

“Chris is an exceptional fundraising professional. He brings a breadth of experience ranging from the arts to athletics and from major to principal gift experience as well as having worked in several multimillion-dollar capital campaigns. Chris will be a terrific addition, both personally and professionally, to the VCU Development and Alumni Relations team,” said Marti K.S. Heil, vice president of Development and Alumni Relations. 

As senior AVP, Ritrievi will provide senior counsel in complex gift strategy discussions, will serve as campaign director and will work closely with deans, development directors and other senior leaders.  

“I am thrilled to join the development staff at VCU,” Ritrievi said. "This is a vibrant institution with strong leadership. My wife, Stephanie, and I look forward to becoming part of the VCU and Richmond communities."

John "Jack" Hettema, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor, and Roxann Roberson-Nay, assistant professor, Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics, Department of Psychiatry

Hettema received a 2014 NARSAD Independent Investigator Grant from the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation. His project will expand on his neuroimaging studies of brain abnormalities in mood and anxiety disorders by examining at-risk twins at the critical period between ages 9 and 13. He will use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) brain scans to assess activation patterns in the amygdala and prefrontal cortex while subjects respond to psychological tests.

Roberson-Nay also received a 2014 NARSAD Independent Investigator Grant and will examine the association between early-onset major depressive disorder and DNA methylation, a process that alters genetic activity. The study will examine DNA methylation in adolescent and young adult twins, with and without depression histories, to learn whether it leaves a lasting genetic imprint, if it is associated with the number of lifetime depression episodes and if it can predict depression development.

Both Hettema and Roberson-Nay are working with the Mid-Atlantic Twin Registry at VCU, which is an organization of twins and their families who are willing to consider taking part in twin-based, health-related research. Twins are ideal subjects for determining the differential effects of genes and environment and their shared versus specific contributions.

John Accordino, professor, L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs; director, VCU Center for Urban and Regional Development

The American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) named Accordino to the ACIP College of Fellows for his achievements in urban planning. Accordino is among 40 honorees that were inducted at the American Planning Association’s National Planning Conference in April in Atlanta.

Accordino has taught more than 1,000 urban-planning students through unique hands-on instruction and facilitation. His development of a curriculum that focuses on real-world scenarios and community service has led to a better level of planning in the commonwealth, said the Planning Accreditation Board. Accordino has been a professor with VCU for more than 27 years, focusing on economic development planning and community revitalization.

Cathy J. Bradley, Ph.D., professor, Department of Healthcare Policy and Research, and interim chair, Department of Social and Behavioral Health, School of Medicine

Bradley has been appointed the associate director for cancer prevention and control at Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center. Bradley transitions to this new role from her previous appointment as co-leader of the Cancer Prevention and Control research program at Massey.

Cancer prevention and control (CPC) research is research that studies the behavioral, environmental, organizational and policy factors that affect cancer risk, diagnosis, treatment and survival. CPC research at Massey is focused on the entire cancer continuum, from healthy people (prevention) to individuals who are at the last stages of their battle with this disease (end of life).

As associate director for CPC, Bradley will serve on the cancer center’s executive committee and will develop and lead the strategic direction of CPC-related research at Massey. She will collaborate with health services and behavioral scientists as well as laboratory and clinical investigators of the cancer center’s various scientific programs to forge links that bridge the cancer center’s CPC, clinical and basic science research. She will also focus on opportunities to increase the number of Massey’s CPC researchers, expand its areas of research interest and grow its funding base.

“Dr. Bradley has served Massey exceptionally well as co-leader of the CPC program for the last seven years. She brings valuable expertise and experience to the elevated role of associate director that will no doubt strengthen our CPC research efforts,” said Gordon D. Ginder, M.D., director of VCU Massey Cancer Center.

“In this new role, I look forward to the expanded opportunity to be creative and innovative in how Massey fosters collaborations to advance CPC research,” Bradley said.

An internationally recognized health economist, Bradley is an expert in health and labor market outcomes. She studies productivity costs of disease, health insurance, socioeconomic health care disparities, safety net providers and care for the uninsured.

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