Virginia Business Ranks The State’s Most Powerful, Influential Leaders

President Tracy Fitzsimmons Earns Spot on the list for the Second Year in a row

September 9, 2021

Shenandoah President Tracy Fitzsimmons, Ph.D., is among eight local leaders who have earned a spot in Virginia Business Magazine’s Virginia 500 List.

The Virginia 500, which is in its second year, is a list of the state’s most powerful and influential leaders in business, government, politics and education, as determined by the editorial team for Virginia Business.

This recognition really belongs to all of the amazing people with whom I work, interact and learn from every day at Shenandoah. I’m humbled and honored to be in great company, as several of the Northern Shenandoah Valley’s local leaders have also made the list, as have the CEOs of our two major health care partners. These fellow community leaders make Virginia a wonderful place to live, work, learn and thrive.”
Dr. Tracy Fitzsimmons

This is Dr. Fitzsimmons’ second year on the list.

To determine who makes the cut, the editorial team factored in a person’s newsworthiness, community involvement, diversity, number of employees (in Virginia and worldwide) and how large a presence the organization has in the commonwealth.

According to the publication, “During the pandemic, SU saw its highest enrollment ever, continued in-person instruction uninterrupted and experienced no layoffs, furloughs or salary cuts. The university’s pharmacy school developed a COVID-19 saliva test to randomly sample asymptomatic students, and the pharmacy faculty sequenced samples to identify variants. The school also hosted a mass vaccination site, providing more than 70,000 shots.”

Other Winchester-area individuals included on the list are: