Joined RVA757 Connects: 2021

Michael Rao became the fifth president of Virginia Commonwealth University and chair of the VCU Health System Authority Board in 2009. He is the first Asian-American president in the university’s history.

Rao leads a nationally premier, urban public research university with an academic health system whose flagship hospital, VCU Medical Center, is ranked among the top 100 hospitals in the nation. Under Rao’s leadership, VCU is among the top 50 universities in the United States for sponsored research.

U.S. News & World Report ranks several of VCU’s graduate programs in the top 50 in the nation. Consistently recognized for excellence, VCUarts’ sculpture program and the College of Health Profession’s nurse anesthesia program are ranked No. 1 in the U.S. Likewise, the university is a leader in addiction science, ranking No. 8 and No. 16 in NIH funding from the institutes devoted to alcohol and drug abuse, respectively.

VCU is designated as being “Community Engaged” with “Very High Research Activity'' by the Carnegie Foundation.