Alumni/ae Spotlight

Sheryl L. Garland (MHA ‘88)
Vice President, Community Outreach
Vice President, Ambulatory Care Services
Virginia Commonwealth University Health System

Over the last seventeen years, Sheryl Garland, currently the Virginia Commonwealth University Health System (VCUHS) Vice President for Community Outreach, has helped the VCUHS become the quality healthcare service provider that it is today. VCU Health System recently received, for the second year in a row, a National Research Corporation Consumer Choice Award for providing quality healthcare services, based on an independent survey of central Virginia residents.

Sheryl started her health care career with the Medical College of Virginia Hospitals (MCVH), as an Administrative Assistant in the Cost Accounting Department while still a student in the VCU Department of Health Administration (HAD) MHA Program. She served as MCVH’s Administrative Resident (under the direction of Peter Rapp, then COO and Carl Fischer, CEO of the Hospital).

After her residency, Sheryl continued with MCVH in various planning and strategic development and ambulatory care roles. By September of 1995, Sheryl was well versed in what helps an urban based academic medical center survive in a competitive market and environment where outpatient services are of increasing importance and in greater demand. Starting up and heading up the MCV Hospitals & Physicians Office of Ambulatory Care Services (OACS), Sheryl provided credibility and support to the hospitals’ and physicians’ ambulatory clinical practices, guided the practices through accreditation reviews, and negotiated, developed and managed many outpatient based initiatives such as the management contract with the Richmond City Department of Public Health clinical services programs and case management services for uninsured patients.

With the creation of the VCUHS in July 2000, Sheryl continued and expanded upon her OACS initiatives as VCUHS’s Vice President, Ambulatory Care Services, coordinating systems that support all of VCUHS’s outpatient services, over 500,000 outpatient visits per year. She also developed and implemented the Virginia Coordinated Care for the Uninsured (VCC) program, a program which has enrolled and coordinated health care services for approximately 14,000 uninsured patients living in the Greater Richmond Metropolitan, and is the Principle Investigator for a $1.1 million HRSA Community Access Program grant to support the development of a web-based patient information system.

In October 2002, Sheryl also became the VCUHS’s Vice President for Community Outreach. In this role, Sheryl continues to develop and implement initiatives to support the care of uninsured and underinsured populations who access healthcare services within VCUHS. She establishes partnerships with community based agencies to enhance the outreach goals of VCU and the VCUHS, and continues to develop programs which utilize and enhance federal, state and private revenue streams for patient care activities of the VCUHS.
Sheryl’s hard work has not gone unnoticed. Among numerous awards, Sheryl has been named the Richmond YMCA’s Outstanding Woman of the Year, Health and Science (2000) and the American College of Healthcare Executives Regent’s Early Career Healthcare Executive Award (1994).

Sheryl is a strong supporter of HAD, participating in third year oral comprehensives, hiring students and program graduates for part-time employment, and taking part in other alumni/ae events. She also enjoys spending time with her husband, Chris, and their two daughters, Christian (11) and Cameran (7). HAD is proud Sheryl is an alumna of our MHA Program, and wishes her continued career success as she tackles her new Community Outreach responsibilities.