Lateef will serve as the Board’s chairman of the Board overseeing operations at UVA Prince William Medical Center in Manassas, UVA Haymarket Medical Center, outpatient clinics in our area, as well as other large UVA medical centers, UVA Medical Center in Charlottesville, and the School of Medicine and Nursing.
Lateef is a board-certified ophthalmologist and has owned Advanced Ophthalmology, Inc., since 2002, in Manassas and Woodbridge. He’s also served as the Prince William County School Board Chairman At-large since 2018, and he’s expected to seek another four-year term in 2023.
Lateef’s first meeting as chair of the Health System Board will be on September 15. He will be focused on maintaining operations in Charlottesville while expanding the university healthcare centers’ role in our area.
“This will largely be an oversight role and, we will ask, how does UVA grow in Prince William County and Northern Virginia, and keep doing the same great stuff we’re doing in Charlottesville and bring it up here,” Lateef told Potomac Local News.
Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe appointed Lateef to the UVA Board of Visitors in 2016.
“Dr. Lateef’s experience as a member of the Board of Visitors and the Health System Board, together with his practical background as a physician and owner of a large medical practice, makes him an excellent choice to serve as chair of the Health System Board,” said K. Craig Kent, MD, chief executive officer of UVA Health and executive vice president for health affairs at UVA in a press release. “I look forward to working with Dr. Lateef to help further our mission of transforming health and inspiring hope for all Virginians and beyond.”
Lateef earned his bachelor’s degree from Youngstown State University and his medical degree from Northeast Ohio Medical University. He completed his ophthalmology residency at the University of Rochester. Before being appointed chair of the Health System Board, he served as the committee’s vice chair and the Audit, Compliance, and Risk Committee chair.
UVA Health acquired Prince William, Haymarket, and Culpeper medical centers and a series of regional outpatient clinics last year from Novant, in North Carolina. UVA Health purchased Novant’s 60% share of the business, which it had operated under a joint agreement since 2016.
Lateef made headlines earlier this week when he posted to Twitter and then deleted the post, urging residents to “never forget” and “never forgive” false information provided by the government and public health officials and members of the press used to keep school buildings closed in 2020 and 2021 during the coronavirus pandemic.
The latest Standards of Learning test results show that only about half of the students are proficient in crucial subjects like reading, writing, science, and math. The scores continue to lag far behind test scores tabulated in 2019, before Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) became the first in the U.S. to close schools, shifting students to online learning at home.
