“Calm, Quiet, Intentional” Veteran Staffer Diane Washington Celebrated for Excellence
Executive assistant Diane Washington—who, in 2025, marked 36 years of service to UVA—was chosen for the 2025 Lincoln Lewis Staff Recognition Award by the Black Faculty and Staff Employee Resource Group. She was honored April 24 at an event organized by the UVA Department of Diversity and Community Engagement that gathered dozens at the UVA Equity Center.
The award is named for late UVA education professor Lincoln Lewis, who died in 2014, after a lengthy career at UVA, Cornell, and Yale Universities. Each year, the award honors a University staff member who “actively and enthusiastically seeks to promote greater diversity to the UVA community” and “demonstrates a record of promoting forward thinking and new ideas.”
Washington’s nominators call her “tireless” in her pursuit of innovative ideas and said she’s “made a lasting impact on our community and inspires those around her to think critically, act inclusively, and lead with integrity."
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Across her more than 14 years at the School of Nursing, Washington served as executive assistant to dean emeriti Dorrie K. Fontaine and Pamela Cipriano, as well as assistant to Marianne Baernholdt, the Pew Charitable Trusts Dean and Professor. In her current role as executive assistant for School initiatives and support, she collaborates with faculty and staff from the academic operations enterprise to the Compassionate Care Initiative, the Office of Strategic Wellness and Opportunity, and the School’s awards and recognition committee.
Washington’s nominators call her “tireless” in her pursuit of innovative ideas and said she’s “made a lasting impact on our community and inspires those around her to think critically, act inclusively, and lead with integrity.” They cited her constant efforts to show up at events, whether or not she is responsible for them, greet outsiders, including donors and other stakeholders, with genuine warmth and friendship, and take on additional work to move the School forward, and “go beyond the call of duty in her pursuit of excellence.”
An alumna of UVA with a degree in sociology who arrived at the University in 1985, Washington’s professional career took her to the private sector for just four years when she worked for the chief financial officer of Southern Health, a managed care company. But the Nelson County native said she “always wanted to retire from UVA,” which runs in her family’s blood.
“Half of my family are UVA employees,” she said. “That’s what small rural area work life is like: we look for stability and good benefits. Credibility and integrity are our footprints.”
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