From the Dean

Oct. 7, 2026

Dear Alumni and Friends,

There has never been a better time to be a Spider — especially one with ties to the Jepson School! When ranking the University of Richmond among the nation’s top liberal arts colleges, the Fiske Guide to Colleges, Princeton Review, and U.S. News & World Report consistently mention the Jepson School of Leadership Studies. 

This is our time to build on the University’s and the school’s momentum. Last week, the University launched Accelerate Richmond, its most ambitious fundraising campaign to date. The campaign will focus on four pillars: access and affordability, academic excellence, educating students for lives of purpose, and athletics.

Jepson students regularly focus on the first three pillars. This summer, for example, students who enrolled in the Jepson at Cambridge Program took law classes at the University of Cambridge. Others conducted research, including two who accompanied Jepson’s Dr. Lauren Henley to New Orleans to research the case of a 1907 kidnapping-turned-murder.

Also, this summer, nearly 70 seniors completed their credit-bearing Jepson internships, including 31 who were supported by Burrus Fellowships. Even as we mourned the July 12 passing of former McGuireWoods LLP chairman Robert L. Burrus Jr., we celebrated his legacy, which will live on, in part, through the fellowship program named in his honor. Since 2002, the Burrus Fellowship Program has supported nearly 400 Jepson students.

Now with the fall semester well underway, the Jepson School is brimming with activity. We welcomed audiences to our kick-off Jepson Leadership Forum and McDowell Institute public lectures last month. This week, alumni HR professionals shared job application and interview tips with seniors in our internship class. A group of four students is preparing to compete in the International Leadership Association Student Case Competition in Toronto at the end of the month. And we have begun to plan for the school’s 35th anniversary, to be celebrated next fall!

I hope many of you will return to campus Oct. 23-25 for what is sure to be a fun-filled Homecoming Weekend. Also, please nominate a Jepson graduate for an alumni award, to be given during the Jepson EDGE Institute in February.

In the meantime, enjoy the fall issue of The Jepson Update, which includes stories about alumni and students who are leading lives of purpose!

Warm regards, 

Sandra J. Peart
Dean and E. Claiborne Robins Distinguished Professor in Leadership Studies
President, Jepson Scholars Foundation