UVA Darden, Focused Ultrasound Foundation Partner on Innovative Fellowship Program

By Dave Hendrick

The University of Virginia Darden School of Business and the Charlottesville-based Focused Ultrasound Foundation have partnered on an innovative new fellowship program offering young professionals both a dynamic career start in a cutting-edge therapeutic technology company and guaranteed admission to the Darden full-time MBA program.

The Darden Focused Ultrasound Fellowship Program offers a full-time, paid fellowship to college graduates who have been admitted to the Darden School through its Future Year Scholars program, which allows graduating undergraduate students or those pursuing a fifth-year master’s degree the opportunity to apply and secure admission to a future Darden MBA class and gain two to four years of professional work experience before matriculating at Darden.

Any Future Year Scholar who has been admitted to Darden may apply for the fellowship program at any time before they enroll at Darden. It is expected that there will be roughly one fellow selected per year, and a typical fellowship will last two years. Darden provides career support opportunities to Future Year Scholars who seek it, with the fellowship the latest offering.

The Darden Focused Ultrasound Fellow will gain hands-on professional experience at the Focused Ultrasound Foundation in a number of potential avenues, exploring the business case for focused ultrasound therapies, researching in strategic areas and engaging in strategic consulting projects.

Focused ultrasound is a noninvasive therapeutic technology with the potential to transform the treatment of many medical disorders by using ultrasonic energy to target tissue deep in the body without incisions or radiation.

The first Darden Focused Ultrasound Fellow, Camille Favero (CLAS ’20), is currently working at the Focused Ultrasound Foundation.

The fellowship program is the latest chapter in the collaborative relationship between the Focused Ultrasound Foundation and UVA. In 2009, UVA and the Foundation dedicated the first Focused Ultrasound Center of Excellence — launching an institution-wide effort to identify, investigate, and translate new focused ultrasound applications into patient care. Since then, UVA researchers have helped develop image-guided focused ultrasound techniques in the lab, and UVA clinicians are using the technology to treat conditions such as Parkinson’s tremor and conducting first-ever clinical trials  combining focused ultrasound and cancer immunotherapy for treatment of solid tumors and breast cancer.

Favero, who recently graduated from UVA with a double major in Cognitive Science and Drama, said the fellowship would help further her personal and professional goals.

“This fellowship allows me to work, receive guidance, and collaborate in an organization that is at the forefront of innovation and lasting change for individuals worldwide,” said Favero, a scholarship athlete on the tennis team who earned several academic honors while at UVA. “Furthermore, this fellowship provides a unique and prodigious opportunity to prepare for my enrollment at the UVA Darden School of Business.”

Favero plans to work for the Focused Ultrasound Foundation for two years before joining Darden in the fall of 2022. She has already embarked on strategic consulting projects with the FUS Partners Program, an initiative critical to focused ultrasound becoming a mainstream standard of care for various disease indications through the commercialization of the technology.

“Darden is thrilled to partner with the Focused Ultrasound Foundation on this innovative fellowship program, and pleased to welcome Camille to Darden as a Future Year Scholar,” said Darden Dean Scott Beardsley, who also serves on the Focused Ultrasound Foundation Board of Directors. “I believe these fellowships will be an important bridge in the community and may help seed the next generation of leaders in the life sciences.”

“Camille joins a distinguished list of global scholars,” said Dr. Neal Kassell, founder and chair of the Focused Ultrasound Foundation. “In 2019 alone the Foundation selected 22 global scholars from 15 academic institutions pairing young student investigators with leading authorities in the focused ultrasound community.”

Learn more about the Future Year Scholars program.

About the University of Virginia Darden School of Business

The University of Virginia Darden School of Business delivers the world’s best business education experience to prepare entrepreneurial, global and responsible leaders through its MBA, Ph.D., MSBA and Executive Education programs. Darden’s top-ranked faculty is renowned for teaching excellence and advances practical business knowledge through research. Darden was established in 1955 at the University of Virginia, a top public university founded by Thomas Jefferson in 1819 in Charlottesville, Virginia.