The University’s top three highest-paid employees include University President Scott Beardsley, Jim Ryan, tenured Law professor and former University president, and Mitchell Rosner, U.Va. Health chief executive officer. According to data obtained by The Cavalier Daily through a Freedom of Information Act request, Beardsley, Ryan and Rosner collectively earn $4.14 million for fiscal year 2026 — which was effective Jan. 1.
All but one salary included in the obtained data is above $1000, and in total, the University’s payroll is over $2.2 billion. There are 25,600 individuals on the payroll with jobs including, but not limited to, tenure-line faculty members, pharmacy technicians, bus drivers, administrative operations employees and research associates.
The average for CEOs of non-profit health systems across the United States — which includes Rosner — is approximately $1.3 million, according to a study by Rice University in 2019. Eight public university presidents in the United States had salaries exceeding $1 million in 2025.
Rosner earns $1.63 million, Beardsley earns $1.30 million and Ryan earns $1.21 million.
Top 10 highest-paid University employees
In sum, the University’s top 10 highest-paid employees make approximately $10.1 million, which is approximately 4.5 percent of the total payroll.
The employees earning the 10 highest salaries — in descending order — include Rosner, Beardsley, Ryan, Paul Mahoney, tenure-line faculty member and former interim president, Jennifer Davis, executive vice president and chief operating officer, clinician physician Philip Smith, Vice President of Advancement Mark Matthew Luellen, Stephanie Schnittger, Chief Financial Officer of U.Va. Health, Christa Acampora, dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and three employees earning the same salary for the tenth highest-paid position — Jason Lineen, U.Va. Health Chief Strategy Officer, Mark Esser, chief scientific officer and head of the Manning Institute of Biotechnology, and Presidential Darden Prof. Michael Lenox.
The top 5 percent of earners at the University earn 15.1 percent of the total payroll, and the bottom 50 percent of earners at the University earn 30 percent of the total payroll. The top 10 percent of earners make 45.4 percent of the total payroll, and 27 employees of the University earn over $500,000 for FY2026.
Beardsley earns a starting salary approximately $500,000 higher than Ryan’s in 2018
The University president is consistently one of the highest earners of all University employees, but Beardsley — who assumed office Jan. 1 — has a much higher starting salary compared to Ryan’s starting salary, from when he was hired by the Board of Visitors in 2018.
Ryan earned a base salary of $750,000 in FY2018 upon assuming office, and his contract stated he could earn up to $100,000 per year in bonuses. In 2024, Ryan’s base salary was raised to $912,200, and in 2025, his salary was raised again to $1.1 million. However, in June 2025, Ryan resigned following pressure from the Justice Department regarding what they claimed was noncompliance with dissolving diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
In comparison, Beardsley’s starting salary for FY2026 is $1.3 million. Beardsley additionally received a signing bonus of $125,000, and according to his contract, he is eligible for annual bonuses of up to $250,000.
CEO and executive vice president of U.Va. Health receives highest University salary
Rosner, with the highest University salary for FY2026, earns approximately the amount former U.Va. Health CEO Craig Kent earned in 2024 — Kent’s last full year before resigning. Kent assumed his position in 2020 and his starting salary was $950,000. He earned just over $1 million in 2022 and in 2024, his salary was again increased to $1.6 million.
Following Kent’s resignation, Rosner served as interim U.Va. Health CEO and assumed the permanent position in September 2025 with a salary of $1.63 million.
Kent resigned following a letter of no confidence in September 2024 from 128 health-affiliated employees. The signatories asserted Kent and Melina Kibbe, former School of Medicine dean, had allowed “egregious acts” to persist within the health system and a later 239-page report revealed allegations that Kent and Kibbe hired unqualified surgeons and turned patients away from the emergency department.
Health CEOs and presidents at peer universities receive comparable salaries to Rosner. Johnese Spisso, University of California, Los Angeles, Health president and CEO of the UCLA Health hospital system, earns $2.1 million. UNC Health’s CEO earned a base salary of $2.3 million in 2023, Michigan Medicine’s CEO earned a base salary of $1.64 million in 2023 and UT Southwestern Medical Center’s president earned $2.5 million in 2023.
Faculty salaries
There are 1,551 members of General Faculty — non-tenure-track faculty members — on the University’s FY2026 payroll, and there are 3,653 members of total faculty, including tenured and non-tenured members.
Within the FY2026 payroll, 672 individuals are employed as “temps,” or temporary employees. These roles can be full or part-time, and the average pay is $35,887. Additionally, within the payroll of 25,600 employees, 1,551 individuals earn salaries below $30,000 — which reflect a mix of student employees and other part-time workers.
According to the FOIA data, on average, a University faculty member earns an annual salary of $144,240 for FY2026. Members of the General Faculty make, on average, $106,387, or just approximately $38,000 less than all faculty averaged together.
Additionally, the third highest paid employee at the University is a faculty member — Ryan — making $1.2 million.
Faculty members can reach tenured status, which comes with a higher salary, by completing a successful multi-year probationary period that may not exceed seven years as an assistant professor. In addition, candidates for tenured status are reviewed for their research, service, publications and peer review, among other work. The decision moves through several levels — a department, school and University-wide review with the provost before final approval. There are 1,915 tenured faculty at the University as of FY2026.
According to data from the American Association of University Professors, University salary trends demonstrate a 3 to 5 percent increase each year, which is due to state funding, the University’s endowment and demand for top talent.
Nationally, U.S. public university professors for the year 2023-2024 made approximately $127,000 for full professors, $95,000 for associate professors and $83,000 for assistant professors, showing that University salaries are on par with higher education institutions across the country. However, data from the National Education Association shows that average salaries vary widely by state, institution and discipline.
Student-held jobs on Grounds
Several student-held jobs are also included in the data obtained via The Cavalier Daily’s FOIA, given the salary was above $1000 for FY2026.
The University's Federal Work-Study program is one way in which students can hold jobs on or off Grounds — students’ earnings from these jobs go towards financial aid. Participating students are eligible to earn between $1,000 and $4,000 per year, and students are automatically considered for the program if their completed documents — including FAFSA — show they qualify for need-based aid.
According to the FWS website, students typically work between eight and 15 hours per week when school is in session. Paychecks are directly deposited to a student’s bank account, but it is the student’s responsibility to report all taxable earnings as earned income from need-based employment programs.
Many students are also employed through the University’s health system, holding jobs including certified nurse assistants, pharmacy technicians, medical assistants and lab assistants. Students often work part-time, as temps or as wage employees — they work for an hourly rate rather than earning a fixed salary for up to 20 hours per week.
Editor’s note: R Markdown software was used to formulate the graphs included in this article.
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