CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA – (September 10, 2020) The University of Virginia Darden School of Business and the Focused Ultrasound Foundation have partnered on an innovative new fellowship program. The Darden Focused Ultrasound Fellowship will offer young professionals a dynamic career start in a cutting-edge therapeutic technology organization and guaranteed admission to the full-time Darden MBA program.
The Fellowship provides a paid position to a college graduate who has been admitted to the Darden School through its Future Year Scholars program. This allows graduating undergraduate students or those pursuing a fifth-year master’s degree the opportunity to secure admission to a future Darden MBA class and gain two to four years of professional work experience before matriculating.
The inaugural Darden Focused Ultrasound Fellow has been awarded to Camille Favero, who recently graduated from UVA with a double major in Cognitive Science and Drama. She was also a scholarship athlete on the women’s tennis team.
“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. “Furthermore, this provides a unique and prodigious opportunity to prepare for my enrollment at Darden.”
Favero and future Darden Focused Ultrasound Fellows 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 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 Foundation was created in 2006 to expedite the development and adoption of focused ultrasound.
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 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.”
Neal F. Kassell, MD, founder and chairman of the Focused Ultrasound Foundation, said, “Camille joins a distinguished list of global scholars. 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.”
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, PhD, 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.
About the Focused Ultrasound Foundation
The Focused Ultrasound Foundation was created to improve the lives of millions of people worldwide by accelerating the development of this noninvasive technology. The Foundation works to clear the path to global adoption by organizing and funding research, fostering collaboration, and building awareness among patients and professionals. Since its establishment in 2006, the Foundation has become the largest nongovernmental source of funding for focused ultrasound research.