Transforming UVA Health Through Darden Leadership Insights

Dr. Juliana Bueno, a physician and educator originally from Colombia, is a Thoracic Radiologist and the Vice Chair of Education at UVA Health. Driven by curiosity, compassion and a commitment to lifelong learning, she pursued Darden Executive Education & Lifelong Learning's Certificate in Leadership & Management to intentionally strengthen her leadership skills and broaden her impact.

Q. Tell us more about your career journey.

I completed my medical and residency training in Colombia before going to Duke University for a clinical fellowship. I was hired at UVA Health 13 years ago, starting my career as an assistant professor and progressing to professor. In addition to patient care, I'm passionate about education, so I got involved with students and resident education, started the global health leadership track in Radiology and built my career around education. During the last eight years, I have been in the leadership of our residency program, training radiologists as Program Director, before stepping into my current role as Vice Chair of Education, where I oversee all our educational programs in my department.

Q. What made you decide to pursue leadership development programs at Darden?

As physicians, we are community leaders, but we don't receive much formal leadership training in medical school or residency. I looked to Darden because I wanted to tap into the broader UVA academic community and learn from other schools, knowing that Darden’s reputation as an educational institution is at the top in the country. After researching my options, I started with Darden’s Women in Leadership Program.

Q. What did you take away from the Women in Leadership Program?

The Women in Leadership Program gave me a community of like-minded people from diverse industries; regardless of our fields, I realized the challenges in leadership were similar and I could learn from their experience as well. In my specialty, we are less than 25% women, so I loved the opportunity to connect with other women leaders to fine tune my skills to tackle the unique challenges women face in leadership positions.

Q. What prompted you to pursue your Certificate in Leadership & Management?

During the Women in Leadership Program, I learned I could complete four programs to earn my certificate. At that point in my career, I was getting involved with more leadership roles with the residency program, had a leadership role in the area of diversity and inclusion, and was offered a role to work with the EVP of UVA Health in an institutional initiative. I saw the certificate as an opportunity to continue learning in an area I loved and make the most of the resources that an academic institution such as UVA offers, while applying the skills in the activities I am involved.

Q. What other programs did you choose for your certificate?

The second program I pursued was Servant Leadership: Leading with Humanity. This was an incredible program for realizing how leadership requires us to understand ourselves, our communication style, and how we use our skills to serve others. Next was Leading Teams for Growth and Change. This came at the perfect time because the institution was going through significant change and I was dealing with big decisions and challenges in my department. It taught me how I could tackle these decisions from a different perspective – how to negotiate with people, how to present proposals and how to keep your team working together toward a common goal. I especially loved the rowing experience of this program — it showed how small individual actions impact others in your team and how each position offers a different and valuable perspective that contributes to a greater goal. The final program was Collaboration and Influence. It was a digital program but was still impactful. Darden introduced an AI component that allows you to practice real-time engagement, and the content was presented in a very organized and clear format. This program was very helpful for tackling situations where influence is key and to understand how to leverage our resources when presenting proposals.

Q. What significance does the Certificate in Leadership and Management have to you and your journey as a leader?

The certificate serves as an endorsement that you have done the work and you have the skills. I believe everyone can learn the skills to lead and Darden teaches you how to use your individual assets to lead from your best self. It also means I am part of a larger learning community at UVA and reinforces my desire to give back to my institution through the application of those skills learned.

Q. How would you describe your experience with the faculty?

If there’s something that I admire and I wish we could emulate here in the medical field, it’s the way that Darden teaches. It’s so different from medicine where we are very individual in our learning. I enjoyed the case method and using the approach of sharing your opinion on the material and interacting with your peers. I loved how every single professor is so experienced and skilled at leading conversations and enrich the teaching sessions by including everyone’s opinion.

Q. How have you used your Darden experiences to grow in your roles and continue progressing in your field?

My Darden experiences gave me the skills to navigate difficult times, like leading my team through the isolation and demands of COVID, as well as leadership changes in my department and at UVA Health. During these challenges, we had to consider how people were dealing with their own situations at home while still being physicians that had high demands for performance. Darden gave me those skills to lead through that time and help my team move forward together to keep our mission going, while keeping myself grounded and confident through it all. In my academic career journey going from an assistant professor to the roles I hold today, it was possible because of those skills I acquired at Darden. I’ve been intentional with applying what I’ve learned and sharing it with others. My larger goal is to foster collaboration with Darden and other schools in our organization in a way that our physicians can get this essential leadership training that we need to use every day and enrich the learning experience of our graduate medical education community.

Q. What would you say to someone who’s considering leadership development?

It doesn’t matter what your field or position is — we are all leaders working with people and we require the skills to navigate difficult times, keep teams together and reach goals through collaboration. The more aware we are of the way we lead, interact with ourselves and others, and collaborate, the better we can lead a career that is more purposeful and help others to do the same.