Sentara wins 9 Healthcare Heroes awards for 2026 in annual competition

Sentara Health took home a record nine Healthcare Heroes awards for exceptional programs and people in an annual competition sponsored by Virginia Media, publishers of The Virginian-Pilot, Daily Press, Virginia Gazette, and Inside Business newspapers. The competition is a rare opportunity for area health systems to showcase their best and brightest, innovative programs, and life-changing events.

The awards included a unique collaboration between the Sentara Simulation Center and a nonprofit that trains service dogs, a Sentara sustainability initiative, and a Sentara plastic surgeon who used a patient’s toe to replace his severed thumb.

A Mutts with a Mission service dogs visits the Sentara Simulation Center.

The Sentara Simulation Center in Chesapeake, Virginia, did a first-time collaboration with Mutts with a Mission, a nonprofit that trains service dogs for disabled veterans and first responders. Dogs and handlers met with Sentara nurses in simulated hospital rooms for clinical visits. Dogs watched strangers put hands on their handlers and heard unfamiliar clinical noises. It was a successful test of training and temperament, and it won’t be the last.

Dr. Manas Nigam

Dr. Manas Nigam, Sentara plastic and reconstructive surgeon, was presented with a young construction worker whose left thumb was smashed by a falling steel beam. Reattachment was impossible. A prosthesis would make it hard to return to work. Nigam surgically removed the second toe on the man’s right foot and fashioned a fully functional thumb. After months of rehabilitation and hand therapy, the patient has rejoined his traveling construction company full time.

Dr. Deepak Talreja (left) and Jeff Geraci

Jeff Geraci had the good fortune to suffer a widowmaker heart attack and crash his car outside the office of Sentara Chief of Cardiology Dr. Deepak Talreja, who ran outside and performed CPR until emergency medical services arrived. Jeff received a cardiac catheterization and a stent and lived to tell the tale. Dr. Talreja won a Healthcare Heroes award for emergency response.

Lisa Darger

Lisa Darger came to Sentara as its first director of sustainability, with a mandate to reduce the company’s carbon footprint. She has successfully led efforts to reduce emissions of an ozone-damaging inhaled anesthetic, reduced plastic and paper waste by tens of thousands of pounds and earned awards for sewage discharge permit compliance from the Hampton Roads Sanitation District.

Lavinia Smith (red dress) and Sentara team members at the opening of a new housing and treatment program for mothers with substance abuse issues.

Lavinia Smith, senior director of government programs with Sentara Health Plans, saw that Native Americans and other marginalized community members were not taking full advantage of behavioral health and substance abuse benefits for Medicaid members in Virginia, due to awareness and access issues. She helped create a Tribal Care Coordinator position and hire longtime social worker Vincent Jones, a member of the Tuscarora people. ‘It’s a dream to be able to do this work,” Jones said. Smith also helped create a Justice Coordinator post to help former inmates access care.

Harold Farley

Harold Farley watched the Sentara Brock Cancer Center in Norfolk, Virginia, being built. He drove by the construction site every day on his way to the cemetery next door to visit his wife Carolyn’s grave. After the Brock Center opened, the 30-year Navy veteran survived prostate cancer as a patient there. Then, he was inspired to volunteer. At 84, Farley is now a fixture at the Brock Center and the program’s longest serving volunteer. A former patient brought Farley a U.S. Navy coffee mug filled with candy to thank him for helping her navigate the facility during her treatment. “Without a doubt this is the most gratifying thing I've ever done, being able to give back,” he said.

Kevin Johnson

Kevin Johnson was frustrated at the lack of a support group for men with cancer. The men-don’t-talk ethos is not for him. With co-leader Jim Edmondson, Johnson founded a Hampton Roads chapter of the national Man Up to Cancer program, with support from the Sentara Brock Cancer Center. The group has grown from eight men to 36 and climbing. They meet to provide a sounding board and emotional support during and after cancer. Johnson won a Healthcare Heroes award for volunteering with the group. “The reason I’m passionate is because…I’ve seen what this group does for them,” Johnson said. “It gives them hope.”

Samantha Mallory (left)

Samantha Mallory was opening Christmas gifts with her family in their Suffolk, Virginia, home when they heard two loud bangs outside. An SUV had struck a power pole, plowed into a dental office across the street, and caught fire. The Sentara College of Health Sciences nursing student dashed barefoot to the scene, reached into the open window and pulled out the driver. They crawled away from the flames just as firefighters arrived. For her selfless heroism, Mallory received a Healthcare Heroes award in the nursing student category, which the judges created just for her.

Shola Ilogho

A coworker nominated Sentara Norfolk General Hospital Physician Assistant/Hospitalist Shola Ilogho for her passionate commitment to quality care, education for future providers, and community service. Dr. Ilogho supports the hospital’s Level I trauma program and cares for the most vulnerable patients. She participates in multidisciplinary rounds, medical response teams, and quality and safety initiatives. Dr. Ilogho helped pioneer a system-wide advanced practice provider mentorship program, ensuring that new providers receive guidance, support, and professional development, which strengthens workforce retention and enhances patient safety and outcomes. As assistant professor at Eastern Virginia Medical School, she trains the next generation of physician assistants and serves as a clinical preceptor. The nomination cited her “visionary leadership, compassionate service, and steadfast advocacy, which have made a profound and lasting impact on patients, colleagues, students, and communities.”

An annual awards breakfast honoring this year’s Healthcare Heroes winners is scheduled for Monday, March 30, at the Westin Town Center in Virginia Beach, Virginia. The winners will appear in a special section of Inside Business, which will be published that day.

Sentara Health appreciates this long-running opportunity offered by Virginia Media to showcase the extraordinary people and impactful programs that characterize the Sentara mission to improve health every day.