Martha Jefferson Hospital Foundation

Martha Jefferson Hospital Foundation

The Martha Jefferson Hospital Foundation, established in 1986, channels philanthropic capital into Sentara Martha Jefferson Hospital and the surrounding Charlottesville community. Blair K. Williamson chairs the board, while President Kimberly Skelly runs day-to-day operations. The foundation's origin ties directly to the hospital's mission — it was created to build a permanent endowment supporting patient care, staff development, and regional health initiatives across central Virginia. The foundation deploys capital across a notably broad strategy for its size: venture, buyout, fund-of-funds, and secondaries, spanning early-stage to expansion. In practice, much of this activity supports hospital-aligned real estate and community infrastructure. The foundation holds the Sentara Martha Jefferson Hospital campus at 500 Martha Jefferson Drive and strategic expansion land at South Pantops Drive and State Farm Boulevard. It also manages the hospital's art collection, with named installations including Freedom, Aelous, and Polarity on the first floor. Community partnerships extend to the Piedmont Family YMCA's Early Learning Center and Local Food Hub's Free Fresh Farm Stands, reflecting a blending of direct investment, grantmaking, and operational partnership rare among hospital foundations of this scale. With an estimated $43 million in assets, the foundation operates with a lean team anchored by Skelly and a board chaired by Williamson, who also leads S.L. Williamson Company, a Charlottesville-based asphalt and construction firm. The foundation maintains ties to Sentara Healthcare, its parent organization, and counts Berkshire Hathaway investment manager Ted Weschler among its notable supporters. It holds membership in the Louisa County Chamber of Commerce through Vice Chair Jennifer DuBois, signaling ongoing engagement with the broader business community. The foundation's structural distinction lies in its hybrid posture: it functions simultaneously as a traditional hospital foundation raising funds for equipment and programs, a real asset holder managing hospital campus property, and an investment entity deploying an endowment across private markets. This triple mandate — philanthropy, real estate stewardship, and institutional investing — shapes decision-making differently than a standalone foundation or a hospital's finance department operating in isolation.