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"My role at UVA Health is such a nice balance with my creative life."

Of course, UVA Health team members showcase professional expertise in their roles to support our mission of transforming health and inspiring hope for all Virginians and beyond.

But what skills do some of our colleagues display outside work? In the latest installment of this series, we're featuring the Hidden Talents of two UVA Health team members who also are putting pen to paper (or a mouse to a laptop), outside of work, one page at a time:

Wordsmith

By day, Mollie Bryan is a Staff Writer for UVA Health Development Communications, and previously, a Strategic Communications Specialist for UVA Health Office of Strategic Marketing and Communications — but much of the rest of the time, she’s a published author of 30 novels and two cookbooks. 

“I’ve always done my own writing outside of work,” she explains. “It fills my need for creativity. But it’s almost impossible for most authors to make a living from publishing books. So I need to work, but it’s also important to me that my UVA Health role involves writing something I can feel good about!” 

Bryan adds that at UVA Health Development Communications, she’s “fortunate enough to write stories about grateful patients who become generous donors; dedicated and talented researchers and physicians; and events that benefit the community. I help spread the news about all the ways UVA Health makes a difference though patient care and philanthropy. And I get to do it with an incredible, supportive, mission-driven team!” 

Turning the Page 

Bryan earned a bachelor’s degree from Pittsburgh’s Point Park University in journalism and communications, and later worked for nonprofits and membership associations, and freelanced for major news outlets including NPR. 

In her spare time, Bryan whipped up cookbooks: fan favorites “Mrs. Rowe’s Restaurant Cookbook: A Lifetime of Recipes From the Shenandoah Valley” and “Mrs. Rowe’s Little Book of Southern Pie.” Then she wrote “cozy mysteries,” which, as she describes, “contain no graphic violence and the sleuth is an amateur.” Bryan also penned “sweet” romance novellas.

Now, she's writing historical mysteries, starring Eliza Hamilton (yes, Founding Father Alexander’s wife!). Her next book, “The Widow Hamilton,” is the second in the series and launches in February 2026.  

Bryan also writes under several pen names — from Mollie Cox Bryan to Mollie Ann Cox to Maggie Blackburn.

And she publishes her own e-newsletter, meets her fans at conferences, speaks on literature panels, is a guest on podcasts, and teaches writing classes. “I’ve been a storyteller since I could talk,” Bryan recalls. “I guess storytelling is just a part of my DNA!”

GoodRead(s) 

Another author in our midst holds an apt name for the role: Sara Read, MSN, RN, is a Nurse Residency Program Coordinator, Nursing Professional Development Services (NPDS), UVA Health University Medical Center. She previously worked at the Infusion Center, and prior to that, in Labor and Delivery (L&D).  

Read earned a bachelor’s degree in women’s studies from University of California Santa Cruz. Moving across the country to Virginia, she became a flute maker’s apprentice and a traditional fiddle player!

Then she earned her MS in Nursing Clinical Nurse Leader from UVA School of Nursing, where later, Read served as adjunct faculty for several years.  

“I’ve always been a writer, but it wasn’t until about 2014 that I finally was able to tackle writing a novel,” she recalls. “I was working night shift in L&D ... and in my downtime, I started writing scenes and bits of dialogue and description. The main character of my first published novel sort of burst into my consciousness and demanded that I tell her story!”  

Paper Trail 

Read has two novels published with an imprint of HarperCollins: “Johanna Porter Is Not Sorry,” about a soccer mom who rediscovers her past as a rising star artist; and “Principles of (E)motion,” about a prodigy mathematician.  

Now, she’s working on the first draft of “sort of a tribute to Jane Eyre but set in the 1990s rock scene.” And as an author, she’s taking on a pen name: Sarah Henrik, to keep some distance between her professional and creative identities, she explains.

“Perhaps what I love most about writing is how real my fictional worlds become — how I can live entirely other lives, get to know other people, live in other places through my own imagination. It’s sort of like what people love about reading, times-infinity!”  

Read adds: “My role at UVA Health is such a nice balance with my creative life. I get to educate and mentor nurses in their first year of practice. I was a nursing professor at Piedmont Virginia Community College for several years, and I think being an educator is really in my DNA. I’ve also really been impressed by the current leadership of nursing at UVA Health. There seems to be a real willingness to support change and innovation. And there's great support for new grad nurses!”

Catch other installments in the series:
○ Honing Their Crafts: Photographer, painters, and doll/mouse house and balloon sculpture makers! "Healing is about more than medicine — it’s about the human spirit."
○ Live From Charlottesville: These UVA Health team members also are broadcasters, calling all the shots and hitting all the right notes. Tune in!
 
Got (a Hidden) Talent?
Do you, as a UVA Health team member, have a hidden talent? Or does a UVA Health colleague you know have one? If so, contact Connect to be considered for a future installment in this series!