Shane Soto took over as interim director at the Hampton VA Healthcare System at the end of March, according to a spokesman for the VA. He comes from the VA in San Antonio, Texas. As an interim appointment, his tenure is expected to last 120 days.
Leadership changes at the local VA look like a game of musical chairs, since Director Taquisa Simmons was removed in 2024 after a series of blistering VA Inspector General's reports questioning the quality of care at the VA hospital in Hampton.
She was replaced by interim director Walt Dannenberg, who returned to the VA in Long Beach, California, in March, 2025. He was succeeded by Michael Harper, the director of operations at Hampton, who came to the VA after retiring from the Navy following a 20-year career.
“After 38 years of combined military and federal service, Mr. Harper voluntarily retired as Associate Director on April 11 to pursue a private sector opportunity,” said John G. Rogers, the public affairs officer for the Hampton VA Healthcare System in a statement.
In the last year, the local VA has seen employees cut by President Donald Trump’s DOGE commission, and then reinstated.
The North Battlefield Clinic in Chesapeake opened in April 2025 with less than a third of its staff. The clinic still had not reached full staff in January, as VA Secretary Doug Collins promised during the ground breaking ceremony.
Harper acknowledged the challenges the VA has faced during a March 2025 employee town hall.
“We're doing everything in our power to limit how that affects the care we deliver and make sure that we're still delivering time to care for all the veterans, " Harper said.
Aside from the director, currently all of the top officials at the Hampton VA system are temporary appointments including Interim Associate Director of Operations Lori Fox, Interim Chief of Staff Kenneth C. Goldberg and Acting Associate Director of Patient Care Services Tina McClendon.
“It feels like we're being set up to fail,” said Stacy Shorter, president of American Federation of Government Employees Local 2328, which represents employees at the Hampton VA.
“The fact that they won't give us consistent leadership, the fact that they won't give us adequate staffing, the fact that they won't give us adequate resources, and they're just piling more and more and more on to the staff that we have left.”
