Susan Short to head Outreach Program Development, Jeri Childers named Center for Organizational and Technological Advancement Fellow
Susan E. Short, formerly director of the Virginia Tech Roanoke Center, has been named to lead Outreach Program Development at Virginia Tech, a key area of Outreach and International Affairs that includes Continuing and Professional Education.
Short began her new duties Sept. 14, said Vice President for Outreach and International Affairs John Dooley. “Susan’s dynamic leadership style, which she has demonstrated for the past five years in Roanoke, is just what Outreach Program Development needs as it moves forward in a time of expected rapid growth,” Dooley said. “Outreach Program Development touches the lives of literally tens of thousands of people in Virginia and beyond.”
In addition to Continuing and Professional Education, Outreach Program Development also includes the Virginia Tech Language and Culture Institute and the Roanoke-based Center for Organizational and Technological Advancement. The center was established more than a decade ago to provide executive training and to connect university research to the needs of Virginia’s business, government, and professional sectors.
Short replaces Jeri Childers, who joined Virginia Tech in 2004. Childers has been named a Center for Organizational and Technological Advancement Fellow. In her new role, she will be responsible for developing executive educational programs to capitalize on the university’s growing presence in Roanoke.
“I am grateful for Jeri’s work during her tenure as director and look forward to her building a greater portfolio of [the center's] programs with an emphasis on expanding her work with higher education,” Dooley said. “The Engagement Academy for University Leaders, for instance, has attracted executives from universities across the country who are learning from the Virginia Tech model of community engagement.”
Childers’ assignment will also involve new programs connected to the Virginia Tech/Carilion partnership.
A national search is under way to recruit a new director for the Virginia Tech Roanoke Center, Dooley said.
