Rachel Holloway honored with emerita status
Rachel Holloway, vice provost for undergraduate academic affairs at Virginia Tech, has been conferred the title of vice provost emerita by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors.
The emerita title may be conferred on retired faculty members who are specially recommended to the board by Virginia Tech President Tim Sands in recognition of exemplary service to the university. Nominated individuals who are approved by the board receive a copy of the resolution and a certificate of appreciation.
A member of the Virginia Tech community for more than 36 years, Holloway made significant contributions as a teacher, advisor, and mentor to hundreds of undergraduate and graduate students. She hasdistinguished herself and Virginia Tech through her research on political communication and issue management.
From 2002-09, she was head of what was then the Department of Communication in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, overseeing the creation of a new master’s degree in communication. In 2009, she was appointed as associate dean for undergraduate academic affairs in the college, offering guidance in undergraduate research, scholarship awards, and university initiatives.
Holloway received the 2025 Leadership Award from the Association for Undergraduate Education at Research Universities, the highest honor bestowed in recognition of her extraordinary volunteer service to the organization. Her leadership of a multiyear overhaul of the undergraduate general education curriculum culminated the launch of Pathways General Education, which is now the foundational academic experience shared by all undergraduates, who choose from a wide variety of courses to learn core concepts in thinking, reasoning, and analysis across the disciplines.
Throughout her career, Holloway’s mentorship and facilitation of conversations around student achievement has led to the vital role of academic advisors, academic counselors, and faculty in supporting undergraduates, and fostered the implementation of the Navigate platform to create a coordinated care network among advisors across the university.
Holloway received her bachelor’s degree in speech communication from Morehead State University and her master’s and doctoral degrees in public affairs and issue management from Purdue University.
Written by Emily Southern, a senior majoring in multimedia journalism and student writer for Virginia Tech Marketing and Communications
