About the Center

New technologies and global competition are forcing all organizations, large and small, to change. Accordingly investments in the educating, training, and retraining of Virginia’s workforce will have profound effects on the future of our economy. As one of the nation’s leaders in applied research, with nationally ranked programs in engineering, the sciences, business, and public affairs, Virginia Tech is uniquely qualified to assist in this effort.

Virginia Tech established the Center for Organizational and Technological Advancement in 1994 to foster economic development and workforce development initiatives with a special emphasis on connecting university research to the needs of Virginia’s industrial, commercial, governmental, academic, and professional organizations. The Center’s primary objective is to help Virginia’s organizations and citizens compete in an information-driven, global economy.

Projects and programs of the Center are administered through Outreach Program Development, an outreach service of Virginia Tech.

To enhance the program offerings and meet the needs of the commonwealth, Center fellowships are awarded periodically to distinguished scholars and practitioners who extend their knowledge to various external audiences. Center staff use a multidisciplinary perspective to focus university resources on specific, real world problems and areas where university expertise make a distinct contribution. Center staff are responsible for developing and implementing executive leadership and management development programs at The Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center (HRCC), in Roanoke, Va.

Current program areas include: University and Community Engagement, Environmental Management Systems, Smart Communities, and Virginia School Leaders Institute.

The Center also administers a small grant program to support program development and conferences at the HRCC.

childersDr. Jeri L. Childers, Center Director
Dr. Jeri L. Childers is the director of Outreach Program Development and the director of the Center for Organizational and Technological Advancement at Virginia Tech. In that role, she provides leadership for Virginia Tech's engagement activities for the Center for Organizational and Technological Advancement, Continuing and Professional Education, the English Language Institute, the Fine Arts Initiative, the Service-Learning Center, Upward Bound/Talent Search, and Virginia Tech's programs delivered in the National Capital Region, at the Inn at Virginia Tech Conference Center, and at the Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center. Last year, Outreach Program Development offered 450 programs, impacting the lives of more than 35,000 participants.

Childers has been working in outreach and continuing education since 1986. Prior to joining Virginia Tech in 2004, she worked for the Pennsylvanian State University and the University of Missouri-Columbia. Over her 11 year tenure at Penn State, Childers served as the director of Workforce Development, director of Outreach Program Development, and the assistant dean for Continuing and Distance Education in the Smeal College of Business. She also launched the first Outreach Scholarship Conference at Penn State in 1999, serving as the conference chair until 2004. Her research interests include organizational, economic, and community development, continuing professional education, leadership in higher education, and university engagement.

Childers has served as guest editor of the Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement, and has authored a number of articles on outreach scholarship and engagement, international programs development, and continuing education. She currently serves on the executive committee of the National Association of State Land-Grant University and College Council on Engagement and Outreach. She also serves as the chair of the University Continuing Education Association Outreach and Engagement Community of Practice and is responsible for launching an online database of Promising Practices in Engagement. In addition, she serves as a member of the Higher Education Network of Community Engagement and the 2008 Emerging Scholars Conference, which is held in conjunction with the Outreach Scholarship Conference.