Faculty and Staff: Communications and Marketing Resources

AAEC Committees: Updated 12.4.2024

• Interim Department Head: George Davis
• Graduate Director: Chunbei Wang
  
• Undergraduate Director: Olga Massa
  
• Extension Director: John Bovay
• Faculty Senate Rep.: Catherine Larochelle
• Elections: Jen Friedel
  

Departmental Meetings

Gathering of faculty and staff
Departmental minutes

Governance (Last Term)

To act as a liaison between faculty, staff, and the department head and vice versa for the initiating and discussion of issues to be addressed by the faculty, staff, and department head.

• John Bovay (2025-2026)
• Jen Friedel (2025-2026)
• Olga Massa (2026-2027)
• Shamar Stewart (2026-2027)

Promotion and Tenure (Last Term)

To provide guidance, feedback, and evaluation for individuals seeking promotion and tenure within the university system.

• Vacant (Ex Officio CALS P&T)
• Mike Ellerbrock (2024-2025)
• Jason Grant (2026-2027)
• Brad Mills (2028-2029)
• Klaus Moeltner (2025-2026)
• Nancy Moseley
• Kurt Stephenson (2027-2028 Chair)

Activities

To develop and implement activities designed to increase social capital both within and outside of the department.

• Elinor Benami
• Pailin Chaiprasertsiti
• Anubhab Gupta
• Nicola Legrand
• Jennifer Shelton (Co-Chair)
• Kurt Stephenson (Co-Chair)
• Graduate Student Representative

Activities Committee minutes

Awards

To identify, recommend, and assist faculty, staff, students, and alumni in achieving recognition for contributions both internally and externally to Virginia Tech.

• Dixie Watts Dalton (Co-Chair)
• Amy Guerin
• Chanit'a Holmes
• Catherine Larochelle
• Nancy Moseley

InclusiveVT

To create a welcoming environment for all.

• Michael Cary
• Xi He
• Chanit'a Holmes
• Catherine Larochelle (Chair)
• Jonathan Van Senten
• Melissa Vidmar

InclusiveVT minutes

Extension and Outreach

To advance agriculture, the environment, human health and well-being, and communities through the conducting and dissemination of research and educational activities.

• John Bovay (Chair)
• Michael Cary
• Shourish Chakravarty
• Jen Friedel
• Patrick Kayser
• Jonathan van Senten
• Melissa Vidmar

Extension and Outreach Committee minutes

External Partnerships and Experiential Learning

To develop plans and processes for establishing partnerships and interactions between the department's students and external stakeholders (industry, gov, communities) regarding funding, research, professional opportunities, and experiential learning. The previous bridge committee clerical/logistics/record-keeping tasks will now fall under the Undergraduate Committee.

• Dixie Watts Dalton (Co-Chair)
• Greg Estep (ex-officio)
• Olga Massa
• Paula Mercadante
• Mario Ortez
• Jonathan van Senten
• Melissa Vidmar
• Le Wang (Co-Chair)

External Partnerships and Experiential Learning Committee minutes

Facilities and IT Planning

To monitor and make recommendations on the use of facilities, space, and issues related to Information Technology (IT) as they impact department operations within the department.

• George Davis
• Klaus Moeltner (Co-Chair)
• Jennifer Shelton
  
• Wei Zhang

Facilities and IT Planning Committee minutes

Graduate Committee

To assess, revise, and coordinate graduate curriculum courses and activities designed to enhance the graduate program including but not limited to recruitment, applicant evaluations, and admittance and funding recommendations.

• Elinor Benami
  
• Jason Grant
• Amy Guerin
• Anubhab Gupta
• Brad Mills
• Chunbei Wang (Chair)
• Le Wang
• Wei Zhang

Graduate Committee minutes

MS Online

To handle day-to-day operational issues of MS online program and longer-term issues related to recruitment, course offerings, and program structure design.

• Dixie Watts Dalton (Chair)
• Amy Guerin
• Brad Mills
• Mario Ortez
• Melissa Vidmar

MS Online Committee minutes

Seminar

To organize, schedule, and host departmental seminars.

• Elinor Benami
• Zhenshan Chen (Co-Chair)
• Amy Guerin
• Wei Zhang (Co-Chair)
  
• Graduate Student Representative

Seminar Committee minutes

Teaching Innovation and Effectiveness

To provide guidance and resources for improving teaching effectiveness.

• Normand Adams
• Dixie Watts Dalton
• Mike Ellerbrock
• Jen Friedel
• Olga Massa
• Kurt Stephenson (Chair)
• Shamar Stewart

Teaching Innovation and Effectiveness Committee minutes

Undergraduate

To assess, revise, and coordinate undergraduate curriculum courses and activities designed to enhance the undergraduate program.

• Normand Adams
• Zhenshan Chen
• Dixie Watts Dalton
• Mike Ellerbrock
• Olga Massa (Chair)
• Pedro Queiroz
• Kurt Stephenson

Undergraduate Committee minutes

Steering

To help communicate, coordinate, and implement activities across committees with common and complementary objectives. This will consist mainly of chairs of certain committees, which may rotate depending on the issues that need to be addressed.

• John Bovay
• Dixie Watts Dalton
• George Davis (Chair)
• Jason Grant
• Anubhab Gupta
• Catherine Larochelle
• Olga Massa
• Kurt Stephenson
• Melissa Vidmar
• Chunbei Wang
• Le Wang

Steering Committee minutes

Extra Curricular Advisors

Those individuals working with organizations within the department that are extracurricular but provide very beneficial learning experiences (e.g. AgEcon Club, COINS, NAMA).

Ag Econ Club

• Normand Adams
• Mike Ellerbrock
• Pedro Queiroz

COINS

• Nicola Legrand
• Olga Massa
• Shamar Stewart

NAMA

• Normand Adams
• Paula Mercadante
• Pedro Queiroz

Extra Curricular Advisors minutes

Second-Year Paper Reviewers - Variable

To evaluate, provide feedback, and determine continuation status based on second-year papers of Ph.D. students.

Job Market Packet Reviewers - Variable

To evaluate and provide feedback on fourth- and fifth-year job market packets of Ph.D. students.