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Meet our staff

Our team is tasked with providing support, new ideas, and professional development opportunities for the advising community at-large. Each individual on the team helps support academic advising at Virginia Tech, whether it is through advising technology, such as Navigate, working to bridge the gap between Virginia Community Colleges and VT to assist our transfer students, or increasing professional development opportunities for advisors. The Academic Advising Initiatives team looks forward to assisting the advising community while implementing new initiatives.

Lauren Thomas

Director for Academic Advising Initiatives
lwthomas@vt.edu

Nasim Schwab

Associate Director for Academic Advising Initiatives
nschwab@vt.edu

Dana Trask 

Associate Director of University Studies
dctrask@vt.edu

Chris Takacs

Assistant Director for Academic Advising Initiatives

Heather Whedbee 

Assistant Director of Advising Technology
heathaw@vt.edu

Allison Silknetter

Assistant Director of Transfer Student Initiatives

asilknetter@vt.edu

Janice Chatham

Janice Chatham

Academic Advisor and Student Support Specialist
jchatham@vt.edu

Joe Daniel

Joe Daniel

Academic Advisor and Student Support Specialist
josed86@vt.edu

Helene Goetz

Helene Goetz

Academic Advisor and Student Support Specialist
goetzh@vt.edu

Jason Johnson

Jason Johnson

Academic Advisor and Student Support Specialist
jwjohns@vt.edu

Annie Leap

Graduate Assistant

Valentina Leon-Ledezma

Graduate Assistant