Catherine Amelink

Catherine Amelink serves as the Associate Vice Provost, in the Office of the Executive Vice Provost. In this role she facilitates the university-wide Destination Area initiative, an effort to advance transdisciplinary research and learning that will address complex problems that impact the human condition and also develop complex problem solving skills among students. She works with units on campus to design, implement, and evaluate innovative learning experiences that support strategic goals related to experiential learning and distance learning and works closely with faculty members on grants that are designed to advance student learning. Dr. Amelink works with the Learning Systems Innovation team to provide oversight of degree management and university compliance efforts related to the State Council for Higher Education in Virginia and the Southern Association for Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges.

Her collective experience includes positions that have played an active role in educational policy and practice at the K12, department, university, and state level. Her research has focused on efficacy of learning approaches and in particular the impact of learning approaches on underrepresented groups in STEM. Her publications have appeared in several peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Engineering Education, the Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering, the Journal of Women in Higher Education, Advances in Engineering Education and the Journal of Community College Research and Practice. She is an affiliate faculty in both the Higher Education program in the School of Education and the Department of Engineering Education in the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech.