Names and changes: Business recognitions and promotions for the week of June 2, 2024

Virginia Tech has announced changes to strengthen alignment of its Washington, D.C. area communications and marketing work.

Shannon Andrea has been named director of communications and marketing for the D.C. area. Effective June 10, Andrea will serve as the lead communications adviser, providing strategic guidance to align university communications, marketing, and branding initiatives. She will also supervise and lead daily operations of the D.C. area communications and marketing team, part of the integrated advancement division.

Andrea, who currently serves as the director of media relations and D.C. area communications for communications and marketing, will join the communications and marketing executive team, reporting to Mark Owczarski, who becomes interim vice president of communications and marketing on July 1.

Tech has also announced that Margaret Ashburn has been promoted to associate director of media relations effective June 10.

In her new role, Ashburn will supervise and lead daily operations of the media relations team, which focuses on elevating Tech via national media and high-impact regional and local media. Ashburn will report to Michael Stowe, senior director of news and information for communications and marketing.

Ashburn came to Tech in 2023 as assistant media relations director. Before joining Tech, she was an award-winning journalist with more than a decade of experience creating content for local, state, and national news coverage, including as news director at WSLS (Channel 10) in Roanoke.

She has a bachelor’s degree in broadcast news from the University of Georgia.

Nancy Bodenhorn and Marcia Feuerstein have been conferred the title of associate professor emerita by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors.

Bodenhorn, associate professor of counselor education in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, has been a member of the Tech community for more than 22 years.

Bodenhorn received Tech’s College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences Excellence in Advising and Outstanding Mentor awards, as well as the Virginia Counselor Association’s William H. Van Hoose Career Service Award.

At Tech, Bodenhorn served as associate director of academic programs in the School of Education for nine years and as acting director in 2015.

Feuerstein, associate professor of architecture in the College of Architecture, Arts, and Design, has been a member of the Tech community for more than 27 years.

She arrived in Blacksburg in 1996 and since 2004, taught at the Washington-Alexandria Architecture Center in Alexandria. She has been an advocate for women in the profession of architecture, correcting the historical record and challenging historical and cultural biases through education and scholarship.

Her research on the body and embodiment in architecture touches interdisciplinary studies including theater, dance, and accessibility.

Feuerstein has authored, co-authored, and edited more than 13 books and book chapters and numerous other publications on architecture and its media. She has been invited to lecture widely to a variety of audiences from professional, public, and academic events, both nationally and internationally.

Scott England, associate professor of aerospace and ocean engineering in the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech, has been named the Crofton Faculty Fellow by the board of visitors.

The Kevin Crofton Professorial Endowment in Aerospace and Ocean Engineering was established with a gift from alumnus Kevin Crofton. The endowment includes support for tenured professors, faculty fellowships, and the retention of top-performing faculty members. England will serve as the Crofton Faculty Fellow for a five-year term.

England, a member of the Tech community since 2016, has brought innovative teaching methods and new course content to integrate space plasma physics with traditional aerospace engineering curricula.

Eric Jacques, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering in the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech, has been named the Thomas M. Murray Family Junior Faculty Fellow by the board of visitors.

The fellowship was established in 2021 through a gift from Murray, who holds the title of professor emeritus at Tech in the Charles E. Via Jr. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Jacques has established himself as a faculty member in the analysis, design, and retrofit of reinforced concrete structures. He has gained national recognition by studying the response of structural and nonstructural building components to blast loads and by developing new experimental techniques and diagnostics to characterize energetic materials and their effects on structures.

The Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics has named Layne Watson, a professor in three departments at Virginia Tech — computer science, mathematics, and aerospace and ocean engineering — and core faculty at the Sanghani Center for Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics, part of the 26-member 2024 class of SIAM fellows.

SIAM is an international community of more than 1,400 individual members and nearly 500 academic, manufacturing, research and development, service and consulting organizations, government, and military are institutional members. Members are nominated to the fellowship program in recognition of their outstanding research and service to the community.

Watson, a SIAM member since 1976, is being recognized for pioneering the theoretical development, algorithm design, software implementation, and application of homotopy methods. Homotopy theory is part of topology, a branch of theoretical mathematics.

John Weber III has joined the Roanoke-based civil law firm Miller & Webb LLP, the successor firm to Frankl Miller Webb & Moyers LLP, as a partner.

Miller & Webb primarily specializes in handling insurance defense claims, including workers’ compensation. Weber will also handle other legal matters including misdemeanor and felony criminal cases; custody, visitation, support and divorce matters; and serious driving offenses involving DUI and DUI — D.

The Wilderness Medical Society has honored Dr. Stephanie Lareau with “Triple Crown” recognition, a distinction for individuals who have achieved all three of the honors offered by the society’s Academy of Wilderness Medicine.

These honors include the Diploma in Diving & Marine Medicine (DiDMM), Diploma in Mountain Medicine (DiMM), and Fellowship in the Academy of Wilderness Medicine (FAWM).

DiDMM is a comprehensive program designed to equip participants with essential skills for patient care in the marine environment. Participants undergo specialized training in diving physics, physiology, and medicine; management of diving accidents; marine environment hazards; medicine at sea; water rescue; survival techniques; and trip planning.

DiMM provides participants with vital knowledge and skills for patient care in technical mountain environments. The internationally recognized program sets the standard for education in mountain medicine, technical rescue, and self-sufficiency in the backcountry.

FAWM recognizes individuals who have demonstrated advanced expertise and experience in wilderness medicine through a rigorous curriculum and practical applications. Recipients have distinguished themselves as leaders in the field of wilderness medicine.

Lareau joins the inaugural group of recipients, with only six individuals in the world having achieved this recognition to date.

Alia Zaro, a social worker at Showalter Center at Warm Hearth Village, is a Positive Approach to Care certified independent trainer.

PAC certified trainers help others see dementia from the viewpoint of those living with it. Participants are trained to conduct educational sessions in dementia care residences or retirement communities with desired outcomes that include reduced burnout and turnover, increased morale and satisfaction and a more resident-centered approach to care all of which align tightly with Warm Hearth’s mission and current efforts to attract and retain the highest quality employees.

Warm Hearth Village is a nonprofit senior living community in Blacksburg that provides a full continuum of living options on the campus and in the home.

Court Rosen has joined ABoone Real Estate Inc., a Roanoke-based real estate developer and homebuilder, as director of business and land development.

Rosen will manage all aspects of ABRE land and project development, including land acquisition, engineering, design, site work and zoning. As a partner in the development of the Walnut Creek community in Christiansburg as well as other projects, Rosen brings extensive experience to the team. A former member of Roanoke City Council, Rosen graduated from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.