CECE 2026 Magazine

The Center for Economic and Community Engagement (CECE), part of Outreach and International Affairs, is pleased to have been a part of more than 40 projects and programs over the last year, garnering $2,269,967 in new funds to support this work. 

We serve as a trusted source of economic and community research, providing strategic planning, feasibility studies, and economic impact and market analysis for community and university partners working at the national, state, regional, and local levels. The center also translates work into published scholarship, engages in academic and professional service, and provides opportunities for dialogue and learning, advancing important discussions of policy and practice.

As described in more detail in this year’s annual report, our work includes: 

• a research program that delivers projects and connects assets and opportunities in community development, innovation and entrepreneurship, talent and workforce development, and technology.
• engagement in the GO Virginia program, a statewide effort that encourages Virginia’s economic development. through region-led efforts to grow and diversify the economy
• the Vibrant Virginia program, a university initiative that supports collaboration and co-investment with community partners to address challenges through place-based collaborations.

 We are grateful for the trust our partners and funders place in CECE as we work together to support communities across Virginia.

I’d like to add my personal thanks and call your attention to our advisory board members. Their collective and individual insights over the last year were critical to our success. Special thanks to Guru Ghosh, vice president, and Susan E. Short, senior associate vice president, in Outreach and International Affairs.

Last but not least, I am both pleased and proud to come to work at CECE every day with the faculty, staff, and students. Without their commitment, creativity, and care for this work, none of what you see in this report would be possible. 

Regards,
John Provo
Executive Director

Contents

Highlights

Where Was CECE This Year?

Map by Caroline Redell

CECE 26 Fiscal Year Projects

Multistate Projects and Projects Outside of Virginia

• _{National Science Foundation EPIIC: Evaluation Services for LIGHT UP: Leveraging Innovation to Grow High Tech and University Partnerships from SUNY Canton (NY), Kean University (NJ), Marymount University (VA), Bowie State (MD), Rowan College (NJ), and Alvernia University (PA)}
• _{SE Group; Appalachia Regional Commission (ARC); Evaluation of ARC Tourism and Outdoor Investments}

Regional Transformation

Virginia and Virginia Tech are home to unique assets for innovation in advanced manufacturing and materials. The center, through grants from the U.S. Economic Development Administration, Appalachian Regional Commission, and the state’s GO Virginia program, has built a consortium to tap that potential and advance positive regional transformation, securing opportunities for growth in industries including defense, ground transportation, energy and power systems, biomanufacturing, and smart industrialized construction. 

These consortia have already supported several projects funding workforce development and technology adoption by small businesses across the Roanoke and New River Valleys, Southern Virginia, and Southwest Virginia. They secured large state grants and are working to secure several federal opportunities in the next year.

Shaping a Plan for the Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission  

Across Southern and Southwest Virginia, communities that once relied on tobacco continue to chart new paths for growth.

A new road map — developed with the Center for Economic and Community Engagement — lays out how the Virginia Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission can continue supporting those communities by investing in projects that strengthen local economies, expand opportunities, and improve quality of life.

GO Virginia Across the New River Valley, Roanoke-Alleghany, and Lynchburg Regions

GO Virginia is a statewide initiative designed to encourage Virginia’s economic growth through the creation of high-wage jobs. The Center for Economic and Community Engagement serves as the support organization for GO Virginia’s Region 2.

Strengthening Manufacturing in Southwest and Southern Virginia

A $4.2 million investment from GO Virginia, matched by more than $2 million in regional support, will help Southwest and Southern Virginia create jobs, connect more students to manufacturing careers, and build on the region’s growing strength in advanced manufacturing.

Community Engagement

Virginia Tech is guided by its land-grant mission to address local, national, and global needs. The center follows this mission and the university motto, Ut Prosim (That I May Serve), in its collaboration with communities. 

The center extended several existing partnerships and started new engagements with organizations focused on expanding economic opportunity, including helping a nonprofit in Tazewell County connect assets for recovery and reentry into the workforce. 

The center also completed several projects with the Wellspring Foundation, including work with the Mount Rogers Fire and Rescue and faculty from the Virginia Tech College of Natural Resources and Environment to develop a co-op selling maple syrup and other products. 

Through the Vibrant Virginia partnership between Outreach and International Affairs, Virginia Cooperative Extension, and its small grant program, faculty from the Colleges of Engineering, Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, and Architecture, Arts, and Design committed to community projects around Virginia. 

Center faculty worked to see them through successful completion and assisted in developing opportunities for follow-on funding.   

Vibrant Virginia

Virginia Tech is committed to helping bridge divides and advance broad prosperity across Virginia. To champion and guide this work, the university established the Council on Vibrant Virginia. Since 2017, the Vibrant Virginia initiative has supported more than 20 faculty-led projects and involved 75 faculty members across all the university’s colleges.

Across the State, Seed Grants Make an Impact

Virginia Tech teams, supported by $10,000 seed grants from Vibrant Virginia, made big strides on their projects this year.

Addressing the Opioid Crisis in Roanoke and Pulaski

A backpack might not seem like much. But for people at risk of opioid overdose, it can be life-changing.

Designed by Hokies studying industrial design and packed with essentials — a blanket, a notebook, and the overdose-reversal medication Naloxone — these backpacks have reached thousands across the Roanoke Valley.

What many don’t see is where that impact began — with a Vibrant Virginia seed grant awarded in 2018.

Helping People Navigate Reentry and Recovery in Tazewell

A partnership between the Center for Economic and Community Engagement and Project13Three in Tazewell, Virginia, is helping people in recovery from substance use disorder and those reentering the workforce after incarceration connect with the resources they need.

Collaborating with the Alleghany Highlands

Virginia Tech is working alongside leaders in the Alleghany Highlands to strengthen the economy — not by prescribing solutions, but by providing university expertise that reinforces priorities set by the region itself.

Supporting the Virginia Creeper Trail

When Hurricane Helene tore through Southwest Virginia in 2024, it destroyed half of the Virginia Creeper Trail from Damascus to Whitetop and exposed just how deeply the region’s economy depends on it.

Within the first week after the storm, eight bike shops in Whitetop, Damascus, and Abingdon reported an estimated $60,000 in lost rental revenue, with individual damages ranging from $10,000 to $100,000. Across Grayson and Washington counties, many small businesses saw revenue drop by 50 percent or more.

A Virginia Tech study quantifies the trail’s growing regional significance and its role as a major economic engine for Southwest Virginia.

Talent Development

This year, CECE developed and expanded partnerships with industry, agencies, and university partners, working to build better alignments between educational institutions and employers and providing an array of experiential learning opportunities for students.

With Space@VT and Virginia Tech’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, the center continued a collaboration focused on experiential learning.

Center faculty also continued their GO Virginia-funded aquaculture online education curriculum offering to reach teachers, students, and community members across Hampton Roads and Coastal Virginia.

In partnership with Virginia Tech Career and Professional Development, CECE is currently working with the Virginia Economic Development Partnership to dive deeper into opportunities for Virginia Tech students. 

Graduate assistants working with the center also gained valuable career experience leading projects through the economic development studio class and a collaboration with Virginia Cooperative Extension. 

Preparing High Schoolers for Their Futures

A connection between a Vibrant Virginia seed grant project and a long-time CECE partnership with the Urban Alliance program introduced high school student Mohammed Shameen to Virginia Tech.  

For over 10 years, CECE has partnered with Urban Alliance, an initiative matching young adults across the Greater Washington, D.C. area, Baltimore, Chicago, and Detroit regions to early career opportunities through paid internships, mentorship, and professional development. 

Students Tackle Challenges in Space

Over the course of the past year, the Center for Economic and Community Engagement and the Center for Space Science and Engineering Research (Space@VT) worked together to advance research and innovation in space, focusing on workforce development and collaborations with industry. 

The year was a productive one that included holding meetings with Space@VT’s Industry Advisory Board (IAB), participating in Virginia Aerospace Day, organizing a faculty retreat, and hosting a space-related challenge for K-12 students.

Students Find Their Paths Supporting Virginia Aquaculture

Before he ever set foot in a Virginia Tech classroom, Will Townsend spent his summers and school holidays dredging oysters and fishing crab pots on the waters of Virginia’s Northern Neck. Both of his grandfathers were watermen, and his family has stayed connected to that heritage by planting oysters, crabbing, and running a small seafood business.

Watch a video on Oyster Day.

Graduate Assistants Help Extension Tell Its Impact Story

Across the commonwealth, Virginia Cooperative Extension natural resources programs help people make informed decisions about their homes, work, land, and communities. That work ranges from helping families test their drinking water and reduce childhood lead exposure to improving logger safety and connecting Virginians with the health benefits of outdoor volunteerism.

The work makes a difference. But demonstrating that difference clearly, especially in economic terms, can be hard. This spring, four graduate assistants helped bridge that gap.

Graduate Students Join Forces to Strengthen Virginia Farms

Virginia Tech graduate students are helping American Farmland Trust (AFT) strengthen working farms across the commonwealth by giving the national nonprofit a clearer way to decide where its new Planning for Agriculture in Virginia Toolkit can make the most immediate impact.

Support Experiential Learning for Students

Your investment in the Virginia Tech Center for Economic and Community Engagement means more students will have the opportunity to participate in hands-on work in communities across Virginia, building valuable skills that will prepare them for their future careers in economic development.  

Through CECE’s economic development studio class, “Urban Affairs and Planning 5774,” as well as student-led projects, Virginia Tech graduate students are gaining hands-on experience helping towns prosper.

Here’s your chance to help us support student work. Your donation will fund future student projects while also bringing knowledge and experience to communities from Arlington and Accomack to Bristol and Blacksburg, and many more places in between, ensuring that every region in Virginia can thrive. 

Congratulations CECE Graduate Assistants!

Two of our graduate assistants, Katie Lee and Makenzie Mann, earned master’s degrees in urban and regional planning from the Virginia Tech School of Public and International Affairs this year! Katie and Makenzie began working for the Center for Economic and Community Engagement in August 2024. Over the course of their time at CECE, Lee and Mann supported projects tied to outdoor recreation and tourism, food systems, early childhood education, housing, workforce development, impact evaluation, and other community-focused priorities across Virginia.