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About Us

Vision  

Organizational Excellence serves as the trusted internal consulting partner to university leaders as they seek to bring about meaningful change, achieve overall excellence in their respective areas and across the university, and make significant progress toward strategic goals.  

Mission  

Organizational Excellence serves to guide, facilitate, enable, and foster strategic organizational development and improvement initiatives that are of high-importance and value to the institution.  

Values    

The work of Organizational Excellence is guided by the principle of Virginia Tech’s motto – Ut Prosim (That I May Serve).  In service of our motto, we:

  • Build authentic and trusting relationships in all of our work. 
  • Leverage diverse and deep institutional understanding to further organizational excellence in all its forms.
  • Embrace curiosity, collaboration, and open-minded exploration in our work.    
  • Take a holistic and inclusive approach to understanding needs and exploring solutions.  
  • Drive work that will thrive within the holistic system of our university. 

 


Meet the Team

Kirby Allen, Transformation Associate

Portrait of Allen Kirby in a suit jacket, leaning against a wall.

Kirby joins the Organizational Excellence team with a background in Industrial-Organizational Psychology and 3+ years' experience in the medical school environment, specializing in research administration and continuing education programs. His work focused on program development and process improvement, using a strategic, organizational-level approach to continuous improvement. Kirby brings a systems-oriented perspective to change initiatives, supports team development, and works to foster community and engagement across Virginia Tech and its partners.

Yena Cho, Graduate Assistant

Portrait of Yena Cho wearing a dark blouse, standing beside a wooden pilar.

 Yena is a third-year Ph.D. student in Industrial/Organizational Psychology at Virginia Tech, where she works with Dr. Charles Calderwood in the Work Stress and Recovery Lab. Her research focuses on work–life balance, workplace stress, and recovery processes. Her thesis investigates the role of social media breaks during the workday, examining their dual impact on work focus—both as a recovery mechanism that may enhance concentration and as a potential source of information overload that may hinder it. She earned her B.S. in Psychology from Virginia Tech in 2023. Go Hokies!

Amy Hogan, Executive Director

Portrait of Amy Hogan in a knit cardigan, sitting on a plush seat.

Amy has over 30 years of experience in leadership and organizational development, and has held leadership roles in these areas across multiple industries.  A proud Hokie alum having served the Virginia Tech community for 20 years, she brings expertise in leadership development, organizational development, human behavior, change management, and strategic visioning and planning.

Rob Knee, Transformation Leader 

Portrait of Robert Knee in a suit jacket, standing against a wall.

Rob has over a decade of experience in organizational change and readiness across public and private sectors throughout North America. As a Hokie alum, he is excited to share his expertise in change management, leadership and culture development, and strategic change as a partner to support the ongoing development and transformation taking place across Virginia Tech

Siyi Liu, Graduate Assistant

Portrait of Siyi in a leather jacket, leaning against a wooden wall.

Siyi Liu is a PhD student in the Industrial/Organizational Psychology program at Virginia Tech. Her research focuses on the applications and influence of AI techniques in personnel selection and assessment. Recently she published her first, also first-author paper in Organizational Research Methods. She looks forward to helping solve real-world problems that VT units face in their daily workflow with the OE team.

Tony Mastracci, Administrative Management Fellow

Portrait of Tony Mastracci in a suit in front of a blank grey background.

Provides project, administrative, and operational management to the Vice President for Strategic Initiatives and Special Assistant to the President, as well as senior management areas, including Organizational Excellence and the Early Childhood Education Initiatives.

Chase Robbins, Transformation Associate

Portrait of Chase Robbins in a suit jacket, leaning against a wooden pilar.

Chase brings over five years of experience in Industrial-Organizational Psychology research and teaching, along with evidence-based consulting across diverse fields such as archaeology, medical education, and university athletics. Chase's doctoral research explored transformational leadership and its impact on an employee's sense of mattering. She will leverage data-driven analysis and a people-centric approach to facilitate meaningful change that supports Virginia Tech's strategic goals.

Lars Schmidt, Transformation Facilitator

Portrait of Lars Schmidt in a suit jacket, sitting on a plush chair.

Lars brings over 5 years of experience within a variety of industries across Europe. Before starting at Virginia Tech, he worked in management and technology consulting in Germany primarily focusing on organizational and digital transformation. Lars contributes with his expertise in organizational change management, reorganization and development of departments as well as process improvement.

Kayden Stockdale, Graduate Assistant

Kayden is a fourth-year PhD student in Industrial-Organizational Psychology. His research examines how artificial intelligence can be used to address complex organizational challenges, with a particular focus on large language models and hiring assessment. His research has been published in the Journal of Applied Psychology and Educational Media International. He has also presented his work at multiple international academic conferences including the Academy of Management Annual Meeting and the Society for Industrial-Organizational Psychology Conference.