Janice Tawney

As the Chief Advancement Officer for Student Affairs, Janice Tawney leads a team whose mission is to inform, engage, and ask parents and alumni who were actively involved with Student Affairs while in school to get involved and give back. The Advancement team shares stories and hosts events that promote the strategic priorities of Student Affairs. Janice has been with Virginia Tech for six years and with Student Affairs for two. During that time, she has successfully led efforts to increase philanthropic support through gifts to endowments and annual funds including the Hokie Family Annual Fund. Her team manages the Virginia Tech Parent Council, the Student Affairs Alumni Advisory Board, and the Student Affairs Young Alumni Board. Prior to Student Affairs, Janice worked for several years in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences as the Associate Director of Development then interim Director of Development. That combined experience at Virginia Tech has given her the unique opportunity to witness fundraising from both a curricular and co-curricular point of view.

Prior to joining the university, Janice worked in the private sector for twenty-five years in variety of sales and marketing positions with mostly manufacturing companies in the forest products and gourmet food industries. Today, she uses her business acumen to represent the transformative work of Student Affairs to colleagues across campus and to key alumni and donors. As a first-generation college student, Janice earned a bachelor’s degree from the College of William and Mary where she majored in Human Relations in Business. She knows first-hand the difference scholarships can have on a student’s life. She subsequently earned a master’s degree in Business Administration from Averett University.