Miriam Rich
Special Assistant to the Director of OIRED for Communications and Publications Communications Coordinator, IPM CRSP
Phone: (540) 231-4153
E-mail: mrich@vt.edu
Expertise: Program Management, Communications
Education: B.A., English and French, Goshen College, 1980; Master’s of Arts in Teaching (M.A.T.), University of Chicago, 1983; MBA, International Management, The American Graduate School of International Management (Thunderbird), 1989.
Languages: English, French, Japanese, Spanish
Countries of work experience: Benin, Japan, Haiti, Tanzania, Mali
Experience summary: Miriam is handles communications for OIRED as well as the Integrated Pest Management Collaborative Research Support Program (IPM CRSP). Among other duties, Miriam oversees the design and maintenance of OIRED websites, writes articles for OIRED and university publications, and gives presentations on the work that OIRED is doing. She also assists in the writing of proposals and serves on several university committees regarding outreach and international affairs. In addition, she organizes the annual World Food Day event at Virginia Tech.
Prior to coming to Virginia Tech, Miriam managed the Technical Japanese Program and the Japanese Program for Professionals (JPP) at the University of Washington in Seattle. In that capacity, she directed a promotional campaign for the program, writing proposals, reports, press releases, newsletter articles and web pages. She oversaw the budget, analyzed financial needs, and produced financial projections for JPP. She also hired, trained, and supervised the staff. During her time in Seattle, Miriam delivered over a dozen formal presentations annually to major corporations and organizations in the area (Microsoft, Amazon.com, Boeing, the Seattle Jaycees, Adobe) that resulted in new class sites for JPP.
Before coming to the university setting, Miriam was Manager of International Affairs for the American Public Works Association in Chicago. In that capacity, she led a group of 24 key Japanese and American public works professionals on an educational tour of American and Japanese cities.
Miriam taught high school French for several years and worked in community development for a Native American community in central Louisiana.
