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Wendy Stout

Headshot of Wendy Stout in the VT Coastal Collaborator
Wendy Stout - Coastal Resilience Extension Specialist

Dr. Wendy Stout, in her role as Coastal Resilience Extension Specialist, is focused on leading Virginia Tech’s collaboration in the area of coastal resilience and the adaptation economy. Her extension efforts include strategic planning at the local and state levels, public-private partnerships for workforce development and research and development (R&D), faculty-student innovation in resilience design, and building collaborative team science capacity. 

Wendy manages the Virginia Tech Coastal Collaborator Center in Hampton and serves as project manager and facilitator in collaboration with the Center for Coastal Studies, Virginia Sea Grant leadership and staff, Virginia Seafood AREC, and project partners in support of VASG’s GO Virginia. Her research is focused on emerging GIS technologies for coastal resilience applications and the broader development of public-private R&D partnerships, towards a coastal resilience and adaptation economy in Virginia.

Ph.D., Instructional Design and Technology, 2022, Liberty University

M.S., Career and Technical Education – concentration in Training and Professional Development, 2008, Virginia Tech, 2008

B.S., Business Administration- concentration Marketing, Christopher Newport University

Dr. Stout’s professional career before joining Virginia Tech spans teaching and program management at several community colleges in Virginia and four-year institutions, including the College of William and Mary, Old Dominion University, and the University of Richmond, where she served as Director of Spatial Analysis. She has worked with many federal, state, local government, academia, and industry partners to solve coastal resilience, climate, emergency management, and infrastructure challenges using her expertise in Geospatial Information Systems in her roles as the Geospatial Program Manager (managing statewide Imagery and LiDAR contracts) for the Commonwealth of Virginia (VGIN), an Educational Programs Specialist for NASA VSGC, and a GIS Specialist for FEMA.

She holds her Geographic Information Systems Professional (GISP) Certification, Geospatial Educators Certification (GeoEdC), and Virginia Professional K-12 Teaching License. After completing her Ph.D., Wendy spent the summer of 2022 at Hebrew University actively working in archaeology at the Temple Mount Sifting Project and conducted research on the potential of using GIS and advanced 3D scanning technology to find undiscovered collapsed caves in Qumran, Israel.  

When Wendy is not working, she enjoys the beach, paddle boarding, swimming, gardening and is a stained-glass artist. She is also a certified Yoga RYT200 and Meditation and Mindfulness Instructor.