About Us

Lion Fountain at Homecoming

Welcome to Continuing Education! With the mission of providing high quality professional development and personal continuing education opportunities for nontraditional learners. The School serves as a primary entry point for businesses, industry, manufacturers, military, non-profits, and governmental agencies to the resources of ODU.

Working in collaboration with faculty in the academic colleges, The School's programs are customized to address high need areas, as identified by our partners in business, industry, and military. The School provides comprehensive educational resources that deliver innovative workforce solutions which include developing and delivering programming as well as marketing, registration and program assessment.

Continuing Education is customer service oriented and prepared to serve the ODU community and beyond. Please contact us to see how we can help take your career, or your business, to the next level.

Renee Felts
Assistant Vice President

Our Mission

To meet the evolving needs of our local, regional and global community via online and face-to-face offerings. We help students, professional and lifelong learners move ahead and stay ahead.

Meet Our Staff

We are a team of dedicated continuing education professionals with over 80 years of combined experience in administering continuing education and professional development programs. Our interdisciplinary team has skills and knowledge in program planning, alternative teacher preparation, marketing, and budgeting both non-credit and for-credit approved courses. Our unique approach to continuing education programming is designed to assist each student in their personal learning journey.


Renee R. Felts, Ed.D.

 

Renee R. Felts, ED.D.

Assistant Vice President

Renee Felts currently serves as the assistant vice president for academic initiatives and continuing education at ODU. In her role, she works with faculty and staff to create pathways to add value to the credit and non-credit programs at ODU. Her focus at ODU is to create credentials that align with degree programs, which can make students more marketable upon graduation. Felts also works with business and industry to create customized programming that align with employer needs. Before coming to ODU, she served as vice president for institutional advancement and workforce development and executive director of the foundation at Paul D. Camp Community College. At Paul D. Camp, she assisted in creating workforce programs that aligned with industry needs.

Felts holds a doctorate in higher education leadership from Northcentral University. She earned a master's degree in Secondary Education from Old Dominion in 1987, and a bachelor's degree in Business Education from Barton College in 1984.

 


 

Robert Doherty

 

Robert Doherty

Director, Continuing Education

Robert Doherty has been with Old Dominion University's Continuing Education since 2007. He is currently the Director of Continuing Education, the University Credentialing Center, Prior Learning Assessment program, and Center for Professional Development.

Mr. Doherty works with both credit and non-credit programs, including the IDS Leadership major, Professional Leadership certificate program, and Amazon's AWS Academy. Additionally, he heads the University's MonarchCE registration platform, and serves as co-principal investigator, senior personnel, and Microcredential Designer on various grants from both the United States Government, as well as the Commonwealth of Virginia.

 


 

Linda Vahala

 

Deborah Avans

Business Programs Manager

Deborah Avans has been with Old Dominion University since 2008. During that time, she's led programming in a variety of disciplines including Executive Development, Engineering, Dental Hygiene, and Test Preparation. Additionally, she's led credit certificate programs including Public Sector Leadership and Project Management, as well as contract training agreements with firms such as Newport News Shipbuilding.

Her years of experience both on the front end of programming, and back end of administration give her the unique ability to see any program through from inception to completion. In addition to her programming responsibilities, Deborah also serves as the MonarchCE Registrar.

 


 

Pete Baker

 

Pete Baker

Lecturer

Pete Baker is a Hampton Roads native currently serving as Curriculum Coordinator within ODU's Career Switcher Program.

Pete earned his Ph.D. from ODU in 2012, his Master's in General Secondary Education from ODU in 2008, and his BA in English Literature and Composition from the School of William & Mary in 2005. In addition to his work in the Career Switcher Program, Pete serves as a Lecturer in ODU's Continuing Education program.

Pete's current research agenda includes studies on epistemological beliefs development, early childhood policy, and instructional technology. Pete enjoys fishing, live music, and sharing life with his wife and young children.

 


 

Greg Flick

 

Greg Flick

Director of Finance

Greg Flick joined ODU in 2005 after retiring from the United States Navy. While in the Navy, Mr. Flick was stationed primarily in Norfolk, Virginia and served on a variety of ships, including the Battleship USS IOWA (BB 61).

Mr. Flick then started his career at ODU as the Fiscal Technician for the English Language Center. In 2018, he transitioned to the position of Financial Analyst for Continuing Education.

Mr. Flick enjoys running and has completed several half marathons. Growing up in Colorado has given him a great appreciation of the Denver Broncos who he follows each year. Mr. Flick has been married to his wife for almost 30 years and they have two children who they have adored watching grow up and move into adulthood.

 


 

Katrina Vinson

 

Katrina Vinson

Fiscal Technician Senior

Katrina Vinson has been employed at ODU with Continuing Education for 22 years, as a Financial Administrator. She has used her years of training in Accounting as well as personal development training to master her skills.

 


 

Linda Vahala

 

Samantha Fabio

Enrollment Services Coordinator

Samantha Fabio currently serves as the Student support manager for the VDOE Career Switcher program at ODU and the Program Coordinator for Education and Counseling programs within Continuing Education.

Mrs. Fabio holds a B.S. in Psychology with an emphasis in Criminal Justice from Old Dominion University as well as an Associates of Science in Social Science from Tidewater Community College. Mrs. Fabio is currently a member of the National Association for Alternative Certification. Mrs. Fabio has over 3 years of higher education administration experience.

 


 

Christine Matthews

 

Christine Matthews

Recruitment/Marketing Manager

Christine Matthews is the Recruitment/ Marketing Manager for Continuing Education. She has over 20-years of experience in Recruitment, Marketing, Training and Sales for various industries in the Business-to-Consumer, Business-to-Business, Business-to-Government, and Non-Profit Markets.

Coming from a military family, Christine has called Hampton, Virginia home since 1980. She enjoys spending time with her husband of 25 years and visiting her daughter and son-in-law in El Paso Texas.

 


 

Olivia Hoover

 

Olivia Hoover

Program Support Specialist

Olivia Hoover is the newest member of our team at Continuing Education. As the SoCE Program Services Specialist, Olivia is involved in the day-to-day operation of the School's programming and is the main point of contact for inquiries.

A native of Portsmouth, Olivia is involved in her community through coaching, community service and volunteering.