Patrick O’Reilly
Director, CAEEP
B.S., Mathematics, Pittsburg State, 1967
M.S., Trade and Industrial Education, Pittsburg State, 1970
Ph.D., Vocational-Industrial Education, Penn State, 1973

Prior to his appointment at Virginia Tech, Dr. O’Reilly served on the faculty at the Pennsylvania State University, Alcorn State University, and Northern Arizona University. He has led and conducted national and state-level research and evaluation projects focused on career and technical education. Dr. O’Reilly has served on the editorial boards of professional journals in career and technical education and educational research. He has taught both graduate and undergraduate courses in career and technical education, educational psychology, research, and evaluation.

Eric Lichtenberger
Associate Director, CAEEP
B.A., Political Science, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, 1998
M.S., Workforce Development and Education, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, 2001
Ph.D., Career and Technical Education Virginia Tech, 2004

Dr. Lichtenberger has taught graduate and undergraduate courses in vocational education, human resources, and entrepreneurship. Vocational education, educational research, and political science were the emphases of his doctoral studies. Over the past six years, he has been primarily involved in evaluation, research, and database development in the areas of post-secondary education, instructional technology, correctional education, and workforce development. His research agenda includes studying how individual-level factors, as well as local labor market conditions, contribute to successful post-program transitions. His long term research goals relate to building a more thorough understanding of how education and workforce development could become more integrated in state-level, as well as local-level, economic development.

James Washington
Research Associate, CAEEP
B.S., Industrial Engineering and Operations Research, Virginia Tech, 1984
M.A.Ed., Instructional Technology, Virginia Tech, 1996

Mr. Washington has expertise in survey research methods in both on-line and paper-based formats. His skills include MySQL/Postresql database usage for large datasets, automated categorization of free-form short-answer items, and computer programming for data reduction and inductive analysis. His work has involved Python, SQL, (X)HTML, Javascript, and XQuery. Recently, he has performed extensive programming and data analysis for the Virginia Office of Career and Technical Education Services. His work for the Virginia Department of Correctional Education has included data validation and statistical generation from multiple related databases.

Adjunct Faculty

Cecile Dietrich
Research Associate, CAEEP

Cecile Dietrich has expertise in both quantitative and qualitative research methods and data analysis, and experience in applying these methods to evaluation and basic research. She has worked on projects with CAEEP since Fall 2006 and has performed related research and consulting work since 1998. Her background and interests also include human development, health/life sciences, mathematics, and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. She has conducted research and performed evaluation work for a variety of organizations, including the World Bank as well as state and local educational and extension agencies, private engineering education consultants and faith-based organizations.