Amy Price Azano, Ph.D.

Amy Price Azano, Director of the Virginia Tech Center for Rural Education, is a professor of rural education and adolescent literacy in the School of Education. She serves as principal investigator for multiple rural education grants, including the Appalachian Rural Talent Initiative and SEE VT. A product of rural schools herself, Dr. Azano grew up in beautiful Luray, Virginia in the Shenandoah Valley and taught high school English and creative writing before pursuing her doctorate in education from the University of Virginia. Currently, Dr. Azano is co-editor of The Rural Educator and former chair of the AERA’s Rural Education SIG. She has published more than 50 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, is the co-editor of The Bloomsbury Handbook of Rural Education in the United States and Gifted Education in Rural Schools: Developing Place-Based Interventions and is the co-author of Teaching in Rural Places: Thriving in Classrooms, Schools, and Communities. In 2021, Dr. Azano received the E. Stanley A. Brzezinski Memorial Rural Education Research Award from the National Rural Education Association, an award that honors educational research that addresses significant rural issues and makes notable contributions to the knowledge base of rural education. She was honored in 2022 by receiving the Rural Renewal Research Prize, an award given to a global leader in rural renewal research, education, and engagement, by the Rural Renewal Initiative at Oklahoma State University. At Virginia Tech, Dr. Azano has received the Land Grant Scholar and Excellence in Research and Creative Scholarship awards from the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences.

Contact: [email protected]