Collegiate Assistant Professor of Forestry

The Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation invites applications for Collegiate Assistant Professor of Forestry. At Virginia Tech, Collegiate professors are full members of the faculty whose responsibilities are focused on teaching. The successful candidate will join Virginia’s only four-year Society of American Foresters-accredited forestry program and will play a highly visible, student-facing role in sustaining core forestry instruction, field-based education, professional preparation, and workforce connections.
We seek an educator with broad forestry expertise, a strong background in forest operations, and the ability to connect classroom and field laboratory instruction with contemporary forestry practices and employer expectations.

Teaching and Mentoring Expectations
The position is expected to carry approximately a 3:3 teaching load, with appropriate consideration of the additional time demands of field laboratory courses. Specific teaching assignments may include some of the following courses, depending on program needs and the professional experience and expertise of the successful candidate:
• FREC 2214 Introduction to Land and Field Measurements
• FREC 3714 Forest Harvesting
• FREC 3724 Forest Boundaries and Roads
• FREC 3734 Forest Fiber Supply
• FREC 4004 Professional Skills in Natural Resources
• FREC 4714 Harvesting Systems Evaluation.

The successful candidate may also contribute to a first-year experience course, forestry courses for non-majors, a forestry capstone course, or study-abroad experiences, as appropriate, within the approximately 3:3 teaching workload expectation.

Research, Scholarship, Extension, and Engagement Expectations
For a Collegiate faculty appointment, approximately 5–10% of effort may support pedagogical or disciplinary scholarship and collaborative research. The successful candidate will be expected to contribute to curriculum development and revision, student mentoring, experiential learning, and engagement with forestry employers and stakeholders. Participation in Forestry Extension activities is possible but not required.

About the Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation
The Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation at Virginia Tech is one of the top forestry, natural resource management, and conservation programs in the United States. Our vision, mission, and values statements can be found here: https://frec.vt.edu/vision_mission_values.html. We are an inclusive and collaborative department that values knowledge and innovation; ethics and integrity; diversity and inclusivity; opportunity and affordability; and sustainability. Our exceptional education, research, and outreach programs are diverse and approach critical natural resource issues from many perspectives. The department offers master's and doctoral programs, as well as five undergraduate majors: environmental conservation and society, environmental data science, environmental resource management, forestry, and water resources policy and management. Faculty research areas of focus include forest biometrics, modeling, and remote sensing; forest biology, physiology, and genomics; ecology, silviculture, and wildland fire; hydrology, soils, and watershed management; forest management, operations, and business; resource economics and policy; human dimensions of natural resources and sustainability; environmental education, interpretation, and communication; and urban forestry. Department faculty also are engaged with industrial cooperatives, as well as extension and outreach efforts such as landowner education, SHARP logger, Master Naturalist, learning networks focused on environmental education and interpretation, and geospatial education programs.

• Doctorate by time of appointment in forestry, natural resources, or a closely related field.
• Demonstrated professional or academic expertise sufficient to teach the above-listed courses, with emphasis on forest operations courses.
• Demonstrated commitment to deliver high-quality, field-based and experiential undergraduate education.
• Strong communication, organizational, and interpersonal skills.

• Professional forestry credentials
• Operational experience, or substantial engagement with forest industry, agencies, consulting, or land management organizations.
• Experience as instructor of record for undergraduate field or laboratory courses.

Exempt: Not eligible for overtime

Regular

$85k - $95k

40

10/15/2026

The successful candidate will be required to have a criminal conviction check.

Dedicated to its motto, Ut Prosim (That I May Serve), Virginia Tech pushes the boundaries of knowledge by taking a hands-on, transdisciplinary approach to preparing scholars to be leaders and problem-solvers. A comprehensive land-grant institution that enhances the quality of life in Virginia and throughout the world, Virginia Tech is an inclusive community dedicated to knowledge, discovery, and creativity. The university offers more than 280 majors to a diverse enrollment of more than 36,000 undergraduate, graduate, and professional students in eight undergraduate colleges, a school of medicine, a veterinary medicine college, Graduate School, and Honors College. The university has a significant presence across Virginia, including Blacksburg, the greater Washington, D.C. area, the Health Sciences and Technology Campus in Roanoke, sites in Newport News and Richmond, and numerous Extension offices and research institutes. A leading global research institution, Virginia Tech conducts more than $650 million in research annually.

Virginia Tech endorses and encourages participation in professional development opportunities and university shared governance.  These valuable contributions to university shared governance provide important representation and perspective, along with opportunities for unique and impactful professional development.