Currently, Vincent Rhodes serves as Chief Communications & Marketing Officer for Eastern Virginia Medical School — a medical school founded in the early 1970s from a grassroots community effort to attract high-quality physicians to the Hampton Roads area.
Before he joined the EVMS administration, Rhodes served as Communications Manager and Clerk of the School Board for Norfolk Public Schools, the largest urban school system in the Commonwealth of Virginia and one of the top 150 largest school systems in the country. In that capacity, he directed crisis and strategic communication efforts with the goal of increasing community support for a school system that won the prestigious 2005 Broad Prize for Urban Education and attracted national media attention for its efforts to improve academic achievement for all students. During his tenure as Clerk of the School Board, NPS was recognized with the 2006 CUBE Award for School Board Excellence. Rhodes started his career with Norfolk Public Schools teaching for nearly five years before moving into an administrative position. He also worked as a consultant with school boards and district staff across the country.
Prior to becoming an educator, Rhodes served as managing editor of the national scuba diving magazine Sport Diver and as a scuba instructor. His dive travels led him across the globe from the Caribbean to the Central Pacific to the North Pole. His dive experiences include exploration under the Arctic ice, visiting World War II plane and shipwrecks in the Pacific, and visiting underwater caves.
Rhodes has been a freelance graphic designer and feature writer since 1992 and his work has been recognized with a variety of awards from the Public Relations Society of America, PR Daily, PR News, PRSA Hampton Roads, the American Association of Medical Colleges, the National School Public Relations Association, the Florida Magazine Association and others.
He earned a Bachelors degree in Communication with a minor in Biology from James Madison University and a Masters degree in Professional Writing and Rhetoric from Old Dominion University. Rhodes earned his Doctorate in New Media and Professional Writing at ODU. His dissertation focused on the use of social media/digital backchannel as a means of building community in distance learning environments.
Rhodes is a resident of Norfolk, Virginia.
