Joe Bear, CTS, DMC-E-4K, CBJ
Joe Bear is the Head Media Geek at Virginia Western Community College. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Technical Theater from Longwood University and is an AVIXA Certified Technology Specialist as well as a Crestron DigitalMedia Certified Engineer 4K. Additionally, Joe is a certified BBQ judge with the Kansas City BBQ Society. Outside of work, he enjoys traveling the country in pursuit of eating BBQ in all 50 states. A father, stepfather, uncle, and proud husband, Joe also loves hunting for reptiles and amphibians–known as “herping”–with his family.
Jim Underwood
Jim is our token Irishman. He has lived in Roanoke since 1999, with his lovely wife Marguerite and their kids, Jack and Rory. He won an Edward R. Murrow Award while working as a Photojournalist for WSLS News Channel 10. He also worked as a documentary producer for Blue Ridge PBS where he worked on several Emmy Award winning shows and was nominated for a personal Emmy for his part in the documentary “Virginia in the Civil War: A Sesquicentennial Remembrance”. He also won numerous Virginia and national awards for 2 series he produced, Blue Ridge Excursions and Blue Ridge Adventures. He is now a proud Media Geek.
Jason Garnett, CTS
Jason is an AVIXA Certified Technology Specialist with a B.S. in Sociology from Averett University and an associate’s degree from Virginia Western. He began his A/V career at the Grandin Theatre, where he served as head projectionist and later General Manager for nearly 14 years. Jason also founded The Shadowbox Community Microcinema, which earned him the Arts Council’s Perry F. Kendig Award and a spot on the Blue Ridge Business Journal’s 30 Under 40 list. Additionally, he has worked as a projectionist for Boston Light & Sound on the 70mm releases of The Hateful Eight and Oppenheimer.
David Givens
Dave comes to VWCC after working as a Production Technician at the Moss Arts Center at Virginia Tech and on the Audio-Visual team at the Hotel Roanoke Conference & Convention Center. If you attended any VCCS events at the hotel since 2019 it is very likely you saw Dave gaff taping cords to the floor or assisting presenters with their laptops, projectors, microphones, and of course using Zoom. Dave got his start in AV by recording sermons at church as a young teen and then by picking up the bass guitar in his freshmen year of high school at Craig County. The rest has been a magical, musical, spirit driven journey of sound and light. He attributes most of his knowledge (and passion) to his four years at Christopher Newport University (BA in Political Science 2011) where he served with Intervarsity Christian Fellowship as “sound guy” (among other things) for the setup, operation, and tear down of weekly gatherings that typically included a 6-piece band. Dave also comes to us as a former VWCC student having completed the Architecture-Civil Engineering Aide Certificate program. He expects to continue in the Electrical Wiring program as work-life balance allows. When Dave is not at work, he is either running sound for bands at The Spot on Kirk, hanging with teenagers of Cornerstone Church, or enjoying time at home in Craig County with his family and Pitt-Boxer mix Mason.