Koehler Slagel

Academic Area(s)

Strategic Management, Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Foundations of Business – First Year Experience (FYE), Leadership, Marketing

Education

• Ph.D. Student, Virginia Tech – Individualized Interdisciplinary Ph.D. (iPhD)
• M.B.A., Radford University – Marketing
• B.S., Radford University – Business Management; Concentration in Entrepreneurship

Biography

Koehler Slagel is an Assistant Professor of Practice in the Department of Management at Virginia Tech’s Pamplin College of Business. His work sits at the intersection of strategy, entrepreneurship, innovation, leadership, and experiential business education.

Koehler brings experience across entrepreneurship, consulting, marketing, business development, organizational leadership, and military service into his teaching. His approach emphasizes experiential learning, applied problem-solving, and developing the judgment and adaptability needed to navigate uncertainty and complex business environments.

In addition to his academic work, Koehler maintains an active professional practice working with entrepreneurs, executives, and organizations on strategy, growth, leadership, marketing, and innovation. This continued engagement with industry informs his teaching, program development, and research.

Koehler earned his M.B.A. and B.S. in Business Management with a concentration in Entrepreneurship from Radford University. He is a United States Marine Corps veteran and a native of Blacksburg, Virginia.

Research Interests

Entrepreneurial Mindset Development, Entrepreneurship Education, Adaptive Innovation Capacity, Experiential Learning, Structured Failure and Experimentation, Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy, Interdisciplinary Entrepreneurship

Koehler’s research examines how individuals develop the capacity to adapt, experiment, innovate, and act effectively under uncertainty. He is particularly interested in how intentionally designed experiences with experimentation and failure influence entrepreneurial development and how educational environments can build lasting adaptive innovation capacity.

He is pursuing an Individualized Interdisciplinary Ph.D. at Virginia Tech focused on the developmental role of structured failure in entrepreneurial education.

Teaching Interests

Strategic Management, Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Foundations of Business, Leadership Development, Experiential Learning, Artificial Intelligence and Entrepreneurship

Koehler teaches courses in strategic management and entrepreneurship and contributes to first-year business and interdisciplinary entrepreneurship education. His teaching emphasizes experiential learning, case analysis, team-based problem-solving, and applying management concepts to real organizational challenges.

He also designs and facilitates workshops and learning experiences focused on entrepreneurial mindset, innovation, artificial intelligence and entrepreneurship, leadership under uncertainty, strategy, and professional development.

Academic & Program Leadership

Academic Coordinator – Innovate Living-Learning Community

Koehler serves as Academic Coordinator for Innovate, Virginia Tech’s interdisciplinary living-learning community focused on entrepreneurship and innovation. In this role, he co-teaches the first-year Innovate academic experience with Ron Poff and helps lead curriculum development, experiential programming, interdisciplinary collaboration, and the integration of entrepreneurial learning throughout the student experience.

Koehler also contributes to curriculum and faculty-development initiatives within the Department of Management and Pamplin College of Business. He has chaired grant-supported work in collaboration with Virginia Tech’s Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) focused on adjunct faculty onboarding and professional development.

Industry Experience & Practice

Koehler maintains an active consulting and professional practice working with entrepreneurs, executives, and organizations across a range of industries.

His areas of professional practice include strategy and organizational growth, entrepreneurship and venture development, leadership development, marketing and brand strategy, business development, innovation, and the application of emerging technologies and artificial intelligence in business.

This work provides an ongoing connection between management theory, contemporary organizational challenges, and classroom learning.

Service

Koehler contributes to departmental, college, and university initiatives related to entrepreneurship education, experiential learning, curriculum development, faculty development, and student engagement.

He also engages with external organizations, entrepreneurs, business leaders, and interdisciplinary groups through workshops, entrepreneurship programs, executive development, and industry partnerships.