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Dear colleagues,
Dr. Sari Byerly, our colleague and Assistant Vice President and Director of our Access and Opportunity Programs, will be leaving Idaho State to take the position of inaugural AVP for Student Pathways and Success at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah. Her last day at ISU will be January 12, 2024.
Dr. Byerly joined the office that preceded the Access and Opportunity Programs unit in 2012, starting as the Director of TRIO Student Services supervising a unit of 12 full-time people and three grants, with a total budget of $1 million a year. In the 10 years since that start, Dr. Byerly has assisted ISU in attaining $30 million in private and federal funding, efforts that have enabled the A&O Programs to grow to support over 35 full-time positions, 10 grants, and over $3 million a year in external funding. She has led key collaborations with the College of Southern Idaho and the College of Eastern Idaho to support pre college adult and youth programs, transition services, and partnerships that have advanced the postsecondary pipeline across 12 Idaho counties, increased Latina/o/x staff representation, and driven a 36% growth in postsecondary enrollment by Latino/a/x pre college youth and adults. At the community level, Dr. Byerly led high-profile local, regional, and national commissions and boards. As part of the Board of Directors for the Council for Opportunity in Education (COE) located in Washington, D.C., she traveled throughout the United States and the territories to train leaders across 10 different regions to create a unified, yet specialized, vision for educational access and success. She also chaired the national conference for that organization, resulting in the second highest attendance in its history at the time of the conference, and, as co-chair of the State Leadership Committee, Dr. Byerly advanced the inaugural Executive Leadership Institute in partnership with Princeton University. Her hard work on the national stage earned her a place as the 2020-2021 board chair, the first female from the Northwest to hold this honor since COE’s inception in 1981. Dr. Byerly’s work at ISU and on the local, regional, and national stage has been driven by a passion to increase access to higher education, and we applaud that commitment.
Please join us in thanking Dr. Byerly for her dedication and service and wishing her well in this next stage of her professional journey.
Sincerely,
Craig Chatriand
Vice President for Student Affairs
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