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Jean Boyd earns top academic advisor honor


June 13, 2012

Jean Boyd, ASU's senior associate athletic director for the Office of Student Athlete Development, was selected as the 2012 Lan Hewlett Award winner at the 2012 National Association of Academic Advisors for Athletes Conference (N4A).

The Lan Hewlett Award, named for a long-time University of Texas advisor, is considered the top honor in the profession. Boyd, who has worked in Sun Devil Athletics (SDA) for 17 years and was a three-year member of the ASU football team, has a passion and commitment to ASU that is unmatched and permeates all areas of the athletic department.

The award is presented annually by the N4A for outstanding performance as an academic advisor for athletics and recognizes sustained professional service, a high level of competence in administrative skills, merited professional stature, innovation in meeting the needs of student-athletes, effectiveness in the development of junior staff, significant contributions to the field through publications and professional development, and leadership in university affairs.

Boyd began at ASU as an undergraduate student-athlete, where he was a member of the football team from 1991-94. He started his professional career in 1995 as a management intern in the former Sun Devil H.E.A.T. program and later became the manager for the Student Services and Life Skills programming. He was promoted to the Director of Student and Academic Services in 2002 and under his direction, the unit was renamed the Office of Student Athlete Development. He was promoted to Senior Associate Athletics Director in 2011 and has been charged with leading SDA in creating Sun Devil identity and is a key part of the overall strategic plan.

In addition, Boyd has developed strategies and programs to raise OSAD's graduation success rate and has worked closely with academic coaches to educate, train and strategize about ways to boost the department's academic progress rate (APR) to a 976 average, which was second in the Pac-10 this past year. He has also spearheaded a number of strategic changes in academic-support programming, including enhancing the First-Year Experience and implementing cohort events, which provide relevant programs, speakers and seminars for each class. In addition, Boyd also co-founded the non-profit organization "Scholar Baller" in an effort to promote academic and life achievement through motivational academic incentives and educational initiatives.