The College of Health has a world class student advising group—and that’s no exaggeration.
Shari Lindsey, EdD, the COH’s assistant dean of students, received the NACADA Outstanding Administrator Award in October. NACADA is the global community for academic advising and gives out a series of awards each year, with a historically strong showing from the University of Utah.
“I was flabbergasted to get this award,” Lindsey said. “We’d never applied for it before so I thought I’d throw my name out. It was a pretty involved application process but I tried to highlight the success we’ve had at the Center for Student Success.”
The award goes to an individual who spends at least 50% of their duties dedicated to advising administration. Lindsey submitted a 40-page portfolio, including her philosophy for advising and several letters of recommendation. She had plenty of material since she’s spent most of her career in the world of advising, joining the College of Health in 2009.
“A lot of people sort of fall into advising—it’s not necessarily the career people pick growing up,” Lindsey said. “I just loved it from the start, it was a great opportunity to give back and help students.”
After work with the University’s Departments of Political Science and Exercise and Sports Science, Lindsey started as an academic advising coordinator with the COH, before quickly moving into her current role as the assistant dean of students. She’s held that position for 13 years and has leveraged her knowledge to make many positive changes.
“I’d been in advising for a while and thought I saw some better ways to do things as a college,” she said. “Our advisors felt siloed, like they couldn’t be take time off and the salary levels weren’t what they should be. Moving into administration made sense for me to do something about this environment.”
Lindsey began researching the centralization of COH advisors and decided to focus on professional development of the position. Her goals included specific training in student development and relationship building in advising, data analytics and professional development. Today she supervises six advisors in one location who provide services to more than 1,600 University students.
She also focused on building relationships with main campus, including placing advisors on staff council and at recruiting and orientation events. And she formed a networking group for college coordinators across campus that meets monthly to share best practices.
“It’s a lot easier to provide resources for students if you know people across campus,” she said. “If we can get our advisors out in the community they’ll be much more effective.”
Lindsey’s hard work has paid off, with multiple COH advisors receiving honors at the university and national level. Her centralized advising model has set the standard for the profession at Utah and beyond. Former Dean David H. Perrin, PhD, summed it up best in his support letter:
“Shari is known throughout the College and across the campus for her professionalism, interpersonal skills, dependability, dedication, and enthusiasm. She is the consummate professional, admired by students, faculty, staff, and administrators at the University of Utah.”