Focus On Staff With Chris McCoy

Focus On highlights faculty, staff, students and researchers at the UC Academic Health Center. To suggest someone to be featured, please email uchealthnews@uc.edu.

Chris McCoy is the assistant director of the Office of Student Affairs at the College of Allied Health Sciences (CAHS).

McCoy earned a bachelor’s degree in university studies and a master’s in adult and higher education at Morehead State University, before coming to UC. In the Office of Undergraduate Admissions, he was responsible for recruiting new students from Kentucky. In January, he came to CAHS to serve as one of the academic advisers for the college.

This year, he was named the 2013 Pi Kappa Phi National Volunteer of the Year, one of the highest honors the fraternity awards to its alumni members.

What do you do in academic advising? What's your favorite part of the job?
"Academic advising is very broad and you never know what the student will bring to discuss during their appointments.

"I cover a wide variety of topics and tasks when advising, from helping a student choose the right courses to stay on track to complete their degree, giving advice in preparation for applying to graduate programs, to helping determine if the students’ current major is the best fit for them and everything else in-between.

"My favorite part of the job is definitely getting to know the students. We have great students in CAHS doing some great things inside and outside of the classroom. I have advisees that are doing all kinds of impressive things such as playing Division-I athletics, presenting research at conferences and studying abroad. Our students are leaders on campus as well. It’s great getting to speak to them regarding their academic plans, and you really get to know the students throughout your time together.

"It is really cool being able to help with graduation and see your advisee in line preparing to receive their degree. As advisors we get to work with the students from day one of orientation all the way up to graduation day.”

What do students and others not know about academic advising?
"We do so much behind-the-scenes work that not everyone sees. We organize the college program portion of new student orientation, provide support to the college ambassador program, support the college’s student organizations, sit on university and college committees, analyze data and work on refining procedures and processes. Everything we do has the student at the focus.”

What do you do in your life outside the university?
"I serve as the campus chapter advisor for two student organizations, Pi Kappa Phi Fraternity and Phi Sigma Pi Honor Fraternity. I love to watch TV, especially ‘Survivor,’ ‘The Amazing Race’ and ‘Modern Family.’ I enjoy traveling when I get the chance. I also like to collect bow ties.

"My wife, Kim, also works here at UC (at the College of Engineering and Applied Science) so it is great that we get to drive to work together each day. We have two awesome dogs, Mack and Charlie.”