Crista Gray, a Ph.D. candidate in the cultural foundations of education at Syracuse University, has been hired as as the director of UALR’s TRiO  Student Support Services and Ronald McNair Scholars programs at the university’s Academic Success Center.

Gray will fill the position left vacant in June by the retirement of Valerie Brown.

Gray is a former program coordinator and assistant director for the McNair Scholars Program at Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio and a former academic counselor for the Upward Bound Program at the Research Foundation of State University of New York (SUNY) in Binghamton, N.Y.

She has a master of arts degree in community-clinical psychology and bachelor of arts degrees in psychology and sociology. She has also completed a program in grant proposal Preparation and a Certificate of Advanced Study in Women’s and Gender Studies.