After a national search, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock has selected a familiar face to take over the post as the university’s new director of admissions. 

Chelsea Bishop Ward, former associate director of admissions, will begin her new role on Feb. 1. She has more than 15 years’ experience in higher education, including admissions, recruitment, scholarships, records and registration, financial aid, and sales and marketing.

“I’m very excited about my new position, and I can’t wait to get back to UA Little Rock,” she said. “I left UA Little Rock three years ago and went out into the private sector. I love what I do immensely, but when the opportunity arose to come home as the new director of admissions, I couldn’t pass it up.”

Bishop Ward began working at UA Little Rock as a student worker at age 17. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism and public relations and a master’s degree in liberal studies with an emphasis in college student affairs and rhetoric and writing from UA Little Rock.

She is currently director of education services and marketing/sales at GuidEd Solutions, a division of the Student Loan Guarantee Foundation of Arkansas. Prior to her role at GuidEd, she served UA Little Rock as associate director of admissions for over six years. She joined UA Little Rock full time in 2004 and previously worked as a recruitment coordinator and degree audit specialist.

Bishop Ward is a member of the Arkansas Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators and Arkansas Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers. In her previous time at UA Little Rock, she served on Staff Senate.

Bishop Ward and her husband, Steve Ward, systems manager in the UA Little Rock Office of Records and Registration, live in Benton and are the parents of two children, Addison, 8, and Brady, 3.

In the upper right photo, Chelsea Bishop Ward (right), UA Little Rock’s new director of admissions, is shown with her husband, Steve Ward, and children, Addison and Brady. Submitted photo.