Toya Ballard - Senior Associate AD/Director, Student-Athlete Success Center - Staff Directory

Staff Directory

Toya Ballard

Title:
Senior Associate AD/Director, Student-Athlete Success Center
Email:
Phone:
561-297-6957

LaToya “Toya” Ballard comes to FAU after serving in a similar role at institutions such as Oklahoma, Georgia Tech, Florida State and Mississippi State. For the first time in her career, Ballard will have the opportunity to draw upon nearly 15 years of experience to lead the academics team as its director of the student-athlete center for academic excellence and will hold the title of senior associate athletics director for academics and student development.

Ballard inherits a program that has established a core value of excellence as exemplified by posting a 3.0 or better GPA for 13-consecutive semesters, or the past six and a half years. The center also is housed in the state of art Schmidt Family Center for Academic and Athletic Excellence.

Ballard most recently served as the director of student athlete advising at Oklahoma, where she held a position from November 2019 until April 2022. While at Oklahoma, Ballard provided direct academic oversight to the football team and served as a secondary contact for softball. In that role, Ballard managed the process of monitoring the athletes, while serving as a liaison to student-athletes, coaches, tutors, and as well as campus leadership. She was also responsible for the various program’s budgets, including the student-athlete assistance fund. Ballard made time to serve on the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion committee where she as a sub-committee chair for professional development.

She made the move to Norman, Oklahoma from Atlanta, Georgia, where she served at Georgia Tech and began her career there as an academic coordinator in 2016. Ballard was elevated to assistant director, a position she held until leaving in 2019. She left a position that had oversaw all academic support structures for more than 200 student-athletes representing men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s swimming and diving, men’s and women’s track and field and men’s tennis. While at GT, Ballard created impactful and transitional programming for incoming first year and transfer student-athletes through the Jump Start Jackets bridge program and served as the instructor for the freshman success and transition course. Her GT position began by providing academic support for approximately 20 football student-athletes, as well as at-risk student-athletes through a supervised, structured and objective-based study hall with approximately 30 freshmen student-athletes.

Prior to Georgia Tech, Ballard worked at Florida State, where she served as an assistant director and academic advisor for three years, 2013-16. While with the Seminoles, Ballard coordinated the degree completion program in which former student-athletes work to complete their degree after they have exhausted eligibility. She also assisted current and former student-athletes with job placement opportunities upon graduation. She began her Tallahassee experience by providing oversight for the football academic support, which included monitoring eligibility requirements and advising student-athletes toward pursuit of graduation requirements. She also worked with NFL scouts to discuss student-athletes that were draft eligible along with traveling with the team in an effort to conduct study hall sessions at away competitions

Ballard also had two, two-year stints each at Mississippi State (2011-13) and UCF (2009-11). She held the roles of athletic academic counselor and assistant academic advisor, respectively. Her role at Mississippi State included providing academic guidance as the lead counselor for approximately 115 student-athletes representing women’s basketball, men’s and women’s track and field and volleyball. She also worked with approximately 30 at-risk student-athletes to enhance their basic academic skills such as time management, organization, study, note-taking and traveled with the women’s basketball team. At UCF, Ballard worked as an academic mentor and assistant academic advisor for approximately 20 students representing football and women’s golf, while supervising the football study halls, which consisted of approximately 50 student-athletes.

Ballard began her career in Florida as a coach. She served as an assistant track and field coach for Orange County Public Schools from 2008-11.

She earned her bachelor’s degree in physical education, teaching and coaching, from UCF in ‘07 while representing the Knights in track and field. Ballard then obtained a master’s degree in sport and fitness – sport leadership from UCF in ‘10.

Ballard holds licenses and certifications in diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace from USF’s Muma College of Business (June 2021). She is also a member of women leaders in college sports, black sports professionals (BSP), athlete network – current and former college athletes and is a member of N4A – national association of academic and student-athlete development.

Ballard is joined in south Florida by her husband Travis, twins born in December of 2022 and their dog, Jax.