Hal Boyd has been named Special Assistant to the President at Eastern Kentucky University.
Boyd is a 2016 Juris Doctor degree candidate at Yale Law School, where he has served as president of the campus chapter of the J. Reuben Clark Law Society since 2014 and focused his studies and research on legal and governance issues involving higher education. It was in that capacity that Boyd first met EKU President Michael Benson when Benson spoke at the Ivy League school in November 2014. The two went on to co-author an academic article examining the democratic ideals of higher education.
“We are very excited to welcome Hal and his family to the Colonel family,” Benson said. “In addition to a very keen intellect and sterling academic credentials, Hal brings to this position an unrelenting commitment to the transformative power of education. He will be a very valuable asset to our team, just as his predecessor, Matt Roan, was during his time in my office.” (Roan now serves as deputy director of athletics at EKU.)
Boyd, 29, graduated magna cum laude with University Honors in 2011 from Brigham Young University, where he studied philosophy and was involved in student government. He also attended the University of Cambridge’s 2008 Pembroke-King’s Programme and was a member of the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi.
Before pursuing a law degree, Boyd wrote professionally for the Deseret News of Salt Lake City and for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, where he was special assistant for executive projects, senior associate of public affairs and executive secretary to the Church’s Public Affairs Committee. His writing has appeared in various scholarly and journalistic venues, including The Oxford Handbook series and BYU Studies Quarterly. He is also co-editor of “Psalms of Nauvoo,” a volume of 19th century religious poetry.
Boyd, who plans to pursue a career in higher education administration and law, has also worked as a research assistant for distinguished members of the Yale Law School faculty and as a summer associate in the Cleveland law office of Squire Patton Boggs and the Detroit office of Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP.
“There’s no other person I’d rather work for than President Benson and there’s no other place I’d rather serve than EKU,” Boyd said. “My undivided focus will be to communicate the President’s vision and to serve all the University’s constituencies in a manner that reflects the values of shared governance.”
Boyd, an Ohio native with ties to Massachusetts, is a direct descendant of famed Mayflower voyager and Plymouth Governor William Bradford and plans to become an active member of The Kentucky Society of Mayflower Descendants. He and his wife, Holly, also an Ohio native, have one son, Theodore, 2, and are expecting their second this spring.