Born in Lawton, Oklahoma, and raised in Houston, Texas, Israel fell in love with Colorado on his first journey from the Great Plains to the Rocky Mountains in the summer of 2015, when he visited Colorado Springs to explore the Garden of the Gods and climb the Manitou Incline. He earned both his Bachelor of Science in Technical Communications and Master’s in Rhetoric and Composition Pedagogy from the University of Houston-Downtown. After years as an academic advisor and writing tutor for community college and university students in Houston, he accepted an advising position at CU Boulder and made his home in the Centennial State. Now, as the Assistant Director of Campus First Year Advising Initiatives, Israel gets to work with first-year advisors across the University, gathering their valuable insights into the student experience and helping them continually improve their positive impact on students.
Israel is an ardent believer in the transformative power of education and that every student deserves the opportunity to set their own trajectory in life. He sees collaboration amongst student support teams as the key to collective student success and truly holistic student development. Moreover, Israel knows that it takes courage and will to be a student, to show up to class each day committed to a plan of action aimed at achieving your goal. Thus, students have his utmost respect, and he is looking for the best in each student to help them see the best in themselves. As a leader in the first year advising community, his daily mission is to codify the symbiotic relationship between advisors and their students, ensuring that individuals in both groups feel that they belong here and know that they contribute irreplaceable value to this community; if he is successful, they also know that they have an ally in their pursuit of meaningful growth at CU Boulder.
Israel admires the American Bison for their balance of sheer power and stamina, which is only magnified by their inherent regard for the wellbeing of the collective whole. This is the spirit he hopes to maintain here as a Buff on their ancestral lands. He is blessed that some of his closest friends are fellow advisors, who commonly enjoy authentic conversation, as well as finer foods and libations.