Faculty Spotlight

Get to Know New Department Chair Dr. Amy Hayes

HayesEast Texas native Dr. Amy Hayes grew up in Nacogdoches, Texas, about an hour south of Tyler. She earned a doctorate in 2014 from UT Austin. Hayes arrived at UT Tyler as an assistant professor of psychology later that fall, and in 2019, she earned a UT System Outstanding Teaching Award for her dedication to student success. 

Hayes, now an associate professor, serves as chair of the UT Tyler Department of Psychology and Counseling ­– a role she assumed in August 2020. 

Learn more about her in the following question and answer session. 

What challenges have you overcome since becoming department chair?

Coming into the department chair role during the middle of a global pandemic was extremely challenging. Learning how to do a new job is difficult any time you do it, but especially when you are learning to do it when nothing is normal. It has been tough learning how to lead the faculty and staff when so many people have been working remotely for the past year. I owe a lot to Dean Hickey for teaching me the ropes this year, and to my staff in the department: Linda, Kristie, and Lauren, who have been up here with me all year.

How did you enter academia? Did you always want to become a professor?

I didn’t always know that I wanted to be a professor, but I had a lot of role models for it in my life. Both of my parents have PhDs, and my mom was a math professor at SFA in Nacogdoches. Watching her be a brilliant, competent women in a field that is dominated by men really drove me, consciously or unconsciously, to follow in her footsteps. She is the smartest person I know and has always been a role model for me in my work and in my life. 

Watching her navigate the world of science and academics as a woman and as a mom is really what led me to my primary research interests: How does a person’s group identity (gender, race, etc.) impact their experiences in their education and careers? What kinds of biases do people face when they are trying to pursue their goals? 

What are some ideas and goals you have that will move the department forward?

My goals for the department during my first year as chair were mainly to keep things afloat, and when possible, to move things forward. We accomplished a lot as a team, including increasing support for our graduate programs, and growing our numbers in a time in higher education when many programs are shrinking. 

My long-term goals for the department are to increase support resources for our students at every level, to improve the efficiency and transparency of the governance processes in the department, and to build up the leadership capacity among our faculty, staff and students. We have a lot of folks on the team who are very good at what they do, and I would love to continue to build up their capacity to do their best work.

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Hayes and her husband, Kevin, have been married for 11 years, and the couple has two sons: Henry, age 8, and Bobby, age 5. Collectively, they enjoy the outdoors, swimming and spending time with family in the area.

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Read more from the July 2021 issue!