Alicia Hayes, the associate director of national scholarships & experiential fellowships for the UC Berkeley Office of Undergraduate Research & Scholarships (OURS), has been elected to serve as the first Black president of the National Association of Fellowship Advisors (NAFA). Hayes, who came to Berkeley as a staff member of the Cal Alumni Association 1999 and assumed her role in national scholarships in 2001, will serve a term as vice-president/president-elect from 2025-2027 and will ascend the presidency for the 2027-2029 term.
“I’m honored that our members selected me to be their next president,” said Hayes. “I’m also thrilled that I’ll be the first Black president of NAFA. For me, that’s history-making but also humbling as well. I never thought I’d be in this position when I started in 2001.”
“Alicia represents the very best of Berkeley,” said OURS Director Jessica Stewart, Hayes’ supervisor. “She has been steadfast in her commitment to Berkeley students, serving as a national fellowships advisor for almost 25 years. In that time, she has honed an advising praxis that is both affirmative and reflective, and she has developed a superlative knowledge of prestigious scholarship programs and the values and priorities that influence selection.”
Stewart highlighted the importance of Hayes’ NAFA involvement and her commitment to understanding and engaging in the broader national and international contexts that influence the programs she supports, saying her leadership in the field “ensures that Berkeley's reputation for excellence extends to the world of fellowships advising.”
NAFA describes itself as the only higher education association that focuses entirely on the role of fellowships advisors in higher education, bringing together advisors, faculty, administrators, and foundations. Its purpose is to promote educational, ethical, and equitable fellowship practices. Originally founded in 1999, Hayes has nearly been involved in the organization since its inception. She describes it as having been born of a need for collegial support in a position that is unique and singular on most college campuses.
Hayes recalled her predecessor Leah Carroll, who attended the first NAFA conference as a Berkeley staff member, informing her upon her hiring that NAFA was “an excellent organization, and she [needed] to join.” Hayes did so, participating in workshops and connecting with colleagues to learn about the many programs and opportunities available to students.
“When I came into the position, I was very unfamiliar with many of the scholarships and fellowships that I advise on,” Hayes admitted. “It was embarrassing for me at first. I didn’t even know what the Rhodes Scholarship was. I’d heard about it, but I really thought it was a different type of fellowship.”
NAFA supported Hayes in her transition and helped her establish herself as a practitioner of the specialized “one-on-one, kind of hands-on, high-touch advising” she describes her position as necessitating. Hayes quickly moved from simply learning from NAFA workshops, conferences, and colleagues to sharing her own practice as a professional at Berkeley.
“I was asked, ‘Would you like to present?’ rather early on,” Hayes shared. “I was a little bit intimidated, but as a person who works at an R1 university, our members at the time were very keen on, ‘How do you do what you do at Berkeley?’ ‘How has it been done?’ so I just presented it from my point of view, and that’s how I started to get involved.”
Hayes describes NAFA as fostering a “sense of collegiality” that allows advisors from different institutions to support each other and their students in tangible ways.
“I've advised students that are not Berkeley students,” Hayes shared. “I love the work that I do. I love working with students… I want students everywhere at institutions throughout the country to have that same kind of advising and feel that connection with whomever they work with.”
Just this year, Hayes supported a Marshall Scholarship candidate from her alma mater after a NAFA colleague who had never had a Marshall candidate reached out for guidance, assisting in a mock interview and meeting with the student to discuss the process. Both that student and then-L&S senior Eli Glickman, a student Hayes advised at Berkeley, were ultimately named scholars.
Upon being named a scholar, Glickman shared his appreciation for Hayes, saying, “I would like to express my profound gratitude to Mrs. Alicia Hayes for her faith in me and her support throughout this process. Mrs. Hayes is one of the kindest, most thoughtful people I have met during my time at this school, and this achievement would not have been possible without her.”
Hayes has several goals in mind for when she ascends the presidency, including expanding and formalizing mentorship opportunities within NAFA “to further entrench a sense of belonging” for members.
“It is very difficult to do what we do on our campuses and to interact with other advisors,” said Hayes, citing the reality that on most campuses, fellowship advisors can feel isolated as the only advisor of their kind. “It’s so gratifying to connect to a community of people who know what you do and who can support you.”
Hayes also hopes to bring more institutions into the fold of the organization. She previously successfully supported connecting historically Black colleges and universities to NAFA, and she has now set her sights on community colleges.
“As a person who was a community college student, a transfer student, and first-gen, one of the things I hope to do in my presidency is to bring community colleges into our membership,” said Hayes. “Many students at those institutions are eligible for the fellowships that we advise on, and I think it’s incredibly important especially when we discuss belonging to really think about varying populations.”
Hayes shared that in many national fellowship competitions, the vast majority of students who are contenders do not come from underrepresented backgrounds, and she sees NAFA as a vehicle to open these opportunities for more students.
“I think NAFA is… thinking of strategies to bring these students into the awareness of these competitions to make them see that, ‘Yes, you, too can apply,’ ‘You, too, can be a scholar.’ That’s something that in thinking of belonging I’m very mindful of as well,” Hayes said.
In the interim, as NAFA vice-president, Hayes will be responsible for organizing the biannual national NAFA conference, something she has experience supporting in the past, having served as the official host for the 2011 conference in Oakland.
This election is not the first time Hayes has been recognized for her professional excellence. Among other accolades, Hayes is a two-time recipient of the UC Berkeley Chancellor’s Outstanding Staff Award, having received the honor in both 2011 and 2022, a recipient of the Mary Slakey Howell Excellence in Advising and Student Services Award, the highest advising award honor at UC Berkeley, and a recipient of the NAFA McCray Exemplary Service Award.
“Rather than resting on her well-established expertise, Alicia is always striving for improvements,” said Stewart, “whether that means evolving her services to meet students where they are, introducing process modifications that better support student success, or identifying emerging scholarship programs that better align with student demand.”
Hayes encourages students who are interested in pursuing scholarships and fellowships to explore the OURS National Scholarships website to discover opportunities available to them. She believes in the power of these programs and is willing to support all types of students who hope to pursue them.
“Regardless of the numbers, we are happy to meet with students,” said Hayes. “We do it. We accomplish it… It amazes me that with the talent that we have at Berkeley and the many accomplishments of our students that they still have doubts about the possibility of being selected or considered. I tell students every year, every semester that it is not a mistake that they’re here. They’re here for a reason… and we’re here to provide support.”
