Kyle Kaalberg serves in the president’s office as Executive Director for Strategy and Strategic Initiatives. His role focuses primarily on working with the university’s strategic plan where he leads and executes processes, under the President’s direction, for strategy and strategic initiatives, providing principal management support to assure seamless function. His efforts to align actions impacts units across campus. In addition, he administers the Cohen Scholars Program. He is actively involved with numerous committees.

Kyle holds a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis in Literacy and a cognate in Educational Leadership. He has conducted research on teachers’ implementation of critical literacy and new literacies, blogging as a new literacies practice, literacy instruction and field experience models, school design through a new literacies perspective, and grading contracts in an advanced composition course that utilizes print-based and digital media. His dissertation research involved iPad implementation in a university course and was entitled “Using iPads to Enhance Teaching and Learning in a Clinic-Based Literacy Course,” which has also been published as a book.

From 2012 – 2016, Kyle served as Special Assistant to the Chief of Staff. In this position, he assisted with managing responses to a diverse range of issues that are directed to the president’s office from the campus and community constituents. Specifically, he was as a member of the leadership team for the Top Tier Initiative; managed submissions to the NSHE Board of Regents’ office; directed the Presidential Student Ambassador program; administered the Cohen Scholarship program; worked with public relations, communications, and special projects; and performed a variety of other duties specific to the day to day operations for the president’s office. In addition, he managed presidential events from 2012 – 2015.

Prior to his role in the president’s office, Kyle was involved across campus in many ways as a graduate student. In addition to serving as a UNLV Presidential Student Ambassador, Kyle was a graduate assistant and served in the capacities of Course Instructor (Literacy Education) and Department Liaison. He was a founding member, Board Director, and Vice-President of UNLV Cares Food Bank. Within the Department of Teaching & Learning, he founded and served as chair of DREC, the Doctoral Research and Education Collaboration, a student group committed to high-quality teaching and research. Kyle represented his department as an appointed council representative with the Graduate & Professional Student Association (GPSA), where he chaired the Community Service Committee and represented graduate students on university wide committees, including the Course Evaluation Task Group and Student Health Insurance. He was also chair of the Doctoral Advisory Group, Chair of the Cohort Mentor Planning Group, and served on Literacy Committee, the GPSA Research Forum Committee, and was the Graduate College Recruitment Director for the UNLV Golden Key International Honour Society. Kyle was also an adjunct faculty member at Nevada State College for four years.

His educational experience prior to UNLV involved living and spending time teaching and serving in leadership and administrative roles in schools in Iowa and Missouri, as well as Coahuila, Mexico. He earned National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Certification in Early and Middle Childhood Literacy/Reading-Language Arts in 2004. His career in education has resulted in Resolutions from the Missouri House of Representatives and the Missouri Senate, as well as honors from the Missouri Governor and the Regional Professional Development Center of Southeast Missouri. Prior to his career in education, Kyle served as Associate Director of Transportation for FirstStudent, Inc. (Iowa City, IA) where his duties involved planning school bus transportation for 4,500 students, marketing, driver safety and training, payroll operations, and managing accounts payable and receivable.

Kyle volunteers and has provided service for events such as Giving Day, Hugh O’Brien Youth Leadership Program (HOBY), Family Leadership Initiative (FLI), Project ASIST, UNLV College of Education GRIPS, UNLV Career Day, the Las Vegas Marathon, and the Salvation Army Bell Ringing Campaign. He is a member and former Vice President of the University of Iowa Las Vegas Chapter Alumni Association. He holds membership in many professional organizations, including the National Scholars Honor Society and Kappa Delta Pi.

Outside of campus life, Kyle spends his time with his toddler son, Caden. Kyle also enjoys walking, hiking, biking, swimming, coffee, reading, movies, dinners, shows, and socializing.