Rachel Ball, ’11 Wins President’s Award for Academic Advising
From marine biology to higher education administration, a love of the sea and helping others has driven a campus leader’s success.
Rachel Ball is the director of academic advising for the College of Marine Sciences and Maritime Studies at Texas A&M University at Galveston.
A degree in marine biology and a career in academic advising may seem oceans apart, but that pairing helped Rachel Ball, ’11 elevate student guidance at Texas A&M University at Galveston.
Since returning to campus in 2013, when “academic advisor” wasn’t even a job title, Ball has tapped her scientific background and passion for helping people to transform an informal volunteer process into a centralized academic advising team focused on student success.
That work earned her a promotion to director of academic advising for the College of Marine Sciences and Maritime Studies in November 2025 and a Texas A&M university-wide 2026 President’s Award for Academic Advising this spring.
“I hear nothing but praise from students that she has guided, counseled, and prodded,” said Dr. Donna C. Lang, the executive associate dean for the College of Marine Sciences & Maritime Studies. “Our university is a better place, and our students are more successful because of dedicated staff like Rachel Ball.”
The award, which is coordinated by Texas A&M’s Office for Student Success and selected by a committee of students and advisors, was presented to Ball and four other recipients during the University Advisors and Counselors Award Ceremony on May 8 in College Station.
“Receiving this award is truly an honor, especially because it reflects the support of the students and colleagues I work with every day,” Ball said. “I believe in meeting students where they are, encouraging them to grow, and helping them navigate barriers with confidence.”
Like many students, Ball was drawn to the university by a love of sea life. She dressed up as a marine biologist and zookeeper for a career day in kindergarten and discovered the Galveston campus while doing a sixth-grade project.
“It was the only one I ever wanted to go to,” Ball said.
After earning her bachelor’s degree, Ball worked for aquariums at the Indianapolis Zoo in Indiana and Moody Gardens in Galveston, until the arrival of a first child prompted a return to campus. The job was advising students, but the title was “lead office associate” — a position previously held by one of Ball’s mentors, the late Patsy Witter.
“Patsy was the one helping you with all of your classes, making sure you graduated,” Ball said. “She knew my face, my name; she knew exactly what was going on, and to fill her shoes was such a weird thing for me, because she was my person.”
Ball’s department head, Dr. John Schwarz, now retired but still associated with the Seafood Safety Lab, advocated for training opportunities and giving her the academic advisor title. She earned her M.Ed. in Higher Education Administration from Texas Tech University in 2021.
In 2023, the campus adopted a centralized advising model and appointed Ball as its first Assistant Director of Academic Advising, tasking her with leading the creation of a new advising team, including hiring advisors dedicated to individual academic departments.
All along the way, skills developed as an undergraduate came into play.
“I learned a lot of my technical skills from my biology degree,” Ball said, citing software and statistics as examples, plus an ability to understand and connect with what drives her students.
“I can geek out with them a little bit,” she said. “What’s your favorite shark? Tell me all about it. I love that. I would love to hear about whatever project you’re working on, because I can understand it, and I can appreciate it.”
