She’s one of the friendliest faces and the first on your right in the south side of the BARC, where the University Advancement offices reside on campus. Crissy Byers (MA ’12) has been the force for joy behind Gonzaga’s Alumni Association events since 2014.
A native of Spokane Valley, Crissy is the product of nineteen years of Catholic education, having attended St. Mary Catholic School, St. John Vianney Catholic School, Gonzaga Prep, Loyola Marymount, and Gonzaga University. Her go-with-the-flow personality led her to an undergraduate degree in communications with minors in business and fine arts.
“I was just doing what I enjoyed, and they finally told me I had to declare a major,” she recalled with a laugh. After graduating, she returned to Spokane during the peak of The Great Recession, finding herself over-educated and under-employed working in retail. It seemed like the perfect time to go to grad school.
“I took a job as a surgery scheduler in a doctor’s office so I could work eight-to-five and then take classes in the evening,” explained Crissy. Taking advantage of every opportunity for travel presented in Gonzaga’s Communication and Leadership Studies (COML) program, Crissy went to St. Andrews Abbey in Valyermo, California, then to Italy, and even stayed an extra week to travel around Europe, loving every minute of it.
Rounding out her COML experience, Crissy wrote a thesis on identity construction and social media, which ended up landing her a job with the alumni association at the University of Puget Sound.
“I couldn’t believe it, but I had linked my thesis to my resume, and they actually read it,” she recalled.
Two years later, the magnetic force that Spokane had been in Crissy’s life was pulling on her once again—this time, because of Ryan Byers, who eventually became Crissy’s husband and the father of their two-year-old daughter Lucy (and another on the way in the summer of 2022!). Crissy and Ryan (pictured below with Lucy) met casually several years before but were formally introduced while spending a leisurely weekend at a mutual friend’s lake property. After deciding that Spokane was the place to be, Crissy applied for a position with the alumni team at Gonzaga, and was interviewed by then-Director of Alumni Relations, Bob Finn.
“It might be cliché, but my favorite part of my job would have to be the people,” she admitted. “Gonzaga has great alumni, and our team has people who really work their tails off, which makes it so much easier when we have long nights, travel, or challenges.”
Crissy recalled one the first events she pulled off at Gonzaga, and how everyone on the team—including the director—showed up ahead of schedule to help haul boxes and set up with her. She shared about another experience, with colleagues singing and dancing joyously together in the car with her, and how they’d handled a mistake she’d made with grace and forgiveness.
“Everyone here is just so nice,” Crissy said, “and it’s all genuine. That’s the best part.”
So, keep an eye out for Crissy’s infectious smile at the next Gonzaga Alumni and Friends event you attend—it’s hard to miss, and Advancement is truly lucky to have her bringing us all together.