Nancy Ceja

Staff Writer

Kathryn M. Hildebrand, Idaho State University’s Dean of Education, passed away last Monday from cancer.

Kathy, as many of her friends and colleagues called her, had been ISU’s Dean of Education since early March 2018. Her life was always filled with helping those in the education system, both faculty and students.

Before coming to serve as ISU’s Dean of Education, she served as dean at Troy University in Alabama and had academic experience from Northern Arizona University.

Hildebrand had obtained an undergraduate degree in psychology and a master’s in education from Stanford University and a doctorate in physical education and instruction from Florida State University. Hildebrand also competed in track and field for most of her college experience.

“Kathy was only with us for about nine months, but in that short time she has impacted the College in a number of ways. She initiated several college renovation projects that are on-going,” said Mark Neill, the assistant dean of the College of Education. “She initiated projects aimed at increasing enrollment, including making more classes available to College of Education students via online formats.”

According to Neill, Hildebrand also wanted to streamline admission processes for undergraduate and graduate students. She worked on building stronger relationships with the College’s donors and partners to expand programs across ISU’s campus to make them more accessible to more students.

These partnerships would be used to allow high school students to pursue college-level credits while still attending their regular school hours. She was supportive of any ideas to better students’ experiences while attending ISU, Neill said.

Hildebrand’s aim as dean was to make a positive, long-lasting impact on ISU, even if it was a short amount of time.

“Dean Hildebrand cherished her relationships with others the most. She demonstrated caring and respect for each individual she interacted with,” Neill said. “She could be counted on to maintain confidence and placed great value on diversity, acceptance and inclusion.”

Associate dean Dotty Sammon and Neill have taken over Hildebrand’s responsibilities as dean. The sudden loss of Hildebrand was a shock to most of the faculty and students.

“One thing she wanted to do was to have the College determine its identity and its long term goals,” said Sammon, who started as associate dean in January. “We had several faculty meetings where she led brainstorming sessions on what courses, what structure we should have as a College, the best to help our students.”

As always, counseling resources are available to all on campus.

Kathy Hildebrand impacted many students, faculty and staff members at ISU in the short time she served here. In her memory, she requested that others contribute to the Kathy Hildebrand Educational Scholarship Fund for Orphans at Hope 4 Kids International.

“In her short time at Idaho State, Kathy had already touched our lives in a number of meaningful ways,” said President Kevin Satterlee in a statement sent to the ISU community. “She demonstrated her commitment and competence to her academic discipline as well as her compassionate leadership style. From this, Kathy worked her way into our hearts.”