Biography

Cyn Roberts is experienced in journalism, graphic design, marketing, education, and management. As a former military journalist and Art Institute of Portland (AiPD) graduate, her career moved quickly from graphic design into marketing and finally into education where she shares inspiration and passion for helping students complete their educational goals.

She began teaching as an adjunct instructor at AiPD in the fall of 2005, was a full time instructor by 2007 for the Design Management Department, and now leads the Humanities department overseeing more than 40 faculty. She is an active member of the faculty development committee, involved in planning and delivering faculty training, and delivering new faculty orientation. She has also served on the Reading, Writing, and Speech Across the Curriculum taskforce.

She has actively worked on retention initiatives since 2010. Currently, she leads a team of interdisciplinary staff who develop, plan and initiate retention initiatives. Specifically, in support of retention efforts, she has co-developed and is co-facilitating faculty workshops for teachers who teach first-year courses at AIPD. She also developed and launched a highly successful first-year seminar course raising first to second term persistence by 7-8% in only one term.

Her educational background includes a BS Graphic Design from The Art Institute of Portland, an MBA in Marketing from the University of Phoenix and a Doctorate of Edcuation in Instructional Leadership from Argosy University. Her dissertation research explored the lived experiences of nontraditionally aged, first-genearation students who studied art. In her free time she enjoys gardening, oil painting, and travel.