Cassandre Giguere Alvarado is Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education at Moody College of Communication and also holds an appointment in the Stan Richards School of Advertising & Public Relations. Alvarado has a strong commitment toward helping all students succeed, as well as deep expertise in undergraduate administration and support at UT Austin.

Dr. Alvarado's teaching, research and professional practice focuses on student success. Over the past five years, she has designed and led student success innovations that have dramatically improved student success at UT-Austin. She was one of the chief architects of the University's recent 4-year graduate rate breakthroughs and her work has been recognized by the Association of Public & Land Grant Universities, the National Academic Advising Association, and the National Resource Center on the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition. Her current research projects seek to enhance our understanding of the conditions for student success. She is PI on UT-Austin's contribution to a Department of Education First in The World Grant (MAAPS) - a major collaborative effort among 11 universities to study academic advising efficacy.

Dr. Alvarado is also a faculty affiliate of the Initiative for the Development of Academic Innovation at LASPAU-Harvard University, where she has worked with more than 500 faculty from Latin America and the Caribbean to help improve student success and retention.

A 25 year veteran of university administration, Dr. Alvarado's signature program at The University of Texas at Austin was the creation of the First-year Interest Groups (FIGS), a learning community initiative she began in 1998. The initiative focuses on bringing together the many facets of university life in one nexus for each student in an effort to maximize their success. The university now offers a learning community to all incoming first year students. Additionally, Dr. Alvarado led the University's first major Quality Enhancement Plan initiative, providing the blueprint and assessment of the University's first major curriculum reform in the last 30 years. Most recently, one of her innovations leading the graduation rate improvements at Texas, the Graduation Help Desk, has been replicated at all 8 academic institutions in the University of Texas System.

An alumna of Leadership Texas (LT'10), Dr. Alvarado has served as a member of the committee of the board for the Foundation for Women's Resources. Dr. Alvarado holds a bachelor of journalism, master of education and doctor of philosophy degree from The University of Texas at Austin.