Bradley Kyker - Advising resource specialist, Cal Poly College of Agriculture, Food & Environmental Sciences

Advising specialist Bradley Kyker, 39, supports about 4,000 students and faculty in Cal Poly’s College of Agriculture, Food & Environmental Sciences. Since 2003, he has trained faculty and peer advisers while counseling students with more complex issues.

“Diversity is really important to me in the work I do in higher education,” said Kyker, who’s developing a scholarship program to promote diversity and leadership in the college.

He coordinates the Cuesta College Agricultural Technology Program and has spoken regionally on Native American student retention.

“He is committed to serving the students and the residents of this community,” said Cuesta’s Andrea Devitt, who nominated him.

A San Luis Obispo native, Kyker graduated from Cal Poly in 1992. He left a public relations career, then earned a master’s in higher education counseling at California State University Long Beach.

He’s a singer with the Cuesta Master Chorale and sits on the San Luis Obispo Symphony board, where he supported music education in schools with the Everyday Etudes program. In 2006, he led a team of Trinity Presbyterian Church volunteers to do Hurricane Katrina repairs in New Orleans.