Riley McIsaac

Riley McIsaac serves as the inaugural Director of Grants Development in the Office of Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) Initiatives at The University of Arizona (UArizona). In this role, Riley leads strategy and implementation of grants development activities that support capacity building efforts as an HSI. Her work resides squarely at the intersection of research development as a discipline and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) focused efforts in higher education. Riley is passionate about finding innovative ways to remove systematic barriers that block equitable access to education and creating culturally responsive pathways to success for underserved students. In her first three years in this role, HSI Initiatives has directly supported the development of proposals resulting in $26M in successfully funded awards. 

Riley has worked in higher education for over 13 years, serving in various capacities including grants administration, project and program management, and research lab management. Prior to her tenure at UArizona, Riley worked in refugee resettlement and foreign exchange.  She holds her B.A. from McGill University, where she double majored in Sociocultural Anthropology and English Literature, and an M.A. from UArizona in Latin American Studies, focusing on U.S. - Mexico border issues and immigration. She has lived in Ecuador and Peru and is fluent in the Spanish language.