When Theresa Boucher’s mother, Lori Sabin, was a teenager, she wanted to take higher-level math. She was capable and interested, but the school she attended would not allow women into those courses at the time.

Years later, while raising three daughters on her own, Sabin made sure her children heard something different. She never told them what they could not do.

That stayed with Boucher. At a large university, she knows how quickly a person can feel shut out when they do not know where to go or who to ask.

Boucher, now executive assistant for the Lee Business School dean's office,  has become one of the people colleagues call when they are stuck, unsure where to start, or trying to understand how something works.

Boucher is the first-place recipient of the 2026 President’s Classified Staff Employee of the Year awards, which recognizes classified staff whose work strengthens the university community.

“I enjoy helping people,” Boucher said. “I know how hard it is not to know what’s going on. If I can save someone some steps, I want to do that.”

Learning UNLV From the Inside

Boucher knew UNLV first as a student. She earned her bachelor’s degree in business with an emphasis in marketing from Lee Business School in 2008 and later returned for her MBA, graduating in 2013.

While completing her graduate degree, she worked as a graduate assistant in the marketing department, gaining a view into the internal side of UNLV most students don’t get to see. She also observed how often student support depends on people behind the scenes knowing where a question, form, or request needs to go.

By the time Boucher joined the dean’s office in 2015, she had seen Lee Business School as a student, graduate assistant, staff member, and alumna. Since then, she has worked through leadership changes and shifting priorities.

“I’ve tried to adapt and be open to change,” Boucher said. “I think that’s the most important thing, no matter what position you’re in. Be flexible.”

Building Community 

In the dean’s office, Boucher works through the details that keep things moving: schedules, meetings, web updates, event support, and the stream of drop-in questions that come up every day.

Her nominators noted the range of her work, from supporting multiple administrators to reviewing outdated web content and creating event materials in-house instead of sending the work out. Colleagues also pointed to her resourcefulness: the kind of person who will reuse what can be reused, create materials in-house when she can, and figure out a process before passing the question along.

Repurposing items is also something she does outside the office. Boucher is drawn to kintsugi, the Japanese practice of repairing broken pottery in a way that makes the repair part of the object’s story. She likes finding new uses for old things, from turning old belt buckles into necklaces to adding buttons to something broken so it can become useful again.

She's also become an oracle of sorts, both within LBS and across campus. Boucher helped co-found the Lee Administrative Meetings, held monthly to give administrative staff a regular place to compare notes, ask questions, and share updates on college and campus processes.

“When I started, there were a lot of silos and walls between the academic departments and centers,” Boucher said. “The meetings helped break down those walls.”

The meetings eventually grew beyond administrative assistants to include program officers and other staff across Lee. Staff from other colleges have also asked to attend.

Boucher said that mattered because administrative work can feel isolating when people are trying to solve the same problems from separate offices.

“It’s nice knowing you’re not by yourself,” she said. “I know I can count on them if I need help.”

That same interest in connection has driven Boucher's volunteerism with UNLV’s Classified Staff Council, where she served as social media coordinator and helped support the annual Classified Staff Luncheon. She has also served on UNLV’s Women’s Council.

Helping First-Gen Students Find Confidence

In 2017, Boucher helped reactivate UNLV’s First Gen Club, a campuswide student organization for first-generation college students. As a first-generation student herself, she knew how overwhelming a large university could feel when no one in your family could show you how to navigate it.

“I have a soft spot for first-generation students,” Boucher said. She said they often have to work extra hard because they are figuring out college without the same roadmap other students may have.

Boucher says the club gave students a place to build confidence, ask questions, and see themselves as part of campus life.

“I love to watch students grow and transform,” she said. 

Not Setting Limits

Some of that desire to encourage students comes from her mother. Sabin did not have the same access to education, but she made sure her daughters did not grow up believing their choices were already decided for them.

“She never put those limitations on us as her daughters,” Boucher said. “I hope I can do the same for other people.”