Column by Tyler Montell

There are several perks to being student body president, I can admit that. The basketball tickets are nice, sure, and I don’t hate the full scholarship at all.

Perhaps the best perk of the job, though, is the opportunity to learn from one of the highest functioning teams in the Commonwealth — President Lee Todd’s administration.

Todd has a unique ability to not only find gifted people to work at the university, but he finds highly talented individuals that work in unison to make this university as successful as possible.

Think about it, those in some of the highest-profile positions, like Mitch Barnhart in Athletics, Dr. Michael Karpf in UK Healthcare and J.J. Jackson in Institutional Diversity are some of the top professionals in their respective fields.

We have many brilliant and accomplished directors, vice presidents, deans and professors, but there is one member of our university community that deserves special recommendation. To some, she is known as “The Mayor,” and to others, she is just “Kelley B.” But to everyone else on this campus, whether you have met her yet or not, Marketing Director Kelley Bozeman is the go-to person at UK. I don’t know exactly what the job description of the director of marketing is for UK, but I do know Bozeman goes above and beyond whatever it may be.

Bozeman came to UK after graduating from the University of Alabama, and began her Wildcat career working for the Kernel in ad sales. Since then, she has spent many years learning the ins and outs of the university and making connections across the city and state.

Kelley B. is now responsible for the current “See Blue” brand, UK’s new marketing campaign designed to reach more students than ever before. She has always been the class of her field, but now she has the hardware to prove it: Bozeman and her team won the Grand Award in the overall communications at the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) conference in Atlanta last month. The best part? Second place was Duke.

There are few people at UK that love both the university and the student body as much as Kelley B. When a campus project or student initiative needs to get off the ground or hits a roadblock, the first stop should always be Bozeman. I know the group that is working on the TalleyCats program would be nowhere without Kelley B, and there are countless stories like this.

At the University Leadership Summit, Bozeman is always the star of the show. She designed “Lead Blue” T-shirts for everyone, and every student left the conference feeling more empowered and inspired to make a difference in the campus community — thanks in large part to her.

I cannot express how much of an asset she has been to this student body president.

Bozeman has been a great friend, ally and co-worker over the past few years. She has been like a sister in giving me some of the best and most genuine advice about everything from graduate school to directions around Tuscaloosa, Ala.

She has been my first phone call on countless occasions, and she has been involved, in some way, in almost every big project that Student Government has seen this year. We would not be anywhere near as successful of an organization without Bozeman’s insight and support, and she deserves a great deal of thanks for all her hard work.

Kelley B’s makes this university better, and she is a wonderful ambassador for the Commonwealth’s flagship institution. As students, we may never fully understand just how much she has done for us, but you can bet that in everything she does, she is thinking about how she can use her resources to benefit the student body.

If you get a chance, go to the Matthews Building and tell Bozeman just how thankful you are for her. If you haven’t had a chance to meet her, go today. I honestly don’t understand how you have gotten this far without doing so. We are truly fortunate to have such a wonderful friend and leader working on our campus. On behalf of all of us — thank you, Kelley B. Thanks for everything.