Tiyana Hardney Vela

Tiyana Hardney Vela serves as the Alumni and Donor Engagement Director. In this role, Tiyana oversees alumni relations, donor relations, and donor communications. The UCCS Engagement team serves to foster relationships with our community of students, alumni, donors, campus partners, and friends by offering valuable resources, communications, and stewardship that connect constituents with meaningful academic, experiential, philanthropic, and volunteer opportunities. Tiyana believes strongly in creating meaningful human connections. And through the various initiatives of the engagement team, those connections happen with students, alumni and donors of the university. 

Bio

Colorado Springs has been home to Tiyana since 2014. She resides in the Southeast with her husband Isaac and two sons Zion and Langston. Tiyana loves the Springs because of the beautiful views and the great local restaurants.  

Tiyana’s passion for writing led her to pursue a degree in Journalism from Colorado State University. She graduated with a bachelor's in Journalism and Technical Communication and a minor in Ethnic Studies. She also holds a Master's degree in Organizational and Professional Communications with a concentration in Public Relations and Marketing from the University of Denver. Tiyana brings over 12 years of experience working within communications and a community relations department. Her knowledge extends from writing newsletter articles, designing collateral, social media content, crafting compelling impact stories, video interviewing, community outreach, and engagement.