Alicia Estey, Boise State University’s chief financial and operating officer, has helped guide the institution during challenging times in higher education. Her diverse accounting, law, and public health background equipped her to tackle complex institutional challenges.
Estey’s leadership philosophy centers on collaboration and direct communication. “I disdain office politics,” she states frankly. “I just like to be very direct with people, very straightforward. Put all the cards on the table and say, ‘We need to come up with a solution together.’”
The university does just that with its strategic investment decisions every year. Alicia Estey explains, “We pull all the VPs together, each VP brings forward their five to 10 priorities for their divisions, and then we decide as a group. We can’t do all of those things. What are the most important things that will help us move forward and accomplish our mission?”
This approach proved essential when tackling a $15 million structural deficit. Rather than imposing top-down solutions, Estey engaged the entire university community. “I knew that this would not work if it were a top-down decision,” she explains. “I knew that I had to engage the people who this would impact the most and work with them to come up with a solution.”
When Boise State University faces operational gaps, Alicia Estey steps into the breach. “I oversee a really diverse group of departments,” she explains. When the university’s Title IX coordinator position became vacant, she didn’t just manage the hiring process — she stepped in to run the office herself for four years.
“That was very different. That was something I hadn’t done before,” she acknowledges. Yet she immersed herself in the work, conducting “investigations of employee misconduct and sexual assault and harassment investigations, whether student or employee.” This willingness to take on challenging roles extends to her oversight of public safety and the Children’s Center.
Under Estey’s financial oversight, Boise State University is pursuing major infrastructure projects at a time when many institutions have pulled back on development. “Athletics doesn’t receive much in the way of state funding at all,” she explains. “They earn their revenue primarily through ticket sales for football games.”
The project to expand the school stadium’s north zone will add premium skyboxes to increase athletics funding through ticket sales, complementing other capital developments, including a new residence hall and what Estey describes as the biggest construction project in university history: a state-of-the-art science research building.
Alicia Estey on Defying Expectations and Paving a New Way Forward
When Alicia Estey tells the story of her path to leading Boise State University’s $743 million budget, she starts with a memory of parental practicality.
“Accountancy was all my parents,” she says. “They insisted that I major in something where I could always get a job.”
That practical push toward accounting might have led to a conventional career path. Instead, it became the foundation for an unexpected journey that would take her from corporate tax work at J.R. Simplot Company to overseeing financial strategy at Idaho’s largest educational institution.
The reality check came early in her accounting career. “I wanted something more than accounting,” Estey remembers thinking. With an infant daughter at home, she made what many considered an impractical choice: She decided to attend law school.
“I got through law school, and did quite well, but decided because at that point my daughter was 3 that I didn’t want to go to work for a big firm where I would never see her, where I’d never be able to go to volunteer in her school, that kind of thing, so I went to work for Boise State,” says Estey.
She started in a policy position. “I love school. I’ve always enjoyed school done well. So I decided to pursue a [Master of Public Health degree] with the intent of going into either public health law or health policy,” Alicia Estey explains.
However, she put that knowledge into action to keep the Boise State University student body and staff safe during the COVID-19 pandemic. Estey says, “When I graduated, it just didn’t make sense to leave a job, a stable job, where I was making a decent income to go try and do something in health policy or health law, [but] I never thought I would use my MPH until COVID, and then suddenly it became very relevant.”
The COVID-19 pandemic tested Estey’s leadership capabilities. “We created a large public health department that allowed us to bring about 50% of our students back to campus for face-to-face instruction,” she explains. “We focused on freshmen and seniors because we felt like those were the most important groups that needed to be here for face-to-face instruction.
“And we had an entire system built around contact tracing in classrooms. We made it so that we knew where every student sat every day. We set up an infirmary in one of our residence halls so that we could isolate and quarantine residential students when needed. The responsibility to keep people safe is significant and I felt a lot of weight on my shoulders because I was running that entire response.”
Boise State University Is Growing
“We are pretty fortunate in that we have not seen any precipitous enrollment declines. In fact, we haven’t had any enrollment declines. We’re in an area that’s growing in population. We have a solid track record. Our graduation rates are increasing,” says Estey.
She adds, “Our research portfolio is growing. Our investments are growing, and we are about to move from an R2 category to an R1, which means a research-intensive public doctoral university.”
Beyond campus, Estey’s impact extends internationally through her work with the Gorongosa Preschool Project in Mozambique, where she helps develop preschool programs in one of the world’s poorest countries.
For Estey, leadership means serving others. “For my division specifically, we are here to serve others,” she says. “We are here to support students and faculty.” She continues transforming her practical accounting roots into purposeful educational impact through this service-oriented approach.