Samara Taber has been named the director of the Office of Admissions. Taber has been with the office since 2015, where she has provided leadership and supervision to planning, development, coordination and implementation of the admissions services of UAF, which include customer service, application processing, report preparation, hiring and training of staff, budget management and CRM administration. She has served as admissions manager, assistant director and most recently as associate director for operations. In the past six months, she's been serving in a dual capacity as a manager for strategic initiatives and projects in cross-functional units within Student Affairs.

Taber first joined UAF in the Development Office in June 2013 where she wrote, designed and researched content and stories for print, as well as developed and produced online communication and web content for Annual Giving. During her tenure in Development and Alumni Relations, Taber managed the UAF phonathon and developed measures to advance communication with UAF alumni, students, employees and friends about Annual Giving and the Annual Fund.

Taber graduated from UAF with a bachelor of arts in Russian studies in 2006 and earned a master of library and information science degree from the University of Pittsburgh in 2008. Before returning to Fairbanks in 2013, Taber worked at the University of Chicago, Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Pittsburgh, as well as in event management, development, marketing and communications for nonprofit organizations in Hawaii.