Timothy Olsen Named Director of Students for USU Brigham City Region

Timothy Olsen has been named the new Director of Students for the Utah State University Brigham City Region (Brigham City, Kaysville, Tremonton), effective July 1. Olsen enters his new role after spending nearly seven years working in USU Student Affairs as a Program Coordinator. He replaces Jill Rasmussen, who retired on June 30.

“We are excited to have Tim join us in the Brigham City region,” said Dan Black, Associate Vice President for the USU Brigham City Region. “He brings a great deal of knowledge and experience to the position. We anticipate great interactions with students and staff as he takes on this new role.”

Olsen is an Aggie through and through. His family moved to Cache Valley when he was five years old. He graduated from Sky View High School before enrolling at USU and earning his Bachelor of Science degree in print journalism in 2009. He went on to earn his Master of Arts in Magazine, Newspaper and Online Communications in 2011 from Syracuse University. He also earned his Master of Business Administration in 2018 from the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business.

Olsen got his start in journalism working for The Utah Statesman and The Herald Journal newspapers during his undergraduate days. He credits his advisor, Jay Wamsley, for impacting his early career. Olsen went on to work for several publications, working for the Cache Valley Media Group as the Managing Editor and for Spectrum Media as the Digital & Sports Editor. In 2014, Olsen had the opportunity to come back to USU to be the Student Media Program Coordinator, and he jumped at the opportunity, remembering how his own advisor had affected his career.

“I always thought that if I had the opportunity to serve in a similar type role and positively impact students the way my mentors impacted me, that is something I would love to do,” Olsen said. “That opportunity came in 2014 when I had the chance to return to USU as the Student Media Advisor. The decision to come to USU and serve in that role was a no-brainer for me and opened the door to the various roles I held within the Student Involvement & Leadership department.”

Olsen would later go on to become a Student Involvement & Leadership Program Coordinator, where he worked extensively with both the HURD and as an advisor to the USU Student Association public relations and marketing efforts. Through all these positions, Olsen often found himself involved in student events. He learned the tricks of bringing together several different organizations to put on events and how to coordinate all the moving parts. Although USU is one big entity, it is comprised of dozens of departments and groups that all need to work together for events to happen.

“There’s a lot that goes into putting on a successful student event,” Olsen said. “It involves a lot of communication with a lot of different groups. At the end of the day, there are a thousand moving parts to putting on a successful event, and my role was to work with my students and the various departments and campus stakeholders to make sure any concerns were addressed, and the event ran as smoothly as possible.”

During his time as an advisor, Olsen was involved with directing the Statesman to a bigger online presence, including online journalism and social media posts, while helping maintain the tradition of print media. He was also heavily involved in the creation of the HURD Premium program. In all, he loves interacting with students and ultimately, seeing them achieve their dreams of graduation and seeing them use their talents in their field of choice.

“One of the things I loved most about my various roles in the Student Involvement office was working with students and seeing them develop and add relevant skills and then watching them graduate and use those skills to land various jobs and internships,” he said. “It’s fun to play a small role in such an important and exciting part of students’ lives.”

Olsen married his wife Tara in 2008 and together they have four children. Olsen is a big sports fan, especially all Aggie sports. He enjoys golf, water sports, hunting, running and mountain biking. He loves to take outdoor camping trips with his family.