Relay is made up of a lot of moving parts — departments that manage your coursework, your enrollment, your finances, and your path to certification, plus the people you'll actually work with day to day. This guide breaks down how Relay is organized, department by department, and tells you who to contact and how, whether you need help with a course, your bill, your certification timeline, or anything in between.

Table of Contents

• Office of the Provost of Teacher Preparation
  • Faculty and Instructional Staff
  • Instructional Design and Technology Support
• Relay Library
• Student Services
  • Admissions
  • Advisement
  • Alumni Affairs
  • AmeriCorps
  • Certification Office
  • Instructional Operations
  • Prospective Student Advising
  • Registrar's Office
  • Student Affairs
  • Student Financial Services
  • Student Support
  • Technology
  • Relay Ombudsman Service

Office of the Provost of Teacher Preparation

This office oversees everything academic at Relay — your curriculum, instruction, assessment, advising, certification/licensure support, and referral services if you need disability accommodations. It keeps faculty and students up to date on degree requirements, course registration, state certification/licensure, and Relay's policies and procedures. It also works directly with Relay's faculty and staff, as well as the PK–Grade 12 schools where you're placed to support your growth as a teacher in the classroom.

Within this office, the Vice Provost, Teacher Preparation oversees Relay's teaching faculty structure.

Faculty and Instructional Staff

Relay's teaching faculty teach your courses, design the curriculum you learn from, evaluate your coursework, observe you in the classroom, and provide ongoing support. Behind them, instructional staff handle the design and day-to-day operations that keep your program running smoothly. Faculty and Instructional staff members include:

Program/Managing Directors

Lead teams of senior managers, managers, and coordinators who work across departments to support both students and faculty.

Deans, Teacher Preparation

Focus on the quality of your student experience in a particular region or department.
They build the strategic plan for how faculty are supported and developed across Relay. Deans lead key initiatives within their region or department and help shape Relay's overall approach to teacher preparation. They support department chairs and faculty directly — sometimes by observing classes or guest teaching — and report to the Vice Provost of Teacher Preparation.

Department Chairs

Department Chairs report to a Dean, and have similar priorities.
They review courses to make sure they meet national, state, and content standards, manage all faculty teaching in their department, and teach at least one course themselves each term. 

Directors, Clinical Practice

These are the instructional leads for your region.
They make sure your program runs in compliance with your state's regulations and support you as you move through it — typically teaching, observing, coaching, and grading your work directly. They also stay in close contact with your school-based mentor, and make sure your certification officer, advisor, and local faculty are all working together to support you. Directors, Clinical Practice report to Department Chairs.

Professors

Teach multiple courses and evaluate assessments, observations, reflection journals, and more from their students.
They also help manage assistant professors, adjuncts, and field supervisors. Professors of Clinical Practice also take on extra local leadership, supporting their Clinical Practice Directors with maintaining the partnerships between Relay and the schools that take our students, as well as ensuring state compliance.

Professors, Curriculum Design

Create and revise Relay's curriculum.
They're experienced PK–12 teachers or school leaders with deep expertise in their subject area, and they continue teaching courses alongside their curriculum work. They also manage any outside design consultants, preview new courses, and lead assessment norming across departments.

Assistant Professors, Clinical Practice

Teach multiple courses and coach and support you through observations and ongoing feedback.
Most specialize in one or two areas, like supporting teachers of exceptional learners.

Adjunct Professors

Are part-time or full-time faculty teaching outside their usual department — often current PK–12 teachers or school leaders.
Every adjunct professor holds a graduate degree and has direct expertise in the course they teach. Beyond instruction, they evaluate your coursework and support you throughout the course.

Field Supervisors

Observe you in the classroom - in person, by video, or live online, depending on the program.
Their job is to coach you on your strengths and areas of growth. Like other Relay faculty, they bring PK-12 classroom experience and hold a graduate degree.

 

Instructional Design and Technology Support

This team builds and maintains your coursework in Canvas, including course blueprints, rubrics, and the tools that keep everything consistent across departments. They also make sure your courses are accessible, whether you're attending live or working asynchronously, and partner with Relay's academic compliance team to keep standards aligned over time.

Student Services

Several key teams work together to support you throughout your time at Relay — from your application, to your coursework, to your certification, to graduation and beyond. This branch is led by the Vice President, Student Affairs and Student Services, who collaborates with faculty, staff, and students to create an environment that's safe and responsive to your needs. They oversee the services, programs, and activities behind the teams below.

Admissions

Whether you're a new applicant, returning from a leave of absence, or transferring programs, the Admissions team manages your application from start to finish.
They review your application and transcripts, set admissions policies, and maintain your admissions records.

If you have questions about applying, your application status, or your submitted transcripts, book an appointment with the Admissions and Enrollment team.

Advisement

Every enrolled student at Relay gets one dedicated advisor who helps you navigate your entire program of study. They meet and correspond with you through office hours, phone, text, and email, and they work alongside other Relay teams to advocate for you, keep you informed, and help you make confident decisions about your path. This person is called your:

Student Success Manager

They are your primary point of contact for institutional support throughout your program. They help you work toward your academic goals, keep you on track for the transition points and certification requirements tied to your licensure, and guide you through the degree process to make sure you complete your program. 

To get connected with yours, or if you’re not sure who yours is, email [email protected] with your name, location, and program.

Alumni Affairs

Once you graduate, the Alumni Affairs team helps you stay connected and keep growing — professionally and socially — through things like the Alumni and Student Advisory Council, Relay Connect, Relay's Alumni LinkedIn Group, and the Alumni Survey. Alumni Affairs also connects experienced graduates back to current students and staff through programs like the Learning and Resource Center and Kappa Delta Pi.

AmeriCorps

Relay is a proud member of the AmeriCorps national service network. If you join, your teaching experience and Relay coursework count as your AmeriCorps service — there's no extra time commitment beyond what you're already doing. The biggest benefit is the Segal AmeriCorps Education Award, worth up to $7,395 after completing the academic year. Relay's AmeriCorps team manages the administration of the AmeriCorps state and national grant programs that make this possible.

Certification Office

The Certification Office tracks your progress toward certification and licensure from start to finish. They collect and verify your documentation, monitor and communicate your progress, confirm when you've completed your program, and issue Relay's official recommendation for your certification or licensure once you're ready.

Instructional Operations

Instructional Operations works behind the scenes, coordinating across departments to keep Relay's processes and systems running smoothly and consistently.
They also support faculty with the non-instructional parts of their role, so your professors can stay focused on teaching.

Ombudsman Service

If you have a general concern about your experience at Relay, the Ombudsman Service is there to help — whether you need someone to talk through the issue with, or want to understand your formal and informal options for resolving it. The Ombudsman supports you in scheduling and facilitating conversations to resolve concerns, especially when you'd rather not raise an issue directly with the person involved, or an initial conversation hasn't led anywhere. 

Prospective Student Advising

Before you even start your program, the Prospective Student Advising team is there to guide you through your application and admissions experience. Positions in this department include:

Prospective Student Advisor

Your Prospective Student Advisor reaches out proactively, connects you with the right internal teams, advocates on your behalf, and keeps you informed and prepared every step of the way — so by the time your program starts, you're ready to go.

Registrar's Office

The Registrar's Office handles your records and enrollment forms.
This includes your personal information, course registration, withdrawals and leaves of absence, transcripts, enrollment letters, academic progress, and program completion (including diplomas and degree audits). They can also help with major switches, readmission, and transfers. 

You can book time with the Registrar's Office directly.

Most of the forms you’ll need are on the Registrar's Forms page. 

Student Affairs

Student Affairs focuses on making your experience at Relay safe and meaningful — socially, intellectually, and personally. Through this team, you can apply for academic support under ADA/IDEA, get connected to professional development opportunities and resources, and access advocacy when you need it. 

Reach them at [email protected].

Student Financial Services

Student Financial Services (SFS) helps you pay for your Relay education. They handle billing, tuition, payment plans, refund questions, and scholarship disbursement. They also administer federal Title IV financial aid, including direct unsubsidized loans and TEACH grants, for students who need it. 

You can manage your account and pay your balance through your Nelnet student-payment portal [LINK NEEDED]. 

For tuition, billing, financial aid, payment plans, or account holds, book time with SFS; office hours are also available in Spanish.

Student Support

Student Support builds and maintains the Relay Support Center and ensures that everything coming through [email protected] is connected to the correct team. They make sure you can self-serve answers whenever possible — and when you can't find what you need, they'll track down the answer or connect you with the right expert.

Technology

The Technology team keeps Relay's systems running and supports you directly with any tech question or concern. They’re the right ones to contact if your password isn’t working, you don’t have an Azure account, or Canvas isn’t showing up in your Azure dashboard. 

For general tech questions, check here; 

For tech support, start here.

For Canvas-specific issues, start by going through Canvas's own 24/7 support (phone, chat, and email, accessible via the Help icon inside Canvas). The Relay Technology team will step in as needed.

Relay Library

The Relay Library supports your learning, teaching, and research needs with a collection of texts and videos, plus direct help finding, using, and evaluating information efficiently and ethically. The library team also works with curriculum-design faculty to build information and digital literacy into your coursework, and produces and manages the video content that supports Relay's curriculum.