Every fall, when student-athletes at the University of Colorado arrive on campus, Kris Livingston often fields a familiar question.

“They go, ‘Kris, what did you do this summer?’” Livingston says with a laugh because the answer is always the same. “I worked!”

This summer will be different, however, as Livingston, CU’s executive senior associate athletic director over student success, is retiring after 28 years at the university. For the past 20 years, she has overseen CU’s academic support services in the Herbst Academic Center.

“I’m clearing out my office and 28 years of files and folders and documents and emails, and I’ve been kind of going down memory lane with a lot of these documents,” said Livingston, who turns 64 in July. “But, the purging has felt pretty good.”

Livingston is leaving knowing she has given it her all because that’s how she approaches everything.

A star for the Miami (Ohio) University women’s basketball team from 1979-83, Livingston was inducted in the school’s athletic hall of fame in 1997. She’s also in the hall of fame for Lake High School in Millbury, Ohio.

During the four years Livingston was playing at Miami, rival Cincinnati was coached by a young Ceal Barry. In 1983, Barry was hired as the head coach of the CU women’s basketball team. A year later, Livingston became an assistant coach at Iowa State and competed against Barry for several years in the Big Eight.

“So, I knew of her and she knew of me,” Livingston said.

That small connection wound up becoming a life-changing friendship for Livingston. By the mid-1990s, Livingston was working for an educational consulting firm in Littleton and was in the same social circle as Barry, who was, by then, well into her Hall of Fame coaching career with the Buffs.

In May of 1997, CU created a new position for the women’s basketball staff, director of basketball operations. Livingston saw the posting, called Barry and was soon hired.

“For me, Ceal Berry has been the biggest influence on me in terms of my career,” Livingston said. “I’m forever indebted to her. The 28 years at CU was because of Ceal Barry.”

Livingston loved her eight years with the women’s basketball team, but that came to a close when Barry retired at the end of the 2004-05 season. Livingston thought her time at CU might be up. Barry, however, moved into an administrative role, including overseeing academics, and she and associate athletic director Jon Burianek approached Livingston with an offer.

“They said, ‘How would you like to be assistant director for academics?’” she said of the offer she eagerly accepted.

Livingston’s father was a teacher for 40 years, and she said moving to the academic side at CU “was a really good fit for me.”

Two years later, in May of 2007, Livingston became the director of academics, and she’s worked tirelessly in that role ever since.

“The passion is still strong,” said Livingston, who has also been CU’s sport supervisor for women’s basketball in recent years. “I believe in what intercollegiate athletics gives to young people, and I believe in the power of education. I love supporting the Buffs and seeing them succeed, so that is still there.”

During the 2024-25 academic year, CU student-athletes posted the best fall semester GPA (3.287) and the best spring semester GPA (3.264) in school history. The cumulative GPA of the student-athletes (3.294) is the best it’s ever been. The football team and other programs are posting record numbers.

Livingston credits the Herbst staff, including academic mentors, learning specialists, learning facilitators and tutors, but she has led that team for nearly two decades and takes pride in the results.

“I do feel like I’m leaving it in a better place,” she said.

Livingston added that when athletic director Rick George developed a strategic plan for the entire athletic department more than a decade ago, she took some inspiration from that and developed a plan for academics.

“Once we did that, everything started to take off,” she said. “Now that we have that we can see what we’re doing and how it works. And clearly we’re having great success academically. We’re doing well, so I’m proud of that.”

Livingston is mostly proud of the individuals that she and the Herbst staff have helped succeed, including some former football stars — such as David Bakhtiari, Daniel Graham and Kordell Stewart — who went to the NFL without degrees but later came back to CU to graduate.

“There’s been some really special connections with a number of the student-athletes,” she said.

Along the way, she’s enjoyed being involved with so many different sports, from basketball to skiing, track and field and lacrosse, tennis and football.

The passion for helping the CU student-athletes, however, hasn’t left a lot of time for Livingston to take for herself.

“I put everything into whatever I do, and so I’ve put a lot into the academic side and making sure that we have a plan, making sure that the student-athletes know what the plan is, the coaches, Rick George, everyone,” she said.

The job has caused a great deal of stress, and Livingston said she’s realized even more in recent months how much stress she’s had. She doesn’t regret it, but admits she is very much looking forward to handing the reins to her replacement, Jedediah Herb, who has been on staff for 13 years, and enjoying retirement.

“What I look forward to is having the opportunity, the flexibility, to be able to take a vacation, or take time and not be bound to what my job would allow,” she said.

The job, however, has given her so much and she’s forever grateful for her time at CU and for Barry bringing her to Boulder 28 years ago.

“I think I’ll be OK,” she said of retirement. “I’ve been on a pretty good pace for the last couple decades. I mean, that’s been who I am. No matter what my career is or what my job is, I’m going to be like that. I’m intense that way, but I think it’s going to feel good to just read a book, go out to lunch and not have to be thinking about (work).”