Associate Academic Vice President Greg Roach will be the new Academic Vice President following the retirement of current Academic Vice President Jon Linford in April, the BYU-Idaho Office of the President announced today.

Roach has served as Associate Academic Vice President since January 2025. Prior to that, Roach was Dean of Physical Science and Engineering for eight years, and before that he was Department Chair for Mechanical and Civil Engineering.

Roach has been teaching at BYUI for 20 years now. He said that when he was first assigned to be the Academic Vice President in December he felt “overwhelmed.”

“They extended the assignment to me last month,” said Roach. “And then waited until winter semester started and [the] Dean’s Council...came back to make the official announcement.”

Roach said that he has “big shoes” to fill in replacing Linford.

“He’s just a phenomenal, fantastic leader,” Roach said. “He led us in Foundation, which is our old GE program, he was the Vice President of Online when we were making huge transitions in not only online, and here on campus, but with Pathway. He’s just an amazing, amazing leader, super talented guy.”

Roach said the plan is “not really changing anything,” but rather focusing on the University’s mission across the whole school rather than a single department.

“[I am] 100% committed to the mission of the University, building disciples of Jesus Christ, leaders in their homes, families and communities,” Roach said. “Nothing really changes there, it’s just, ‘how do we do that better? How can we fulfill our mission in building disciples?’”

Roach said that the idea behind the Church Education System is for students to not only gain higher education, but for them to have a place where they can also develop lifelong discipleship skills.

“The brethren [leaders in the church] feel like they want you to have a place where you can go be educated in the secular stuff that you’re studying,” Roach said. “But also in an environment where you can develop as a disciple of the Savior and build and strengthen your testimony and have opportunities to serve, grow, then get out of here and build the kingdom.”

According to Roach, it is important for students to know the mission of BYUI so they can be disciples when they graduate.

“When you graduate from here, you represent us,” Roach said. “When people see you, they’re going to see BYU-Idaho, and so we want you to go do awesome, amazing things.”