Meet Your Advisors

Lesa Snyder

Lesa Snyder was born in Texas but raised in British Columbia, Canada which makes for an interesting mix of Texan and Canadian pride. Lesa has worked in academic advising since 2015 and still gets energized helping students think about their hopes and dreams.

Lesa loves working with students to help them discover their strengths and passions and connect them with resources and experiential learning opportunities that build professional competencies. She is thankful to be a part of the Kennedy Center advising team. Lesa is inspired by the Kennedy Center students and enjoys connecting them with experiences that help them gain confidence and competence in their educational, career, and life journeys.

Lesa received a BS in marriage, family, and human development from Brigham Young University (2004) and an MS in academic advising from Kansas State University (2017). She is the lucky mother of five beautiful children and loves going on adventures with them. She also enjoys travel, trains, the outdoors, hiking, biking, reading, and playing racquetball.

Emily Emerick

Emily has been advising at BYU since 2016. Her mission is to help students discover their dreams and plan for success. Her goal is that when students graduate, they feel they did the perfect degree for them and feel empowered to accomplish their personal and professional goals. She has a particular affinity for helping students match their interests to BYU classes and encouraging others to dream big.

She has four daughters and enjoys hiking, the ocean, and anything active, outdoors. She loves learning and reading and uses her commute to do so.

Emily graduated from BYU with a degree in Community Health and a master's degree in Academic Advising. Previously, she worked with students in the College of Fine Arts and Communications.

Raquel Petrus

Raquel joined the Kennedy Center as an academic advisor in 2022. She is passionate about helping students figure out the best tools to help them succeed in their degree choice, as well as inspiring them to dream big. Raquel's goal is to help students move quickly through their program, while exploring their interests and helping them develop their degree plan.

As a Haitian-American, she is an islander at heart and enjoys learning about other people’s countries and cultures as she travels. Raquel is multilingual and continues to enjoy learning new languages. In her free time, Raquel loves to cook international foods, reading, laughing, and spending time near the ocean. She is the proud mother of her children, and relishes time spent hanging out and playing games with them.

Raquel is a BYU Alum, with a bachelor's in youth agency administration (1995) and master's of public administration (2023). She previously worked in the International Student and Scholar Services office, and has been at BYU since 2019.