Jeff Byrd will be serving as an assistant on the women's basketball coaching staff for a fourth season in 2011-12.  Byrd also serves as the St. Mary's Faculty Athletic Representative, having held the position since 2003.

An avid sports fan, Byrd is a professor of biology and has been at the College since 1990.  He received his B.S. from Cook College at Rutgers University in 1983, his M.S. from The Pennsylvania State University in 1985, and his Ph.D. from the University of Maryland in 1991.

The former chair of the biology department at St. Mary's, his scientific field is microbiology (mainly bacteriology).  Byrd teaches Genetics, Microbiology, Virology and Contemporary Bioscience (Biology of Infectious Diseases) and also serves as a research mentor for the St. Mary's Projects.

The Willingboro, N.J. native is a former editor-in-chief for the American Society for Microbiology's Journal of Microbiology and Biology Education and a former commissioner for the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.