Nicole Anderson
Education Programs Manager
Wyoming Community College Commission
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Education Programs Manager
Wyoming Community College Commission
Robert Gray Atkins
CEO and Founder
Gray Associates, Inc
Bob led Gray’s entry into the education industry and the development of Gray’s proprietary industry databases and service offerings. He has worked with most of Gray’s education clients, consulting with Provosts, Chancellors, Presidents, CFOs, and Deans on institutional strategy, pricing, location selection, and program portfolio strategy. His work has contributed to the launch of new programs that have generated millions of dollars in new revenue and substantial cost reductions. Recent education clients include the University of Cincinnati, Bay Path University, Western Kentucky University, Northern New Mexico Community College and other public, private, and for-profit trade schools, colleges, and universities.
Prior to founding Gray, Bob helped AT&T, American Express, HP, IBM, and other technology companies develop growth strategies, enter new markets, and build their sales and channel organizations. He is a published author, whose articles have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Sales and Marketing Management, and other publications around the world. He received an MBA, with honors, from Harvard Business School and a BA, magna cum laude, from Harvard College.
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CEO and Founder
Gray Associates, Inc
Eric C. Atkinson
Associate Professor (Biology)
Northwest College
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Associate Professor (Biology)
Northwest College
Danette Barber
Research Analyst
Nevada State College
Danette Barber is a Research Analyst in the Office of Institutional Research at Nevada State College. Her work examines the contributions of student engagement in campus resources and activities to success outcomes such as retention and graduation.
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Research Analyst
Nevada State College
Celeste Calkins
Institutional Research Data Analyst
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Celeste Calkins is an Institutional Research Data Analyst at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She earned her Ph.D. in Higher Education from UNLV. She earned two Master's degrees one in Career and Technical Education and one in Adult and Community Education from Ball State University. Her research interests are vast, however her focus is primarily around faculty issues including faculty motivation to teach, faculty diversity, faculty progression in promotion and tenure, and faculty teaching effectiveness. She also is motivated to improve the course evaluation process through researching how grading impacts course evaluations, and ultimately the validity and reliability of that evaluation process in terms of our understanding of teaching effectiveness.
https://ir.unlv.edu/iap/Default.aspx
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Institutional Research Data Analyst
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
John Crooker
Associate Vice Provost/Director of Institutional Research and Effectiveness
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
John (Skip) Crooker earned his Ph.D. in Economics at Iowa State University in 1998. His first faculty appointment was at Texas Tech University where he joined the Department of Economics in 1999. In 2002, Dr. Crooker returned to his undergraduate alma mater, the University of Central Missouri (UCM). Dr. Crooker was promoted through the faculty ranks and became a Full Professor of Economics in 2011. At UCM, he also has served as Department of Economics and Finance Chair, Director of the MBA program, Associate Dean of the School of Business, and Director of Institutional Research. Today, Dr. Crooker is the Associate Vice Provost of Decision Support at UNLV. In this role, Dr. Crooker serves as the Director of Institutional Research and Institutional Effectiveness. His research interests include Higher Education topics, sports economics, and applied econometric studies. Dr. Crooker teaches Introduction to Econometrics in the Spring terms for the Department of Economics at UNLV.
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Associate Vice Provost/Director of Institutional Research and Effectiveness
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Tondra De
Chief of Staff
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Tondra De is currently Chief of Staff to the Provost at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). She has held a variety of research and administrative positions in higher education.
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Chief of Staff
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
S. Renee Dechert
Professor of English
Northwest College
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Professor of English
Northwest College
Brent Drake
Vice Provost, Decision Support
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Dr. Brent Drake currently serves as the Vice Provost of Decision Support at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where he focuses on data related to student attainment and learning, overall institutional effectiveness, institutional reporting, faculty activity, and data analytics. Through his work at UNLV Brent advocates for increased access to tools and research directed at university faculty, administration, and students to guide a better informed university decision making process, such as how policies and practices impact institutional goals like student achievement, retention and completion.
Prior to his appointment at UNLV, Brent worked for 16.5 years at Purdue University, with his final position being the Chief Data Officer, overseeing the Office of Institutional Research, Assessment, and Effectiveness. He began his career at Purdue in 2001 as the assessment coordinator for the Lily Endowment retention initiatives at Purdue University. Brent earned all three of his degrees from Purdue. His B.A. was earned in 1995 in athletic training, M.S. in 1997 in Sports Psychology and Ph.D. in 2009 in Educational Psychology with an emphasis in both motivation theory and psychometrics.
He presents and publishes on a number of topics in higher education including motivational models related to student success, retention enhancing programs, business intelligence and data analytics, enrollment modeling, recruitment, enrollment trends and student success efforts. Brent also serves as a fellow for research and innovation with the John Gardner Institute for Excellence in Undergraduate Education.
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Vice Provost, Decision Support
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Christina Drum
RMAIR Past President
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
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RMAIR Past President
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Paris Edeburn
Chief Technology Officer
Wyoming Community College Commission
Paris Edeburn, PMP, Wyoming Community College Commission, Chief Technology Officer: Paris has over 25 years of experience in the technology and business field. She is the Executive Sponsor and provides project oversight for the Wyoming Statewide Longitudinal Education Data System (SLEDS). She is a member of the Wyoming Community College CIO council and chairperson for the SLEDS Data Governance Committee.
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Chief Technology Officer
Wyoming Community College Commission
Brian Hopewell
Vice President, Campus Relations
Anthology, Inc.
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Vice President, Campus Relations
Anthology, Inc.
Louisa Hunkerstorm
Director of Institutional Effectiveness
Central Wyoming College
Louisa Hunkerstorm has been the Director of Institutional Effectiveness at Central Wyoming College since 2015. Her work focuses on planning, continuous quality improvement, and facilitating data-based decision making to improve student success.
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Director of Institutional Effectiveness
Central Wyoming College
Michelle Kearns
Associate Vice President for Student Success and Retention
Utah Valley University
Michelle Kearns, EdD, is the Associate Vice President for Student Success and Retention at Utah Valley University. She has 28 years of experience in higher education holding leadership roles in both Academic Affairs and Student Affairs. While at UVU, Dr. Kearns oversaw the implementation of a $3 million Title III grant which resulted in a 14-percentage point increase in retention and she also led the development of a campus-wide completion plan now being implemented. Dr. Kearns is a passionate advocate for student success, recognized with the UVU Trustee and Presidential Awards, TRIO Employee of the Year, and NASPA’s Outstanding Senior-Level Professional. Dr. Kearns earned a doctorate degree in Education with an emphasis on Higher Education Administration from Northeastern University with a research focus on student success. She also earned a master’s degree in Public Administration and a bachelor’s degree in Business Management. Dr. Kearns also holds certificates in Student Affairs Law & Policy, Women’s Leadership, and Online Teaching.
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Associate Vice President for Student Success and Retention
Utah Valley University
Christine Keller
Executive Director
Association for Institutional Research
Christine M. Keller, Ph.D.,?is the Executive Director & CEO of the Association for Institutional Research (AIR). AIR is a nonprofit, higher education association with over 3,000 members that creates and disseminates research and innovative practices; fosters strategic partnerships to support collaboration and learning; and advocates for the effective use of data.
A long-time member before joining AIR, Christine was formerly the Vice President for Research and Policy Analysis at the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities and the Assistant Director of Institutional Research and Planning at the University of Kansas. She holds a Ph.D. in Educational Policy and Leadership from the University of Kansas and serves on the National Survey of Student Engagement Advisory Board, the U.S. Department of Education National Postsecondary Education Cooperative panel, and several other national committees.
https://airweb.org
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Executive Director
Association for Institutional Research
Heather Kelly
Director of Institutional Research and AIR President
University of Delaware
Heather Kelly is the Director of Institutional Research at the University of Delaware. Her areas of expertise include institutional effectiveness and faculty workload. She serves as an Accreditation Liaison Officer (ALO) and an Evaluator for the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE). She is the President of the Association for Institutional Research (AIR), past Board Treasurer of AIR, and past President and Treasurer of the North East Association for Institutional Research (NEAIR). She was the recipient of the 2015 NEAIR Distinguished Service Award. She received a doctoral degree in Educational Leadership from the University of Delaware, a master’s degree in Higher Education Administration from the University of Pennsylvania, and a bachelor’s degree in Geology from Smith College. She is also a graduate of the HERS (Higher Education Resource Services) Bryn Mawr Summer Institute.
https://ire.udel.edu/ir/
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Director of Institutional Research and AIR President
University of Delaware
Kwanna King
University Registrar
University of Wyoming
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University Registrar
University of Wyoming
Quinn Koller
Director, Academic Quality Assurance & RMAIR Treasurer
Utah Valley University
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Director, Academic Quality Assurance & RMAIR Treasurer
Utah Valley University
Sue Koller
RMAIR Co-Program Director
University of Wyoming
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RMAIR Co-Program Director
University of Wyoming
Mark Leany
Senior Research Analyst
Utah Valley University
Mark Leany is a Senior Research Analyst in the Office of Institutional Research (IR) at Utah Valley University (UVU). He has worked with IR at UVU for the past 13 years, and has been working specifically with Michelle Kearns and her team in Student Success and Retention for about 3 years. He has a B.S. in Statistics/Computer Science from BYU, and an M.A. in Communication from BYU. He continues to learn, including earning a Certificate of Proficiency in Data Analytics at UVU. He also dabbles in predictive analytics in his spare time, and has won awards with idea competitions through Innocentive (now part of Wazoku).
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Senior Research Analyst
Utah Valley University
William F. Massy
Professor Emeritus
Stanford University
Dr. Massy, an emeritus professor and former officer of Stanford University, has been active as a teacher/researcher, consultant, and university administrator for more than forty years. After gaining tenure in Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, he served the central administration as Vice Provost for Research, Acting Provost, and Vice President for Business and Finance—during which time he developed and pioneered financial planning and management tools that have become standard in the field—and then as Professor of Higher Education working on resource allocation, cost containment, and academic quality assurance and improvement. He co-directed the Department of Education’s National Center for Postsecondary Improvement from 1996 to 2002, served on Hong Kong’s University Grants Committee from 1991 to 2003, and since 2010 has been an Honorary Faculty Fellow at the University of Melbourne (AU).
Dr. Massy most recent books are "Resource Management for Colleges and Universities" and "Reengineering the University: How to Be Mission Centered, Market Smart, and Margin Conscious" (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2020 and 2016). He holds a Ph.D. in economics and MS in management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a BS from Yale University.
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Professor Emeritus
Stanford University
Nicole McNeal
President, Synesis Consulting
Synesis Consulting
Nicole McNeal, PMP, Synesis Consulting, LLC, President: Nicole has 22 years of management consulting experience and 20 years of experience serving as an industry leader and strategic advisor for public-sector clients. She specializes in data governance programs and system implementation projects.
She is serving as the Program Management Office lead for Wyoming's implementation of the Statewide Longitudinal Education Data System (SLEDS). She helped establish the program's governance structure, develop the project plan and scope, build policies and procedures, facilitate stakeholder buy-in, and conduct overall project reporting.
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President, Synesis Consulting
Synesis Consulting
Ben Moritz
Chief Academic Officer
Wyoming Community College Commission
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Chief Academic Officer
Wyoming Community College Commission
Vicky Morris-Dueer
RMAIR Vice President
University of Dallas
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RMAIR Vice President
University of Dallas
Kelli Rainey, Ed.D.
Assistant Vice President for Campus Strategy
Anthology, Inc.
krainey@campuslabs.comDr. Kelli Rainey joined Campus Labs as assistant vice president, campus strategy in Spring 2019. In this role, she provides specialized consultation for campuses eager to implement organizational strategies that ensure institutional vitality and works with campuses on strategic planning, accreditation preparation and assessment planning.Having worked in higher education for two decades, Rainey has an extensive background in enrollment management, student development, and institutional effectiveness. Previously, she provided strategic leadership in a dual role as vice president for academic and student support services and chief operating officer for institutional effectiveness at Johnson C. Smith University. She served as a key advisor to senior administrators on strategies and initiatives to support student learning, service delivery, workplace efficiencies and organizational effectiveness. Moreover, as a former SACSCOC accreditation liaison, Rainey is well versed in regional accreditation standards, regulations and procedures for effective demonstration of institutional compliance.Additional leadership roles during her impressive tenure at Johnson C. Smith University include serving as dean of academic support services, institutional accreditation liaison, and director of the office of institutional planning, assessment, effectiveness and research. Rainey also has experience teaching first-year students the skills necessary to ensure a successful college career and the fundamental practices of exemplary leadership in organizations.Rainey holds a doctorate in higher education and organizational change from Benedictine University and a graduate certificate in institutional research from The Pennsylvania State University. She earned a master’s degree in applied psychology with a concentration in industrial and organizational development from Fairfield University and a bachelor’s degree from Lynchburg College.
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Assistant Vice President for Campus Strategy
Anthology, Inc.
Christina Rigdon
Registrar
Northern Wyoming Community College District
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Registrar
Northern Wyoming Community College District
Qingmin Shi
Institutional Research Data Analyst
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Qing received her doctoral degrees of Educational and Developmental Psychology from Beijing Normal University and Teacher Education from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). She is an Institutional Research Data Analyst at the Office of Decision at UNLV. Using both quantitative and qualitative approaches and a variety of analytic tools, Qingmin provides statistical and strategic analyses of elements relevant to the effectiveness of student success initiatives, academic programs, and campus-wide innovations to support decision making. She presents and publishes empirical studies examining the impacts of 15-to-Finish, high-impact practices, first-year seminars, undergraduate research, and academic advising on student success.
https://ir.unlv.edu/iap/Default.aspx
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Institutional Research Data Analyst
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Lisa Smith
RMAIR President & Co-Program Director, Institutional Research Manager
Northwest College
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RMAIR President & Co-Program Director, Institutional Research Manager
Northwest College
Lisa Stich
Senior Specialist, Data Partnerships
National Student Clearinghouse
Lisa Stich, Ph.D., has a passion for student success, and for data-informed organizational systems that promote dialogue, transparency, and collaboration. As a result, she applied her twenty-five plus years in higher education (beginning as faculty member, Institutional Effectiveness & Assessment Specialist, Dean, and mostly recently Vice President of Academic & Student Affairs at a community & technical college) to the National Student Clearinghouse. She is currently Senior Specialist, Data Partnerships in support of the Postsecondary Data Partnership, a transformative tool designed to help colleges and universities measure institutional outcomes and grow student success.
Lisa has been active at national and local levels and was selected as an Aspen Presidential Fellow for Community College Excellence in 2018/2019. Lisa served as President of the Board of the National Council of Instructional Administrators, Director on the Board of the American Association for Women in Community Colleges, and member of the Michigan Community College Advisory Board for Student Success. She holds a doctorate in education from Capella University, a master’s in health administration from Cardinal Stritch College, a bachelor’s in psychology from Ripon College, and another bachelor’s in health record administration from Emory University. She was a peer reviewer for the Higher Learning Commission and a past grant reviewer for the Department of Labor.
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Senior Specialist, Data Partnerships
National Student Clearinghouse
Matt Swaffer
Senior IT Consultant
Cognitell
Matt Swaffer is a senior software and technical architect working with Cognitell. He has experience designing systems that extract information and knowledge from data, enabling intelligent reasoning. In addition, he has a background in Educational Psychology with a research focus on cognitive psychology in human learning with expertise in measurement and data analysis.
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Senior IT Consultant
Cognitell
Jason Terry
Program Manager for Completion Initiatives
Jason Terry is the Program Manager for Completion Initiatives at Utah Valley University. He has eight years’ experience within higher education during which he has worked in the offices of recruitment, development, academic affairs, student affairs, and the Professional Association of Campus Employees (PACE). As a student, Jason received the Spirit of Leadership award from the UVU Center for the Advancement of Leadership (CAL), the Wolverine Achievement Award for Distinguished Volunteer Service, and was chosen as the 2019 Harvard Graduate School of Education class marshal. He has worked closely on educational projects with Google, the Vatican, and Wasatch Mental Health. Jason holds a Master’s of Education degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and an Accounting degree from Utah Valley University.
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Program Manager for Completion Initiatives
Sandip Thanki
Director of Institutional Research
Nevada State College
Dr. Sandip Thanki is the Director of Institutional Research and Associate Professor of Astronomy at Nevada State College. He provides strategic analysis for campus-wide decision making. His work investigates factors that contribute to persistence (both retention and graduation), particularly for historically underrepresented students.
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Director of Institutional Research
Nevada State College
Kristin (Krissy) Wallage
Student Records Specialist
Central Wyoming College
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Student Records Specialist
Central Wyoming College
Angela Ward
RMAIR Secretary
Utah Valley University
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RMAIR Secretary
Utah Valley University
Ben White
Business Data Analyst
University of Utah
When I was learning to read as a child, I struggled tremendously due to poor vision; I was legally blind in my left eye. The thing that finally helped me break through was when my Dad would ask me questions about the box scores in the newspaper. I have loved numbers and data ever since.
I am a Business Data Analyst at the University of Utah in the Office of Budget and Institutional Analysis. I have been in IA for four and a half years and greatly enjoy the work. In my current role, I work with people from across campus to discover and meet their data needs.
I hold a BS in Economics and an MStat in Econometrics, both from the University of Utah.
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Business Data Analyst
University of Utah
