This is an alphabetical listing, by last name, of the presenters at the 2019 HEDW Conference in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Member Presenter Bios
Shelby Albers
Data Management Analyst Senior – University of Kentucky
Shelby Albers is a data analyst at the University of Kentucky, working specifically on analysis and reporting that supports student success initiatives on campus. Shelby joined the Institutional Research and Advanced Analytics team in July 2016 following her graduation with a B.S. in Mathematics from UK. Since then, her role has been to provide data for internal and external purposes as well as to train the campus community in the use of Tableau for reporting. She is currently completing study for a M.S. in Information Communication Technology at UK with a track in analytics to better inform her work-related duties.
Drew Allen
Executive Director of the Initiative for Data Exploration and Analytics (IDEAS) for Higher Education – Princeton
Drew Allen is the Executive Director of the Initiative for Data Exploration and Analytics (IDEAS) for Higher Education at Princeton University. Drew worked with the University’s former Provost David S. Lee, Chemical Bank Chairman’s Professor of Economics and Public Policy, to launch IDEAS as an internal consulting service that partners with institutional leaders, staff, and researchers to carry out data analytics projects in higher education. Drew has over 10 years of experience working with higher education institutions to support the collection and analysis of data to solve complex problems. His research focuses primarily on effects of higher education policies and organizational structures on diversity and employment outcomes. Prior to the launch of IDEAS, he was the Associate Dean for Data Analysis and Operations at Princeton and founding Director of the Office of Research, Evaluation, and Program Support at the City University of New York (CUNY). Drew holds a Ph.D. in Higher and Postsecondary Education from New York University, where he currently serves as a Fellow in NYU’s Steinhardt Institute for Higher Education Policy. He holds an M.A. in Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences and a B.A. in Sociology from the University of Arkansas.
Esmeralda Angel
Systems Analyst – Arizona State University
Esmeralda works in the Data Warehouse team at Arizona State University (ASU). She has experience with multiple ETL tools and databases. Workday data is her current expertise and nemesis.
Nadya Balabanova
Associate Director of BI – Loyola Marymount University
Nadya has worked in BI at LMU for the past 8 years. Her responsibilities run the gamut – from requirements gathering to data modeling to semantic layer and report building, to managing the BI tool and providing leadership for Decision Support.
Sarah Bauer
Institutional Data Governance Program Manager – Purdue University
Sarah’s background at Purdue has spanned student data research, creation of FI and HR data marts and collaboration on numerous IT projects as a business analyst. She created the Enrollment Management Analysis and Reporting group after having experience in Registrar, Admissions, and Enrollment Management. She has reported to the Office of the President. She led the IT reporting team for the implementation of Banner reporting. More recently, she was instrumental in the creation of the Business Intelligence Competency Center (BICC) and now is the data governance institutional program manager, reporting to the chief data officer.
Neil Belcher
Business Intelligence Engineer, Dimensional Data Modeler – Cornell University
Neil Belcher has 20 years of higher education business intelligence experience working for Cornell Information Technologies. He specializes in Agile Dimensional Data Modeling in a wide array of data domains: Financials, Student Administration, Alumni Affairs, Research Administration, Campus Life, Time Tracking, Facilities Management and Vet Med.
Sandeep Bedadala
User Experience Designer/Developer – Indiana University Bloomington
Sandeep Bedadala received his M.A. in Digital Arts and Sciences at the University of Florida. He works as a User Experience Designer/Developer on the Enterprise Business Intelligence team for University Information Technology Services at Indiana University Bloomington. Prior to working in higher education, he used his skills as a designer across difference industries, including advertising, startups, and non-profits. He believes that clarity, creativity and communication are the agents of digital transformation in any industry. He is excited to be working and solving problems in higher education.
Pete Benbow
Developer – Analytics & Business Intelligence – Davidson College
Pete Benbow is Davidson College’s developer for analytics and business intelligence; he is responsible for building the college’s new Enterprise Data Warehouse while also serving as the subject matter expert on Power BI and Azure DevOps. Prior to Davidson, Pete was Director of Research & Analytics at the Garretson Group, where he focused on reporting and data visualization. With enterprise technology experience that spans both development and product management, he brings an agile and user-centric mindset to his work architecting Davidson’s BI environment. Pete holds a B.A. in political science from Davidson.
Kathleen Broderick
Director of Reporting Analytics – Yale University
Kathleen Broderick is the Director of Reporting and Analytics at Yale University where she has spent the last 19 years working in the Business Intelligence field working in all positions from ETL Developer to System Analyst to Director. Kathleen was the Reporting Technical Lead for the Workday implementation of HCM and Finance and is currently supporting the stand up of a Power BI reporting platform.
Ted Bross
Senior Director, Center for Data, Analytics and Reporting (CeDAR) – Princeton University
Ted Bross has 45+ years of experience in Higher Education, working in a variety of institutions and roles. In his current position as Senior Director, Center for Data, Analytics and Reporting (CeDAR) at Princeton University, he is responsible for all strategic and operational administrative reporting. Prior to this current position at Princeton, Ted oversaw the development of the Princeton Information Warehouse as well as directing all custom application development for the university. He has worked as the Associate Director of Institutional Research at the University of Pennsylvania, and both the Director of Administrative Computing and Director of Undergraduate Admissions at Thomas Jefferson University (Pennsylvania). In addition to being an original member of the Higher Education Data Warehouse (HEDW) Board, including being its president in 2011, he has served and chaired two PeopleSoft Product Advisory Groups, was a charter member of the Cognos Higher Education User Group and is a current member the Core Data Service working group sponsored by EDUCAUSE. Ted holds a doctorate from Rutgers University in Adult Development and Learning, has presented at numerous professional conferences and has had multiple papers published in professional journals. He has taught at the graduate level at UMDNJ (now Rutgers), Thomas Jefferson University and Drexel University.
Irving Bruckstein
Chief Information Officer – LCCC
Irving Bruckstein is the Chief Information Officer at Lehigh Carbon Community College; with years of experience in higher education. Irv has a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science & mathematics, and recently completed a master of science with focus on information security. During Irv’s tenure, LCCC was designated a Center of Academic Excellence in cyber security by the NSA and Department of Homeland Security. Irv has global expertise in leading very large scale higher education technology programs.
Donna Burbank
Managing Director – Global Data Strategy Ltd
Donna Burbank is a recognized industry expert in information management with over 20 years of experience in data management and enterprise architecture. She currently is the Managing Director of Global Data Strategy Ltd, an international data management consulting company. Her background spans consulting, product development, product management, brand strategy, marketing, and business leadership. She has worked with dozens of Fortune 500 companies worldwide in the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa. She has co-authored several books on data management and speaks and writes regularly with industry publications and organizations such as DATAVERSITY, EM360 Tech, Information Management & TDAN.
Heather Chapman
Director of Academic Analytics – Weber State University
Heather Chapman is the Director of Academic Analytics at Weber State University. She can read a spreadsheet, scatterplot, or line chart and can (usually) understand (most of) those symbols and letters that show up in a results section or statistical output. She has a passion for creating visualizations that tell a good story to people who are afraid of or uncomfortable with all that data. In her free time, she likes to read, garden, or be outside. One of her favorite activities is teaching stakeholders that “pie is for eating, not for charts and graphs.”
Mandie Chapman
Data Coordination Manager – University of Michigan
Analytical, Detailed, Collaborative, Driven and a Leader. I look to solve problems and thrive on challenges. I believe in the power of the team and that a person’s role doesn’t restrict the value they can bring when solving problems or designing solutions. I believe in data informed decision making as the true method for creating impactful change.
Nick Chaviano
Sr. Business Intelligence Developer – Georgia Institute of Technology
Nick Chaviano is a Sr. Business Intelligence Developer for Enterprise Data Management (EDM) at Georgia Tech, a leading research and technology institution. Nick helps manage the Leading Insight Through Empowerment (LITE) Business Intelligence Center which provides reports, data, and training for business users across campus. Prior to joining EDM, Nick’s background was in institutional research, working both at Florida State University and Georgia Tech.
Valerie C. M. Ching
Associate Director, Princeton University’s IDEAS for Higher Education – Princeton University
Valerie Ching brings over 20 years of expertise in transforming creative ideas into real-life solutions through mission-driven work at both nonprofit and for-profit organizations and start-up ventures. Valerie takes the lead in defining IDEAS’s strategic vision and prioritizes actions to deliver both short-term and longer-term goals. Having served as executive assistant and office manager of the Princeton’s Office of the Provost, she provides administrative oversight of operations and leads efforts in developing metrics that IDEAS uses internally to assess our overall progress, effectiveness, and impact. Valerie received her BA in Theatre and Community/Russian Language from Cornell University.
Manish Devjani
Assistant Director, Project Management Assistance & Planning – New York University
Manish Devjani – Assistant Director, Project Management Assistance & Planning – manages the BI community support services function, supporting project and services related to Business Intelligence and Analytics, including OBIEE and Tableau.
Joel Dosmann
Data Warehouse Manager – University of Notre Dame
Joel Dosmann has 10 year of Business Intelligence experience working with the University of Notre Dame. As Enterprise Data Warehouse Manager, he’s responsible for serving up the University data to campus in a quick and secure manner that empowers analysts across campus.
Chris Eagle
IT Strategist and Enterprise Architect – University of Michigan
Chris Eagle is an IT Strategist and Enterprise Architect for the University of Michigan. In this role, he provides strategic planning and directional guidance for technology throughout the U-Mich campus. Chris is a key member of the team that created Michigan’s first campus-wide IT strategic plan and is continually working on bridging the gaps between IT strategy, IT architecture, and IT projects. Chris is former vice-chair of the steering committee for the EDUCAUSE IT Architects Constituent Group (Itana) and continues to serve as an at large member of the committee. Before coming to U-Mich, Chris spent 30 years in private industry, much of it in executive leadership roles, with companies such as Borders Books, Saturn/GM, and Unisys. He also co-founded two venture funded start up companies, Entyre Doc Prep, and JustTalk.
Matthew Fields
Principal Data Warehouse Architect – University of North Texas
Currently in his 9th year at the University of North Texas, Matthew leads the Data Modeling and Integration team in the department of Data, Analytics and Institutional Research (DAIR). The team manages multiple legacy warehousing environments while concurrently developing a brand new warehouse to support UNT’s new analytics platform, Insights. Matthew earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Computer Science from Trinity University and Texas A&M University, respectively. He’s worked within various areas at multiple universities, including web development, application support, and database development, before joining the Decision Support team at UNT (which merged with IR to form DAIR).
Michael Filipiak
Business Intelligence Analyst Lead – University of Michigan
Michael Filipiak is a Business Intelligence Analyst Lead at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor Campus. He has held previous positions in IT, Finance, and Analytics at The Coca-Cola Company, and Hewlett-Packard Inc. He holds a BA in Economics from Yale University.
August Freda
Campus Data Steward – University of Notre Dame
Augie Freda is the Campus Data Steward at the University of Notre Dame. Appointed in 2013, he leads data stewardship and governance activities supporting the use of information assets, including governance efforts for ND’s BI initiative, “dataND”. During his tenure, he has led significant change in business processes and organizational culture.
Christopher Gardner
Senior Business Intelligence Analyst – University of Michigan
Christopher studied at the University of Michigan, graduating with a degree in Actuarial Mathematics in 2003. After graduating, he worked in desktop support and digital signage before finally landing a role in business intelligence. He currently serves as the University of Michigan campus Tableau application administrator, controlling security, updates, and performance maintenance. He is also part of a small team responsible for developing and maintaining a suite of university-level dashboards used by campus budget administrators, deans, and university leadership.
Laura Gast
Data Governance & Policy Lead – The Ohio State University
Laura has been entrusted with the responsibility of building and implementing Data Governance (DG) program at The Ohio State University. Her positivity, passion, commitment and collaborative skills have led her to become a leader in DG area inside as well as outside of the organization in a very short time span. She is the first Chair of the BTAA Data Governance group and has been instrumental in forming this group. For the past 23 years, she has led numerous data focused initiatives at the university. In her previous role, she headed the Office of Human Resources BI and Analytics team.
Jason Green
Data Warehouse Director – Arizona State University
Jason Green is an IT Director in the Data Warehouse team at Arizona State University. Over the years he has worked in a variety of IT responsibilities from pulling network cables to writing mobile apps. By accident Jason stumbled into data warehousing and thoroughly enjoys this work. He has a Bachelors degree from Brigham Young University – Hawaii Campus and a Masters degree in Information Management from Arizona State University. Jason takes pleasure in spending time with his family and loves adventures in the great outdoors.
Mick Haney
Data Architect – Nevada State College
Mick Haney has a Masters Degree in Computer Science from Kansas State University and 25+ years experience in private industry building data warehouse solutions. Currently the Data Architect for the IR department at Nevada State College.
Richard Hartwell
Associate Vice President of Analytics – Harford Community College
Currently, Mr. Hartwell is the Associate Vice President of Analytics and Planning at Harford Community College. He is in the process of completing a Doctorate in Educational Leadership with a specialization in Higher Education at Delaware Valley University. His focus on decision support systems and the use of applied analytics and predictive models. His professional interests are Business Process Improvements, Large Scale Database Development, and Data Analytic applications.
Melissa Hartz
Associate Director, Institutional Research – Colby College
Melissa Hartz is passionate about making information beautiful, accessible, and easy to understand. After graduating with a degree in Communications and Journalism, she fell into a job in Big Data and has never looked back. Melissa is currently the Associate Director of Institutional Research at Colby College. She loves hiking, knitting, and growing tomatoes.
Ravindra R Harve
Manager, Data Warehouse & Architecture – Boston College
Ravindra Harve manages Data Architecture and Data Integration Team at BC. Ravi’s responsibility has been providing technical leadership, strategy, planning, design and oversight of the BI Program. Architecting a fully integrated EDW and implementing Cognos for BI reporting and Infosphere Information Server for our Data Integration and Information Governance. In addition to working with various ETL tools, Ravi has worked on architecting BI solutions using Microstrategy, Cognos & Business Objects. Ravi has around 31 years’ experience and has held a wide variety of Data Warehouse and BI positions and worked on projects for various retail organizations, higher education and government. As the Student Services and Admission systems at BC’s are being replaced, Ravi’s team is preparing to work on sourcing data from these new applications into EDW
Jonathan Havey
Research Analyst – University at Buffalo
Jonathan Havey is a Research Analyst at SUNY Buffalo’s Office of Institutional Analysis. He has worked for twenty years in a variety of roles with information systems: From small office database development, functional support of enterprise software implementation, and functional support of data warehouse development; to data modelling, reporting, and analysis. He works closely with campus student systems staff in troubleshooting and enhancing the transformation of raw data to forms usable for reporting and BI.
Yurong Hu
ERP Business Analyst Senior – University of Michigan
Yurong is an ERP Business Analyst Senior in HR Information Services at the University of Michigan, focusing on developing and delivering HR reports and analytics using Tableau and other tools. Before joining U-M, she worked at University of Florida for over nine years.
Dan Isaac
Business Intelligence Officer & Data Visualisation Specialist – University of Exeter, UK
Dan is a Business Intelligence Officer, a Qualified Accountant and a Data Visualisation Specialist working at the University of Exeter, UK. Further information about Dan and the data visualisation training that he delivers can be found at www.graphicinsight.org
Jeffrey Jenkins
Data Architect – University of Michigan
Jeffrey Jenkins is a Data Architect at the University of Michigan. He has over 25 years of experience in Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence, the last 10 years in Higher Ed.
Abby Kaplan
Data Warehouse Analyst – Salt Lake Community College
Abby Kaplan is the primary developer for Salt Lake Community College’s data warehouse, an initiative that began in 2017. She has been responsible for wrangling SLCC’s Banner data and integrating it with various outside sources, including Canvas, DegreeWorks, Starfish, Qualtrics, Salesforce, the US Census Bureau, the National Student Clearinghouse, and a thicket of spreadsheets. Before joining the Data Science & Analytics department at SLCC, she was an adjunct professor of linguistics at the University of Utah. She received her PhD in linguistics from UC Santa Cruz in 2010.
Kristin Kennedy
Director of Information Technology – Arizona State University
Kristin Kennedy leads the Augmented Analytics team in the Data Stewardship, Augmented Analytics and Business Intelligence group which is part of centralized IT. Her teams help create and maintain dashboards and reports for the entire University. Whether by graphs, charts, maps or complicated queries, the teams help users get the data they need. By empowering the University to make data driven decisions we help our students succeed and reach their goals. Kristin has over 25 years’ experience in Higher Education. She has worked in Information Technology for 20 of those years.
Meenal Kharabe
Business Intelligence Developer/Data Analyst – The Ohio State University
Meenal is a senior data governance analyst at The Ohio State University. Meenal has contributed to the higher-Ed data visualization, data analytics and data governance world for over nine years. She has spent the earlier part of her career for several years working on information technology for organizations like the German engineering giant Siemens. Meenal has been responsible for development of HR reports for the university using Oracle business intelligence tool. She managed HR local DataMart which supported many important business processes. She has single handedly created a paperless system to support bidding waivers process at the university’s Purchasing department.
Kendal Kosta-Mikel
Strategic Data Manager – Purdue University
Beginning her data career in 2008, Kendal has worked in multiple areas of higher education data including a large public university’s system office where she was in charge of maintaining the system’s official record of instructional codes and a small private institution where she implemented the college’s student retention platform. Starting at Purdue in 2015, she currently serves as the strategic data manager with the College of Science, assisting the dean’s office in making informed decisions. Additionally, Kendal represents the college in university initiatives including Data Cookbook implementation and serving as an academic data liaison to the chief data officer.
Jennifer Littlefield
Senior Financial Operations Analyst – Purdue University
Jennifer Littlefield has 15 years of analysis, ERP and process improvement experience in the public and private sector. Littlefield joined Purdue in 2017 as a financial operations accountant to assist the comptroller’s office as it implemented an ERP upgrade, worked to streamline processes and improved financial transparency throughout the university.
Steven Lonn
Director of Enrollment Research and Data Management – University of Michigan
Dr. Steven Lonn is the director of enrollment research and data management in the University of Michigan’s Office of Enrollment Management. In this role, he designs and conducts policy research and is responsible for the high-level management and communication of enrollment data. Steve earned his doctorate in learning technologies and master of arts from U-M. He also holds a bachelor of arts in psychology and religious studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Sally Luoma
Application Developer Senior – University of Michigan
Sally is an application developer in ITS/IQ and has held various data warehouse and reporting services roles in the past five years and has been at the University of Michigan for thirteen years. Sally has a Bachelor of Industrial Engineering degree from GMI (now Kettering). Prior to joining U-M, she worked in manufacturing engineering and IT departments in the automotive industry for over thirty years.
Amber MacKenzie
Asst. Director of Business Intelligence, ITS – Information Quest – University of Michigan
ITS-Information Quest (IQ) partners with U-M campus and the health system to drive institutional excellence by delivering information that tells a meaningful story to enable faculty, students and staff to use their expertise to make strategic data-informed decisions. Amber’s area supports institutional data needs for the University in teaching and learning analytics, executive dashboards, tableau, business objects and other reporting tools. With 20 years of background in Big Ten Higher Education University and Healthcare IT experience, Amber is passionate about delivering the right data to the right people at the right time in a clear and concise format. Amber is responsible for helping to set the strategic vision for Business Intelligence and Data Analytics at U-M, and is currently a key participant in the “Advancing data-informed decision-making” program.
Andrew Maliszewski
Program Director, BI Community Support Services – New York University
Andrew Maliszewski leads the BI community support services area within New York University, Information Technology’s Enterprise Data Management department. His team supports the university’s central business intelligence tools, promoting a self-service approach where practical. Andy is an “NYU lifer” with over 35 years of institutional experience, from both client and IT service perspectives.
Julie Martinez
Lead Business Systems Analyst – University of Michigan
Julie Martinez is a Lead Business Systems Analyst at the University of Michigan. She has spent the past 15 years in IT for Higher Ed. Julie is passionate about solving problems for campus leadership, helping them to make data-informed decisions
Chase McCoy
Graduate Assistant, Enterprise Business Intelligence – Indiana University Bloomington
Chase McCoy is a Ph.D. candidate in Information Science, who is working as graduate assistant on the Enterprise Business Intelligence team for University Information Technology Services at Indiana University Bloomington. His research and publications have focused on the practices of higher education decision makers when engaging with decision support dashboards. He explores these practices and their organizational consequences by examining how decision makers are embedded within broader institutional socio-technical networks, and how these networks shape their data-informed decision-making practices.
Roxane Meachem
Reporting Platform Manager – University of Regina
RAfter over 26 years as a data systems analyst at Saskatchewan Finance, Roxane joined the Registrar’s Office as a Business Analyst in February 2015. While still with the Registrar’s Office, Roxane relocated to our office in February 2016 to assist with the initial implementation of the Data Governance Project, notably a complete inventory of the existing CASPUR reports — a foundational piece of our Cognos implementation. In August of 2016 Roxane accepted the position of Data Reporting Analyst within our unit. That position has evolved to be the Reporting Platform Manager, as Roxane dedicates her work to the Data Governance Project and associated implementation of our Cognos 11 reporting platform. This includes the documentation of data sources and reports in the Data Cookbook.
Max Michel
Data Integration Team Manager – UC Berkeley
Max Michel has over 18 years of experience in Data Warehousing, most recently as the data integration manager for UC Berkeley’s Enterprise Data Warehouse. His team is responsible for support, standards, and enhancements for UC Berkeley’s enterprise reporting system, including a Student Curriculum subject area which received an Oracle Excellence Award in 2013. He has spoken on Data Warehouse topics at higher education conferences, including HEDW, and his 2017 article on technical debt management was published in TDWI’s Business Intelligence Journal. Mr. Michel holds a B.S. in Computational Mathematics from Tufts University, and a Master of Architecture from UC Berkeley.
Rob Mitchell
Data Scientist and Senior Product Engineer – HelioCampus
Rob is a member of the product team working with clients on the development of their cloud-based data warehouse, analytical goals, and machine learning agendas. Prior to joining HelioCampus, Rob spent more than ten years in Higher Education performing many roles; instructional design, institutional research, teaching, and consulting. In addition to his staff related roles, Rob also played a role as an educator and over the years, he has developed and contributed to curriculum, day-to-day institutional process improvements and reporting, executive strategy, and academic research.
John Mobley
Assistant Director, Data Platforms – University of Washington
John Mobley is Assistant Director – Data Platforms for the University of Washington. He managers the Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW), Enterprise Web Services (EWS), and the Enterprise Integration Platform (EIP). He promotes the use of Agile practices, balancing innovation with supportability, and an overall focus on maximizing the University’s use of data.
Dawn Moore
BI Architect – University of Iowa
Dawn Moore worked at Microsoft for more than a decade, serving in various capacities in IT before focusing on business intelligence. While at Microsoft, she led the development of a robust reporting suite for a six sigma project to eliminate server defects as well as an extensive suite of incident management dashboards. She left Microsoft and moved back to Iowa in September of 2015 to join the University of Iowa’s BI Shared Service Center (BISSC). Since joining BISSC, she has acted as an architect and the primary developer for numerous BISSC solutions.
Yuko Mulugetta
Chief Analytics Officer, Office of Analytics and Institutional Research – Ithaca College
Dr. Mulugetta is the Chief Analytics Officer and leads the Office of Analytics and Institutional Research at Ithaca College, Ithaca, NY. Under her leadership, Ithaca has established the first data warehouse in the cloud and the two-tiered data governance system. Yuko has also advanced predictive analytics operations for enrollment and student-success initiatives. To acknowledge her contributions, IBM granted their highest recognition award to Ithaca College in 2014. Yuko also received a Charles F. Elton Best Paper Award from Association for Institutional Research in 2018. Currently, Yuko serves on the inaugural Enterprise Summit-Analytics Program Committee created by EDUCAUSE, NACUBO, and AIR.
Rodney Pacis
Data Warehouse Architect – Georgia Institute of Technology
Rodney currently serves as the Enterprise Data Warehouse Architect, helping drive the development of a centralized data repository for reporting and analytics. Prior to joining Georgia Tech in 2011, Rodney worked in various roles developing software applications on the web. He earned his Bachelor of Library and Information Science from the University of the Philippines, Diliman and his Master of Internet Technology from the University of Georgia.
Dave Pecora
Manager, ITS Enterprise Data Management – Rochester Institute of Technology
Dave has over 20 years of experience in the implementation, management, and support of enterprise applications. He manages a central IT team responsible for data warehouse development, database administration, and application administration. Dave is the co-leader of the Enterprise Information Management initiative at RIT.
Carson Phillips
Institutional Research Analyst – University of Michigan
Carson Phillips is an institutional researcher in the Office of Budget and Planning at the University of Michigan. In his role, he is responsible for conducting analyses on students, faculty, and staff to inform budgetary and operational decisions.
Matthew Pickus
Business Intelligence Analyst- Senior – University of Michigan
Matthew Pickus has spent five years as a BI Analyst at the University of Michigan most recently with the central BI unit: Information Quest. IQ build reports for the President, Regents, Provost and Deans of the University, combining data from across the University (Finance, HR, Admissions, Enrollment, Graduation Rates, Facilities,…). Prior to the University of Michigan, Matthew spent 13 years as a finance/strategy consultant to small businesses and venture capital firms. Matthew has a BS and MS from Michigan and an MBA from Cornell University. He presented at HEDW in 2015 on building the Michigan Tableau Consortium.
Nate Polek
Cloud Data Architect- Senior – The Ohio State University
Nate Polek is a Cloud Data Architect in the Office of the CIO at the The Ohio State University. He develops cloud based data architecture on Amazon Web Services, and supports data from various systems including Workday and Peoplesoft. Nate received his Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Ohio State, and has worked in the distribution industry for Rexel USA and in retail for Abercrombie & Fitch. He and his wife Erica have four children and live in the Columbus, Ohio area.
Sangita Raghunathan
Business Analyst – University System of New Hampshire
Sangita Raghunathan has been a WebIntelligence (WebI) report developer and universe designer for the University System of New Hampshire (USNH) for eleven years. She develops complex multi-year finance, budget, and human resources reports and is the go-to person for building federal and IRS rules into existing reports. In addition to her report design work, she is responsible for establishing security for universes and reports, and for training new WebI report readers and advanced report creators. Recently, she has added Tableau to her skillset, creating visualizations, dashboards and data stories using call center data from WebI.
Vasudha Ramani
ERP Business Systems Analyst Senior
Vasudha Ramani is a Business Systems Analyst, with 15 years of System Analysis and Business Intelligence experience at the University of Michigan. Her focus in the past 10 years has been in the domain of Research Administration, acquiring an in-depth knowledge of business processes, systems and data integrations involved in managing research-related activities at the University. She has also been responsible for developing key institutional metrics and executive dashboards to assist central research offices in making informed decisions; and is currently a key participant in the ‘data-informed decision-making’ program.
Brenda Reeb
Consultant – iData
Brenda Reeb is a consultant in data management, data governance, and the information needs of users. She has over 20 years experience providing services and solutions in higher education. Brenda has designed and implemented policies, established workflows, and created metadata. She is an experienced advocate for data management at all levels of an organization.
Dan Reichl
BI Analyst Senior – University of Michigan
Dan is a BI Analyst Senior in HR Information Services at the University of Michigan. He has been working at the university since March 2015 and spends the bulk of his time developing data sources for Tableau, designing Tableau dashboards, and optimizing business processes.
Craig Rudick
Executive Director, Institutional Research & Lead Data Scientist – University of Kentucky
Craig Rudick is the Executive Director of Institutional Research and Lead Data Scientist at the University of Kentucky. His team conducts quantitative data analyses with the aim of improving student success and improving the efficiency of the University’s business operations. Craig is also heavily involved in designing the architecture of UK’s data warehouse, integrating new data sources, and making data available and easily consumable across the campus Analytics Community of Practice. He has worked in this role since July 2013. Previously, Craig earned a Ph.D. in theoretical astrophysics, and worked as an academic post-doctoral researcher in that field.
Mike Salisbury
Asst Director – Data Warehouse and Business Intelligence – University of Rochester
Mike Salisbury has been part of the University of Rochester business intelligence team for 2 years, leading projects in Student (Workday!), Admissions, Financial Aid, master data management, and web portal. Prior to joining the U of R team, he was a product owner at Sungard Higher Ed/Ellucian for Ellucian Analytics, a cloud-SaaS BI solution for Higher Education, and their Banner data warehouse and performance applications. He started his BI career as a consultant, building consulting practices and engaging customers in designing and developing business intelligence solutions in the higher education, service, manufacturing and telecommunications industries.
Ryan Schlagheck
Sr. Director, Institutional Reporting & Analytics – Yale University
As Senior Director, Institutional Reporting & Analytics, Ryan Schlagheck oversees the services and technologies supporting the University’s data integration, reporting and analytical needs, joining data across Human Resources, Finance, Research Administration, Student, Faculty, the Office of Development and others. Ryan joined Yale in August 2012 as Program Director, Workday@Yale, with delivery responsibility for Yale’s multiyear implementation of Workday. Prior to joining Yale, Ryan served as a director of IT at global health insurer Cigna, where he led large development and production functions. Ryan graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Management Science and Information Systems from The Pennsylvania State University.
Amy Schult
Interim Director, Enterprise Data Management and Reporting – University of Minnesota
Amy Schult is the Lead for Enterprise Data Management & Reporting and a doctoral student in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Minnesota. With a career in higher education working with institutional data within areas of the registrar, collegiate administration, and institutional analysis, she currently coordinates the data governance program and encourages collaboration and education across the five campus system through the development of the university data community.
Andrew Siefert
Statistical Modeler, Analytics and Institutional Research – Ithaca College
Dr. Siefert is the architect behind Ithaca College’s predictive retention model. He has an extensive scholarly background in the use of statistics and machine learning to uncover patterns in complex data, and has previously presented not only on his higher educational institutional modelling work but also on his use of similar approaches in the fields of biology and ecology.
Rochelle Smits-Seemann
Assistant Director, Institutional Research and Reporting – Salt Lake Community College
Rochelle Smits-Seemann is the assistant director of institutional research and reporting at Salt Lake Community College (SLCC). She oversees accountability reporting at the college and launched and is managing the data warehouse development at SLCC. Prior to SLCC, Rochelle managed academic research at a nationally recognized cancer institute, consulted in business intelligence for a local startup, and dabbled in non-profit program management.
Robert Snyder
Information Systems and Analytics Manager – Ithaca College
Rob Snyder, a member of the Analytics and Institutional Research team at Ithaca College, works closely with Ithaca’s BI team in setting the and achieving the college’s overall BI strategy. Prior to joining Ithaca College in 2018, he was the CEO and chief software architect of the northeast’s largest independent fin-tech company where he did extensive work in predicting (and improving) US retirement outcomes by applying machine learning to employee demographics and financial behaviors.
Kathleen Thomason
Comptroller – Purdue University, West Lafayette
Kathy Thomason served as assistant comptroller for three and a half years and was promoted to comptroller in 2017. Under her leadership, the Comptroller’s Office has worked to advance a data driven culture. Prior to joining Purdue, Thomason was in public accounting for 18 years.
Brenda Ulin
Data Architect and Database Administrator – University of Iowa
Brenda Ulin has served as a DBA, Data Architect, and BI Architect at the University of Iowa for over 29 years. She has been the primary data architect for many enterprise systems, including the UI SIS, which comprises the entire lifecycle from Prospect to Graduate. Brenda is the University Data Warehouse coordinator and data architect, which supports over 20 institutional domains. She leads the Business Intelligence Shared Service Center (BISSC) and chairs both the Institutional Data Users Group and Business Intelligence Community. Brenda has facilitated the Institutional BI Needs Assessment and now chairs the UI Data Literacy Campaign initiative.
Charles Venci
Data Engineer, Office of the CIO – The Ohio State University
Charles Venci is a Data Engineer in the Office of the CIO at The Ohio State University. He has been supporting on-premises legacy systems at OSU for 3 years, and is also a part of the team developing a cloud based environment for the future. He received his BS in Actuarial Science from Ohio State. He and his wife recently had a baby so he does not know what free time is anymore.
Pieter Visser
B.I. Solutions Architect – University of Notre Dame
Pieter Visser may have only recently joined Notre Dame’s B.I. team, but he has presented several times at HEDW in his former role as Solutions Architect at the University of Washington. A usability specialist, he created several award-winning business intelligence sites, and is excited to share a how Notre Dame is using governance to solve technical problems.
Jennifer Watson
HR Data Storyteller – University of Michigan
Jennifer is the University of Michigan Human Resources new Data Storyteller, focusing on connections between the data, business processes, and people to make data meaningful. She has worked at the university for over seven years and is a Tableau Desktop Qualified Associate.
Mary Jo Watts
Presidential Fellow, Office of Analytics and Institutional Research – Ithaca College
Mary Jo Watts is an inaugural President’s Staff Fellow in the Office of Analytics and Institutional Research at Ithaca College. She investigates the best practice and designs of Learning Management Systems to improve student success. Previously, she was Learning Technology Coordinator and responsible for the administration and integration of Ithaca College’s multitude of teaching and learning enterprise applications such as Sakai, Kaltura, Leganto, Turnitin, and Zoom.
Peter Wiley
Director of Business Intelligence & Data Warehousing – Bowdoin College
Peter has worked at Bowdoin since 2007, serving since 2013 as Director of Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing and prior to that, as Senior Associate Dean of Admissions. Within the office of Institutional Research, Analytics & Consulting, Peter leads a team that is building a dimensionally modeled enterprise data warehouse. Peter informs strategy and provides coordination for Bowdoin’s data governance program. He has served as a project manager for several software implementations and a campus-wide preferred name and pronoun initiative. Peter earned his undergraduate degree from Wesleyan University and a master’s degree in education from Harvard University.
Jennifer Wilken
Director, Enrollment Analysis – Arizona State University
Jennifer Wilken serves as Director of Enrollment Analysis for the Office of the University Provost at Arizona State University. She leads a team of analysts in institutional research, data wrangling, and evidence-based storytelling to inform planning and policy around enrollment, financial aid, student success and other university data-centered strategies. Jennifer holds a M.A. in Religious Studies (ASU) and a B.S. in Mathematics (OSU). Her professional trajectory led her through the world of bond market analytics, software development, consulting, and program management before a turn toward university administration. Jennifer writes and teaches about leadership, transformation, creativity and curiosity.
Jeffrey Wixon
Application Developer Lead – University of Michigan
Jeff is the Lead Application Developer in ITS Information Quest. He has a Bachelor of Business Administration – Business Computer Systems degree and has 17 years of experience in education.
Sarah Yoshikawa
Business Intelligence & Institutional Research Associate – Loyola Marymount University
Sarah has worked in business intelligence at LMU since 2019. She has a background in higher education and institutional research. She recently transitioned to LMU’s Decision Support team and is responsible for developing data models and reports in the Decision Support Environment.