AVP & Director - Institutional Research & Analysis

The AVP for Institutional Research & Analysis leads a team of talented individuals at the University of Tennessee System in efforts to equip executive leaders and key stakeholders with insightful and reliable data that propels thoughtful planning and evidence-based decision making to advance the university’s mission. The AVP-IRA reports to and supports the Vice President for Academic Affairs, Research, and Student Success and works closely with the president’s office, the president’s cabinet, the UT Board of Trustees, peers within the UT System, and other university leaders on a regular basis. In addition to ensuring the data used for reporting and analysis are valid and reliable, the AVP-IRA provides evidence-based recommendations, decision support, and expert counsel on all topics related to the university’s mission and goals. The AVP-IRA is pivotal in convening and collaborating with institutional research (IR) and analysis colleagues across the UT campuses to coordinate and align IR efforts while promoting consistency and clarity in all institutional reporting.

The role touches all aspects of the University from a functional standpoint—including student data (admissions, enrollment, retention, graduation, and financial aid), academic/curriculum, human resources, financial, research, facilities, and advancement/development. The AVP-IRA is focused on enterprise data stewardship, analytics, institutional research, and survey and analytics consulting projects that leverage existing data resources, encourage the integration of multiple data sets across traditional organizational boundaries, and involve rigorous and robust statistical methods.

The AVP-IRA directs a portfolio of strategic projects through their leadership of a team that includes a Director of Institutional Research, a Director of Business Intelligence, an Assessment Coordinator, Data Developers, Data Analysts, Data Visualization personnel, and graduate assistant

Job Duties

▪ Data Stewardship & Quality Assurance — Oversees data governance, quality control, and the integrity of institutional data assets to support reliable decision-making across the System.

▪ Official Reporting & Dashboards — Develops, maintains, and enhances current, as well as new, official reports, dashboards, and data products for the System, ensuring accuracy, timeliness, and relevance to audiences internal to UT and to public audiences.

▪ Strategic & Institutional Planning Support — Provides insightful and analytical support, translating data into actionable insights that inform short- and long-term institutional priorities and planning.

▪ Ad Hoc Analytical Studies — In response to system priorities and strategic planning, initiates, designs, and conducts ad hoc research and analytical studies using sound and appropriate quantitative and qualitative methodologies and communicates findings clearly to a wide variety of audiences.

▪ Program Assessment — In partnership with colleagues at the UT campuses & institutes, proactively assesses the quality, efficiency, and effectiveness of academic and administrative programs, including peer benchmarking and trend analysis.

Strategic Leadership and Executive Support

▪ Serves as a senior advisor to the VP-AARSS and the UT executive leadership team on matters of institutional data, research, and analytics.

▪ Fosters a data-informed culture across the UT System and within the AARSS team, upholding the System's values of integrity, innovation, transparency, collaboration, and excellence.

▪ Provides presentations, reports, and briefings to the Board of Trustees, President's Cabinet, President/Chancellors group meetings, Faculty Senate, Tennessee Higher Education Commission (THEC), and other bodies as needed.

▪ Monitors the broader higher education and accreditation environments at the system, state, and national levels and uses that knowledge, along with in-depth research and analysis, to make recommendations that inform policy decisions and institutional strategy.

Develops and Leads Collaborative Teams

▪ Supervises and provides leadership to the institutional research and analytics team, including professional staff responsible for data warehousing, data quality, reporting, and ad hoc analyses.

▪ Fosters collaborative relationships between the Institutional Research & Analysis team and other units within the Division of Academic Affairs, Research, and Student Success and across the UT System.

▪ Focuses on ongoing professional development of staff, with the goal of increasing and improving the team's capacity to conduct analyses in a timely and accurate manner, initiate insights, and to build tools that support leadership decision-making.

▪ Manages direct reports and allocates work to drive team performance, ensuring alignment of process and priorities.

▪ Provides oversight of t