Building a Data Culture:
Professional Development

00:38Thank you for joining me today in my first leap into podcasting. I'm super excited to introduce Leah Ewing Ross as my first guest. Leah is the Associate Deputy Director at the Association for Institutional Research, where she works with data professionals to create strategies to advance evidence-based decision-making and to become leaders within their organizations. And I'm happy to say that Leah has also become a friend of mine through my association as a member of the board of directors.

Leah and I are going to spend some time today talking about how AIR works to support data professionals who are new to the institutional research or institutional effectiveness field, and how the association is also working to advocate on behalf of the entire data community in higher education. So Leah, let's start out by talking about how AIR works to support data professionals, especially those who are new to the field. As I know you're aware, I was not well prepared when I entered the institutional effectiveness world in 2007 because my undergraduate degrees were in music — and that's really far away from the data field. At the time I hadn't finished my master's degree, but I had a great enthusiasm for accreditation. And so that's how I ended up in a data adjacent career. Can you tell our audience about AIR's Data and Decisions Academy?

02:19Sure. First of all, thank you so much for welcoming me on behalf of AIR to your podcast. It's very exciting to be here and we're grateful for the opportunity to share. And I would just like to say you might be one of just a handful of people who say things like, "I was really excited about accreditation." So this is fun.

The way we support individuals is through our professional education for individuals, but we also have a long history of supporting institutions as well. AIR has existed for over 60 years. So we have a long experience in the field as it has evolved over time. You referenced our Data and Decisions Academy — that is the umbrella under which all of our professional education is housed now. And although institutional research or IR and institutional effectiveness or IE professionals are a huge part of our community, AIR is also committed to serving all higher education professionals and institutions. So we often refer to data professionals and data cultures in our language.

And so to your question about what professional development do we offer, especially for people new to the field — I would say new to the field means different things. It can be someone right out of college or a master's program and it's their first professional job, or it could be an early career job in data. But we also serve people who are new to data or IR and IE because they have suddenly been given it as an area within their portfolios. And so we try to meet people where they are. We have courses that range from a holistic approach to IR — the overview perspective — into things like a course called the Art and Science of Managing an IR Office, which is very management focused, and different from our course called AIR Leads, which is focused on leadership not just for IR, but with an eye to leadership including and beyond IR within higher education.

And then, to go back to the early career and your reference to music being far from the skills of data, we also offer a lot of skills-based training such as workshops on foundational topics for the doing of IR work in a series on leading change with analytics. Of course, analytics is a current buzzword and topic in our field and in higher ed and other industries as well. So you could think of those things as paths that support individuals in their career trajectories, but also support institutions in terms of staff members' expanded knowledge, skills, mindsets, and habits to do this work.

05:36So it sounds like what you're saying is that AIR is doing everything it can to help develop the professional as an individual, but also to help that individual create a data culture on their campus. I'd like to hear more about the holistic one or any of the skill building education that you have that helps move data out of the data office to permeate the culture.

06:08I think one of the things that speaks to that is our consistent messaging that relying on the people in your community is very important. So whether that's the network you develop through engagement at our conference, the AIR Forum, or through our myriad virtual events, or that's through the cohort you become a part of if you take one of our courses, that network is essential to your learning and skill building as well. It's important for all of us to have safe spaces in which we can ask questions and navigate challenges. So I think that networking speaks to your question, and that happens in all of these courses, whether they're skills based or more theoretical in nature.

But the bridge — and I don't want to forget to mention IPEDS because hello, IPEDS, it is a large part of IR work — the bridge to what you're speaking about in these different levels of IR work can be seen in IPEDS. Throughout the history of the association, we have supported institutions as well as individuals. And I think one place that's most easily seen is our long history as an IPEDS training and education provider. We continue to meet the needs of institutions when it comes to IPEDS despite recent changes in the way things are structured and funded by the federal government, because we understand that both professionals and institutions still need assistance and the entire higher education community benefits from national data collections. Which is why it's so important to continue to focus on the quality of data submission. And in fact, we've added new aspects of our IPEDS training recently, such as boot camps and advisory hours to help meet those individual and institutional needs in this changing environment.

So regardless of one's role at an institution or how much experience they have, we really want to be poised to support them. Because as you mentioned — data culture, data literacy — this is very important for all of us. We're not all going to be data mavens. That's not necessary. There are people who have very specific data analysis roles, but we should all be savvy consumers of data and information. And that runs from institution level data up to national collections such as IPEDS. Or another example would be the National Student Clearinghouse's Post-Secondary Data Partnership or PDP, which we also provide training for.

08:54So Leah, I'm glad you brought up IPEDS. I don't know if I've ever told you, but I had a year in my early career with a new supervisor who was, let's just call it, hostile to data reporting and accreditation, and stripped my budget of all discretionary spending. And I still remember sitting in my office after I was told this and thinking, well, I've got to have something to do. I can't just sit in here. So I began to scour the internet for free opportunities. And there was like this entire universe at NCES. And I spent so much time learning about benchmarking and putting together reports that my supervisor wasn't interested in anybody else seeing. But I can't tell you how big of a fan I became of IPEDS during that year — for the potential for it to be seen not just as an externally required reporting burden, but to really seeing it as a wealth of information that could drive so much change on campus.

10:12And that's a big part of data culture, right? Valuing data, seeing what's possible, making better informed decisions. And we often talk in this field about the carrot versus the stick — you know, what motivates institutions to do things or not do things. But when we have access to sound data that are used ethically, we can all do better work and that work can be more informed. Data literacy is a huge part of that. And in recent years, we've expanded our institutional focused work to bridge that gap between individual skills and understanding and institutional culture. And one thing I know that you know about is our Data Literacy Institute, or DLI as we call it for short.

11:01And in that early role, if you had had either a leader who championed this work or were able to collaborate with colleagues, you would have probably enjoyed doing it with other people. And the very neat thing for us in terms of appreciating DLI is that up to 30 people from an institution come together to learn together. That's through structured weekly meetings, it's through project based work. And they're in very different roles — it's not just the IR or IE people, it's other administrative staff, it's faculty and advisors in a wide range of roles. And they come together to learn, which then affects change for the institution, because as the goal is improved data literacy, they share that with others. They become the instructors at their institutions of this type of work. So that grassroots approach is so very important. And also people don't feel alone, like perhaps you felt when you were trying to learn but had no way to apply that information and expertise.

12:06Yeah. It gives your campus a common language — a common data language to start with. Because when you don't have that, you spend a large amount of time constantly explaining and making sure that everyone's using the same definitions and we all understand what an FTE is, and what persistence and retention mean. And when you have actually embarked on a data literacy journey, you create that common vocabulary and that's really a springboard for culture.

12:43And it's important to use even the mandatory reporting expectations as opportunities to establish that culture, to clean things up, to understand what the definitions are and get on the same page — because then all subsequent work benefits.

Right. So let me tell you another rule that I made probably around the same time: I told myself that I would never again speak about data in the negative in any context. I think another thing that being data literate helps with is toning down that negative vibe that comes from seeing data as just being forced upon us — "I'm forced to do outcomes assessment," "I'm forced to report this or that." And instead, you can kind of flip that script and say, "Wow, look at this number. Look how far we've come. Look at the gains that we've made." Data becomes not something everybody groans about or accreditation people dread, but something everyone has something to cheer about. So I wanted to make sure that we took a few minutes to talk about the lesser structured opportunities that professionals can join. Talk to me a little bit about coffee chats and water coolers and how you go about finding speakers for those, because we may have some listeners that would like to lead one.

14:15For sure. We exist to support higher education overall and data professionals and data culture. So that can't happen without the participation of the community. And there are ways to be involved, small and large. Of course, you're a current board member — that's a significant role, that's an elected role. But there are many ways people are involved. And I think the most important aspect of that, or the best way to start, is to be present, to make connections, to reach out to people whose work you find interesting or with whom you seem to have a lot of things in common, and invite them to write with you or to submit a conference proposal or a webinar proposal to our office.

I know a lot of people are shy to do that because they feel vulnerable. But most of us enjoy getting an inquiry from someone else who says, "Wow, you're doing really interesting things." So the connections are the first way to get involved. The informal programs or opportunities we offer, like you mentioned — such as coffee chats — a lot of that comes out of conversation. There's an identified need. It may not be formal programming. For example, IPEDS ACTS, which I think we'll talk more about in a minute — that is a new data collection by the federal government, but people also need a place to talk about what they're going through or other changes on the horizon. And so we invite people to lead those events who have shown interest, who are known to us. We welcome ideas from the community. We often post calls for webinar ideas, for example, but we're welcome to ideas all year round.

16:09And let me just interject here right now — if you're listening and you're not familiar with the association, you can learn about all of these terrific opportunities by going to their website, which is airweb.org. If you're not a member, I really highly encourage you to seek out that type of discretionary spending so that you can get involved. And so then Leah, all right — you opened the door and you let the elephant in the room. What do you want to share with our listeners about ACTS?

16:43Well, I know you wanted to talk a little bit about advocacy today as well — our work around ACTS is an example of that. I would just take one step back to explain that our approach at AIR to advocacy is grounded in that expertise of the community, which you referenced. And our emphasis is on data quality, transparency, and the ethical use of data, not just on compliance. We want to make sure those things are front and center because in reality, data are collected, they're governed, and used by not just institutions but a wide variety of organizations and agencies.

That has been true for our work with IPEDS for many, many years, but now we have ACTS. And for those of you who don't know what ACTS stands for, it is the Admissions and Consumer Transparency Supplement. This has been a rapid-fire situation. It has evolved this year. We have gathered and communicated practitioner feedback to the federal government and other organizations, because we want to be sure to surface concerns about feasibility, clarity, and implementation. So speaking to that way to be involved — when we issue calls for feedback or information, we really hope people participate, because our voice is reflecting the voices of our community. The information we share is to represent different perspectives. Not everybody in our community agrees, and that is okay. We share all of that with the federal government or any organization that's asking us for information.

18:16Right. Yes. So during this year, AIR became a member of the Washington Secretariat. And I'll bet a lot of our listeners are just like I was — when Christine shared that with the board, I thought, hmm, what's this? The only secretariat I had ever heard of was, I think, a horse that won a lot of races. So do you want to talk a little bit more about what it means to be a member of the Washington Secretariat and how does that benefit the data community?

18:47Sure. Our participation in the Secretariat is an example of all of the ways we get involved with advocacy — so these formal convenings, these formal organizations, and then informal spaces as well. The formal name of the Secretariat is the Washington Higher Education Secretariat, which is a group of organizations that advocate on behalf of higher education. The value for us is that it strengthens AIR's collaboration with peer associations, and it's also another avenue through which we can elevate the voice of data professionals in national conversations. This includes data policy discussions or policy discussions overall, including data.

We do all of this work through our collection of perspectives from our community. And one thing I just want to mention is that we now have a data policy advisory panel that's providing us with ongoing real-time feedback on emerging data policy issues. The information we gather from the community is shared in more than one place — it's shared through the Secretariat, it's shared when we're invited to represent the data community at specific meetings, it's also shared when there are opportunities for public comment by the federal government. And we also want to be clear that our focus is on the impact of policy on people. Those people, of course, include students — that's why we're here in higher education. Because data policies shape institutional decisions and those decisions have real consequences for real people, including teaching and learning, students, faculty and staff, research, and community outreach.

21:13So how do you see the Association's advocacy moving into the future?

21:19I think it will move as the field moves, and by the field that's more than higher education — that's obviously everything right now, what the expectations or requirements are of the federal government. Even though we don't work directly with states to advocate, we pay a lot of attention to what's going on across the nation because things tend to get replicated once they're started in one corner of the country. We try to stay in touch with our community as much as possible. I think our pretty rapid response to ACTS is an example of how we can pivot when needed. And also the changes to IPEDS overall with the discontinued funding for IPEDS in certain parts of that enterprise — we were poised to continue that work in the ways that are possible. A lot of it is simply paying attention and trying to be as responsive as we can in a short amount of time. Higher education is that great phenomenon we all talk about as moving incredibly slowly until it moves, and then everything seems fast.

22:24Right. Yes, we are not known for flexibility and agility, are we? Okay. So before I ask you my final question, I think I would be remiss if I didn't, again, emphasize the need for data professionals to become involved. And so I urge you, if you're listening today, that you look into becoming, seeking a seat on the NEC, which is the body that regulates and runs elections for board members. This is a really important group who work very hard to make sure that the board of directors represents the membership overall — and that you consider, if you are nominated, completing the paperwork and running for a seat.

I know that I have gained so much knowledge over the past three years that I would not have had if I hadn't presented at AIR — and that's often a way for someone to notice you and nominate you. If I hadn't taken the time to put myself forward, complete the paperwork, and then brave the election — it's just been so valuable. Also, I wanted to recommend that another group besides AIR that our listeners could get involved in is the sponsor of the podcast — that's the Data Analytics Alliance for Higher Education. And if you would like more information about that, you can visit our website at datatelligent.ai.

So, Leah, one final question for you. We're drawing near to the new year and you know that's a time when we reflect on the past and look forward to the future. What lessons do you hope we learned this year, and what would you like to see or hope for for the data community in 2026?

24:35Big question on the fly, Debbie. I think one thing I've learned, or at least noticed, is how far even a little bit of grace goes when we're frustrated. And of course that has included conversations about data and data policy at the national level. But I think grace goes a long way. I hope we can extend each other more of it in 2026. I hope we can also realize that sometimes in the data world, we're asked to do things that are frustrating or confusing. And it's important to push through some of the emotion of that so that we can remain in conversation in those spaces and hopefully affect change in the future if we want things to be different. But extending that grace while not allowing kind of the chaos to dictate our everyday — it can be harder said than done in both our professional and personal lives, I realize, but that's maybe simple, but very important.

25:35I so agree with you. And I think what you would like to see is necessary for what I would like to see. So much of data reporting today is used to give us a competitive edge — you know, national rankings and how does our enrollment this fall compare with everyone else in the state or in the peer group? What I really hope is that everything that has upended our world as data professionals this year — and has really given us pause when we think about the continued reliability of the data — is that we come out of this seeing data as a vehicle for collaboration instead of competition. And for that, we're going to need to be able to create relationships and have grace, just like you said. So Leah, it was great to see you. It's always great to see you. And I hope you have a happy holiday with your family.

26:31Thank you. Well, thank you and thank you for the opportunity to be here with you today, Debbie.

26:40So thanks a lot. Bye everyone.