Executive Director for Institutional Effectiveness

Executive Director for Institutional Effectiveness

University of Idaho

Search conducted by Ferra Executive Search

The Executive Director will supervise UI’s Institutional Research (IR) and Assessment and Accreditation (AA) offices and will report to the Office of the Provost and Executive Vice President through the Vice Provost for Academic Initiatives (VPAI). A key focus for this role will involve strengthening collaboration between the IR and AA teams. Working closely with the VPAI and other colleagues, the Executive Director will help UI use evidence-based practices in education, operations, and resource allocation;

assessing these practices’ impact; and iteratively improving outcomes.

The executive director will provide visionary leadership, and high-level direction of institutional effectiveness at UI to equip colleagues with the data, analyses, and information needed to achieve key institutional goals. Goal areas include strategic enrollment; student success; curricular delivery and efficiency; budgeting; assessment and accreditation; federal, state, and other reporting; and other university priorities. To help the institution define key metrics, develop strategies, and gauge progress, the executive director will provide strategic leadership, high-caliber collaboration, problem-solving, and creativity.

Further, the executive director will guide collaborations with a broad range of colleagues, including disciplinary faculty, academic administrators, assessment and accreditation professionals, research support units, human resources professionals, and others. The person in this role will supervise the creation of intuitive, user-friendly interactive dashboards and other resources for sharing data broadly throughout and beyond the campus community while maintaining requisite protections.

Three years’ experience in the following:

• Creating data literacy, data democratization, and data-informed decision-making as demonstrated in application materials
• Strategic leadership to forward key institutional goals and effectively balance multiple competing priorities by providing needed data, analyses, and solutions
• Leadership in designing processes for maximum efficiency in routine reporting as demonstrated in application materials
• Leading the development of intuitive, accessible, interactive dashboards and other tools that broaden data access and promote effective data use institution wide
• Experience designing and executing quantitative studies, and knowledge of qualitative and mixed methods study design
• Creativity and flexibility in meeting stakeholder needs while sustaining integrity of data definitions and other unit priorities as shown in application materials

• Ph.D. in statistics, educational measurement, assessment, cognitive science, database management, machine learning, or other relevant discipline.
• Demonstrated experience collaborating effectively with assessment, accreditation, research support, and other colleagues, including disciplinary faculty and academic administrators; building, leading, and contributing to effective cross-unit working groups; and tailoring effective communications in formal and informal settings.
• Experience establishing, communicating, and leading others to implement a vision for promoting effective data use across an organization, including a demonstrated ability to effectively engage hesitant, skeptical, and/or inexperienced colleagues in developing data literacy and the capacity to use data effectively to inform decision‑making.
• Experience establishing unit priorities; motivating direct reports and staff to achieve priorities; and building collaborative, responsive, high‑performing teams.
• Demonstrated…