From Compliance to Confidence: Building the Data Foundation for the Accountability & Student ROI Era

Wednesday, September 30, 2026 | 4:30PM–5:30PM MT
Session Type: Poster Session
Delivery Format: Poster Session
The accountability demands hitting higher education aren’t slowing down—they’re compounding. Federal earnings premium thresholds, state-level ROI mandates, and new transparency frameworks all require institutions to connect data they’ve never had to connect before. This session moves beyond the "compliance checklist" to explore how IT and Institutional Research (IR) must co-author a responsive data ecosystem. We will discuss how to move away from reactive, manual "data pulls" and toward a unified framework that bridges the gap between technical architecture and analytical integrity. Discover how to think strategically about disparate compliance data, from SIS to workforce earnings databases, to craft a capability designed to address evolving accountability questions.

Presenters

  • Tim Cockerham

    Direct of Data Strategy, Texas A&M University

  • Shefali Dhar

    Senior IT Director, University of Georgia

  • Krisztina Filep

    Executive Director of Analytics and Institutional Research, University of Massachusetts Amherst

  • Loren Malm

    Vice President for Information Technology and CIO, Ball State University