Margaret Allen
Since 1999, Margaret has worked within the institutional research group at Bowdoin. She has been involved with every aspect of IR from reporting to IPEDS and US News to developing academic profiles for internal planning. She has maintained the official historical record of the College's data. In her latest role as BI & Data Integrity Analyst, Margaret supports data quality for internal and external analyses by working with colleagues across the campus to develop data standards and definitions. She works with her Institutional Research, Analytics and Consulting colleagues and other College constituents to migrate data to Bowdoin’s enterprise data warehouse.

Prior to working at Bowdoin, Margaret worked at the Maine Municipal Association and in the Office of the Revisor of Statutes within the Maine State Legislature. She earned her A.B. from Bowdoin College and her M.L.I.S. from the University of South Carolina.
 

Alison Donta-Venman
The Director of Institutional Research and Strategic Decision Support at Worcester Polytechnic Institute for the past two years, Alison was previously the Director of Institutional Research at Mount Holyoke where she worked for 14 years.  At WPI, Alison heads a newly-formed office of four with responsibility for institutional reporting, assessment support for grant-funded research, centralizing the survey research of WPI, data and technical support for the Enrollment Division, and in-depth analysis of strategic initiatives. Institutional Research is also responsible for the implementation and advancement of the Tableau initiative on campus.  IR is an active collaborator with IT on the University business intelligence strategy and implementation plans.

A believer in cross-departmental collaboration, Alison’s office works closely with data and technical staff across campus to improve data integrity and business processes and encourages everyone to think about and use data in new and creative ways to advance the mission of the University.

Alison has a B.A. in Prehistoric Archaeology from Bryn Mawr College, a M.A. in Anthropology from Arizona State University, and an MPH in Epidemiology from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Kevin Brassard
Kevin Brassard is the Chief Information Officer at Nichols College.  He has over 30 years of experience in information technology, spanning industries such as high tech manufacturing, managed health care, and auto parts manufacturing; with the last twelve years spent at Nichols College.  During his time at Nichols College, he has managed the implementation of a new student information system, a new fundraising application, and multiple iterations of web site redesign with new content management systems.  More recent projects include the implementation of a CRM system, document management/automated workflow application, and an enterprise data warehouse. 

Kevin is also responsible for managing the merged Information Technology and Library organizations as well as the Institutional Research and Reporting function.

Kevin served several years on the Program Committee for the NERCOMP annual conference, including most recently the positions of Vice Chair (2016) and Chair (2017) of the Program Committee.  Kevin has also coordinated a full-day professional development day on document imaging technologies; and has contributed to several other professional development days over the years.

Kevin has a B.S. degree in Business Administration from Western New England University, and an M.S. degree in Computer Information Systems from Bentley University.

Tina Finneran
Since 2004, Tina has been leading change and building inter-office collaborations at Bowdoin. For ten years she worked in the Information Technology division, directing academic technology, developing communication and training plans for major enterprise-wide projects, and managing the IT budget. In 2015, she was asked to lead a new office that integrated Institutional Research with the data warehousing group. 

A regular contributor to the NERCOMP community, Tina has presented at NERCOMP’s Annual conference, served as a faculty member for the Workshop Series for News Managers and on the NERCOMP board from 2014 to 2017.

Tina earned her undergraduate degree at Cornell University, a master’s degree in geographic information systems at the University of Buffalo, and a master’s degree in library science and her Ph.D. in information science and technology at Syracuse University.

Emily Reardon
Emily Reardon is the Director of Institutional Research and Reporting at Nichols College. Prior to joining IT in the IRR position, Emily came to Nichols in September of 2009 as an Admissions Counselor working with traditional first-year students in the northern New England territory. Emily then worked her way through the ranks of the admissions office becoming an Assistant Director working with transfer and international students. As she took on the role of Associate Director of Admissions, Emily added reporting and CRM implementation to her workload, eventually working her way to becoming Director of Enrollment Operations before making the change to Institutional Research and Reporting in early 2017.

As a member of the admission staff, Emily worked as a liaison with the IT department in implementing Ellucian Recruiter CRM and ensuring various systems were performing at a high level. As the Director of IRR, Emily is again working with IT on a Data Warehouse and in efforts to spearhead predictive analytics and a data governance committee.

Emily has a B.A. in Law and Society from American University, an M.B.A. from Nichols College, and is currently working on her M.S. in Library and Information Sciences with a concentration in Information Science and Technology at Simmons College. 

Mimi Royston
Mimi Royston is the Chief Information Officer at American International College. Ms. Royston is an experienced leader with a strong technical background, developed over the past 20 years as an information technology professional. She has both depth and breadth in IT management and operational experience in the following areas: networking, server management, security, helpdesk, desktop support, training, grant writing, web support and instructional technology. Mimi holds an M.B.A. from Assumption College in 2005 and maintains her CISSP certification.

Mimi is responsible for leading the AIC Information Technology staff and the wide range of services IT delivers to the college community in the areas of instructional and administrative information systems, infrastructure, technology support, and IT-related innovation. She is leading the development of a shared vision for technology that supports American International College's mission and will establish and execute strategies to achieve that vision in a collaborative, transparent, and cost-effective way.

Susan Spies

Sue is the Director of Enterprise Information Systems at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.  Her team of eleven is responsible for all administrative computing at WPI, including work to implement WPI’s recently announced Enterprise Transformation Program (ETP).  The ETP includes, among other initiatives, offering better and more relevant data for all users.

At WPI, we are fortunate to have the shared vision, the strong leadership, and the commitment to this effort in all areas, and particularly in the IR and IT departments.   Sue’s group, in collaboration with IR and data stewards, has begun the work to provide a robust and secure data repository, the expertise to populate the repository with the needed data, the means to retrieve it, and governance to insure data integrity.

Sue has a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Vermont. She has been working in higher education since 1991, first as a functional user and then transitioning into Information Technology.  Prior to her work in higher education, Sue was a public school teacher, and a certified public accountant.