TCU’s Office of Institutional Research provides myriad resources for facts and data relating to enrollment, tenure, salaries, demographics, operating revenues and more. Beyond being a reporting tool, this data is imperative for making strategic decisions at the operational level as well as the high-level, forward-looking goals of the University.
To enhance the services provided by Institutional Research and assure that trustworthy data is readily available and accessible for decision-makers across campus, TCU is introducing the Agile Analytics Initiative.
Cathan Coghlan, Ph.D., who has led Institutional Research since 2009 as director, will lead the Agile Analytics Initiative as executive director. Over the course of several months, he will work with university partners to determine the data they need to make the best decisions, and then begin to compile that data into custom datasets they can easily access.
“Dr. Coghlan will begin immediately to compile custom datasets. We expect to see preliminary results over the next year,” said Teresa Abi-Nader Dahlberg, provost and vice chancellor for Academic Affairs.
Coghlan will partner with leadership and other stakeholders to adopt optimal data management practices and reliable, curated data sources.
“My goal is to give people access to official, curated data that they can be confident in and that will provide the information they need to support their business needs,” Coghlan said. “This will allow Institutional Research staff to spend less time on data management and individual data requests, and more time on data analytics and questions of strategic interest to the University.”
Coghlan joined TCU in 2001 as a lecturer, became assistant director of Institutional Research in 2003, and director in 2009. He holds a PhD in sociology and a master’s degree in social work.
Laurie Harris will become director of Institutional Research from associate director. Harris will serve as the principal investigator and team lead for research and analytical projects. Lindsey Millns will become associate director. They will lead the Institutional Research team to continue to produce data analytics, TCU Quick Facts, financial reporting enrollment reporting, Student Perceptions of Teaching (SPOT) surveys, and more. Harris joined TCU as admissions data administrator in 2019 and was promoted to associate director of Institutional Research in 2022. Millns joined TCU in 2012 as senior research analyst and became assistant director in 2014.