Tristan Jiang Ph.D.
Norfolk,VA
Summary
Strategic data analytics leader with over 14 years of experience advancing institutional effectiveness through business intelligence, predictive modeling, AI, and data governance. Expert in Tableau, Power BI, and SAS, with a proven ability to lead analytics teams, strengthen accreditation efforts, and enable data-informed decision-
Overview
14
14
years of professional experience
Work History
Director of Business Intelligence and Data Analytics
Office of Strategic Planning and Institutional Effectiveness, Virginia Health Sciences at Old Dominion University
01.2022 - Current
- Lead ongoing and special projects and reports under the direction of the Assistant Vice Provost for Strategic Planning and Institutional Effectiveness. Serve on the Data Utilization Committee and the Executive Data Committee.
- Collaborate with campus stakeholders to collect and evaluate data on the performance of institutional offices, services, and programs.
- Lead and build high-level interactive Power BI dashboards to visualize key institutional metrics and support executive decision-making.
- Performing ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) operations on SQL Server data.
- Serve as an active data steward, ensuring the accuracy, consistency, and completeness of institutional data and reports.
- Provide data and analytical insights for internal and external stakeholders such as IPEDS, U.S.News, and LCME.
- Deliver analytical and technical support to the Office of Strategic Planning and Institutional Effectiveness.
Associate Director of Institutional Research
Office of Assessment and Institutional Research, Virginia Military Institute
01.2018 - 01.2022
- Served as the Institute's IPEDS Keyholder, ensuring timely and accurate submission of required statistical and compliance reports to external agencies, including the U.S. Department of Education (IPEDS), the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC), the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV), NCAA compliance reports, and U.S. News & World Report data collections.
- Supervised Institutional Research staff and managed daily office operations, overseeing workflow, project prioritization, and professional development to ensure efficient and high-quality data and reporting processes.
- Conduct financial and revenue analyses using advanced statistical regression and predictive modeling to support institutional planning and decision-making, including preparation of the SCHEV State 6-Year Plan, budget projections, and trend reporting for executive leadership.
- Led the design, development, and implementation of interactive Business Intelligence (BI) dashboards using Tableau, including ETL processes and collaboration with campus stakeholders and Tableau support. Developed visualizations tracking matriculation, historical and predictive enrollment trends, and diversity metrics.
- Researched, analyzed, and visualized institutional data to support strategic decision-making. Created dashboards and summary reports for IPEDS, SCHEV, NCAA, U.S. News & World Report, Board of Visitors presentations, and the VMI Fact Book.
- Maintained the institutional research data warehouse and extracted data from the Student Information System (SIS). Supported data governance initiatives and contributed to the design and deployment of reporting structures, analytical tools, and data quality assurance processes.
- Served as the Institute's SCHEV Reports Coordinator, assisting the Director with strategic planning, institutional assessment, and data support for the Institute Planning Committee and academic departments.
- Enabled data-informed decision-making for the Executive team through robust BI reporting and rigorous data quality control to ensure accuracy, security, and consistency. Integrated self-service BI tools into institutional websites for on-demand analytics.
- Responded to complex ad hoc data requests from senior leadership, strengthening collaboration with IT, Admissions, Financial Aid, Registrar, Human Resources, and the library to advance data literacy and foster a culture of continuous improvement.
- Managed and updated the office website to provide timely, relevant data visualizations and institutional reports.
Full-time Research Statistician
Planning and Development Unit, Office of Online / Office of Institutional Effectiveness and Assessment, Old Dominion University
01.2012 - 01.2018
- Collaborated with the IT Office to develop interactive BI reports, including admission funnel and weekly enrollment dashboards segmented by gender, ethnicity/race, student level, college/department/program, and distance learning sites. These reports were regularly utilized by senior administrators in the Office of Distance Learning.
- Coordinated university-wide research initiatives and provided comprehensive data support for ODU's online program planning and development under the supervision of the Director of Decision Analytics and Academic Planning.
- Conducted statistical analyses related to prospective student recruitment, online/hybrid program expansion, and student success. Responded to ad hoc data requests from the College of Health Sciences regarding RN-BSN and graduate nursing programs.
- Leveraged ODU's BI suite (IBM Cognos) to design, create, publish, and share analytical reports. Developed and maintained SAS code to extract and clean data from Oracle databases (MART_DB and AIR_DB) to generate metrics and actionable insights for institutional decision-making.
- Partnered across administrative and academic units to assess data needs and design solutions. Supported compliance and accreditation reporting, including Student Learning Outcomes, SACSCOC accreditation, U.S. News & World Report, and NC-SARA surveys.
- Supported the Office of Distance Learning through in-depth research and data analysis that informed strategic initiatives, contributing to a 66% increase in online student enrollment (from 6,071 to 10,052) among both domestic and international students.
Education
Doctor of Philosophy - International Political Economy, Advanced Statistics
Old Dominion University
01.2014
Bachelor's degree - International Affairs
Beijing Normal University
01.2009
Skills
- Business Intelligence (BI) Tools: Microsoft Power BI
- Tableau
- IBM Cognos
- Entrinsik Informer
- Higher Education ERP
- Salesforce CRM
- Student Information Systems (SIS): Ellucian Banner
- Colleague
- Anthology
- Jenzabar
- WebAdMIT
- CAS
- Liaison
- Statistical & Programming Tools: SAS
- R
- SQL
- Python
- Matlab
- SPSS
- Eviews
- SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
- Database & Data Management / Relational Database Management Systems (RDBMS): Oracle Database
- Operational Data Store (ODS)
- Datamart
- MS Office Tools: Microsoft Access
- Excel (VBA
- PivotTables
- Dashboards)
- Word
- Outlook
- PowerPoint
- Web & Analytics Tools: HTML
- EAB
- Gardner Admission Analysis
- Burning Glass
- Survey & Data Collection Tools: Qualtrics
- SurveyMonkey
- Assessment software: Weave
- Data governance
- Data security
- Data analysis expertise
- Database design
- Technical communication
- ETL development
- Advanced analytics
- Machine learning
- Data warehousing
- Predictive modeling
- Big data management
- Data visualization mastery
- BI tool proficiency
- Data integration
- Artificial intelligence proficiency
Research Interests And Methods
- Data visualizations
- Advanced statistics and data mining
- Advanced SAS programming
- BI report building
- Higher education and institutional research
- Strategic planning and SWOT analysis
- Survey sampling
Former And Current Professional Memberships
- Association for Institutional Research (AIR)
- Southern Association for Institutional Research (SAIR)
- Virginia Assessment Group (VAG)
- American Economic Association (AEA)
- Old Dominion University Association of University Administrators
Selected Publications And Presentations
- Enhancing decision-making in higher education: Exploring the integration of ChatGPT and data visualization tools in data analysis, Jiang, T., Liu, E., Baig, T., & Li, Q., New Directions for Higher Education, 01/01/24, 2024(207), 15-29, https://doi.org/10.1002/he.20510
- Tableau or Power BI? Know your needs., Data Visualizations & Business Intelligence section of 2019 AIR Annual Conference, 01/01/19
- Key Points of recent changes in the U.S. News Best College Rankings: implications for assessment and IR practitioners., 2019 VAG Annual Conference, 01/01/19
- IR at A Crossroads, VA Association for Management Analysis & Planning, 01/01/19
Certificates And Awards
- AI and Career Empowerment, University of Maryland Robert H. Smith School of Business.
- SAS Certified Statistical Business Analyst, SAS Institute, North Carolina.
- SAS Certified Advanced Programmer, SAS Institute, North Carolina.
- VMI Leadership Training Certificate, Virginia Military Institute.
- IBM Cognos Business Intelligence Training Certificate.
- Making Sense of Data Certificate, Google.
- USCIS EB1B Outstanding Professors or Researchers Green Card.
- First Place medal for winning the 10th Annual World Quest in 2009, organized by the Hampton Roads division of World Affairs Council.
- Representing Finland at the 2008 Harvard National Model United Conference, Harvard University, Boston.
Timeline
Director of Business Intelligence and Data Analytics
Office of Strategic Planning and Institutional Effectiveness, Virginia Health Sciences at Old Dominion University
01.2022 - Current
Associate Director of Institutional Research
Office of Assessment and Institutional Research, Virginia Military Institute
01.2018 - 01.2022
Full-time Research Statistician
Planning and Development Unit, Office of Online / Office of Institutional Effectiveness and Assessment, Old Dominion University
01.2012 - 01.2018
Bachelor's degree - International Affairs
Beijing Normal University
Doctor of Philosophy - International Political Economy, Advanced Statistics
Old Dominion University