Speaker Bios
Executive Sponsors
Tom Andriola is Chief Digital Officer and Vice Chancellor for Information, Technology and Data at UC Irvine. He is responsible for ensuring the effective and strategic use of data and technology across all aspects of the UCI enterprise. He works closely with campus, faculty, and healthcare leaders to explore opportunities to drive innovation and entrepreneurship and to enhance the missions of teaching, research, patient care and public service. Andriola holds a bachelor’s degree from George Washington University, a master’s degree from the University of South Florida, and is a graduate of the Stanford Executive MBA program.
Richard Arum
Richard Arum is Professor of Sociology and Education at the University of California, Irvine. He recently served as dean of the UCI School of Education, senior fellow at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and director of the Education Research Program at the Social Science Research Council. He is coauthor of Aspiring Adults Adrift and Academically Adrift; as well as coeditor of Improving Quality in American Higher Education: Learning Outcomes and Assessment for the 21st Century and Stratification in Higher Education: A Comparative Study. He received a M.Ed. from Harvard and a Ph.D. in Sociology from the U.C., Berkeley.
Michael Dennin
Michael Dennin has been Professor of Physics and Astronomy at UCI since 1997, and the Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning and Dean, Division of Undergraduate Education since 2015. His research focuses on the dynamics of foams, modeling of ice mélange in fjords, and education issues. He is passionate about public outreach in the area of science – appearing on numerous television programs. His research and outreach is recognized by his election as a Fellow of the American Physical Society. You can find Prof. Dennin on the podcast Fascinating Gadgets, Gizmos, and Gear-Based Technologies where he explains how to make fictional technology a reality. Recently, he published a science outreach book on the intersection between science and faith: Divine Science: Finding Reason at the Heart of Faith, from Franciscan Media.
Keynote Presenters
Keynote: Using Campus Data Analytics to Support Student Success and Equity at Scale
Qiujie Li is a Postdoctoral Scholar at the School of Education, University of California, Irvine, where she specializes in researching online learning in the context of higher education. Her primary focus is on assessing and improving the effectiveness of online learning. She holds a Ph.D. in Education from the University of California, Irvine, as well as a Master’s and Bachelor’s degree in Educational Technology from Beijing Normal University. Her research has been published in prestigious academic journals such as the Internet and Higher Education, Computers and Education, and Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis.
Renzhe Yu
Renzhe Yu is an Assistant Professor of Learning Analytics / Educational Data Mining at Teachers College, Columbia University, a Research Affiliate at Community College Research Center, and a Faculty Member of Data Science Institute. He received a doctorate from UC Irvine and a master’s degree and two bachelor’s degrees from Peking University. Dr. Yu’s research focuses on equity-oriented educational data science, which investigates how emerging data science techniques can help understand and improve educational and social equity. He has won multiple best paper awards and nominations at international conferences on education and data science and received Data Science for Social Good fellowships from the Alan Turing Institute and IBM Research. While at UC Irvine, he was also named Public Impact Fellow.
Session Facilitators
Theme 1: Using Data to Understand Standards
Session 1: Course Level Assessment of Students
Renée Link is a Professor of Teaching in the UCI Department of Chemistry who designs, manages and teaches the organic chemistry lab courses taken by over 1,000 UCI students each year. Her scholarly activity focuses on using active learning in large courses to create a more inclusive and equitable learning experience for students from all backgrounds. As a community college transfer student and first generation college graduate, Dr. Link serves as a mentor for UCI graduate and undergraduate students navigating the complex world of academia. Professor Link is originally from Florida, but grew up in many parts of the U.S. Although Professor Link’s training was in organic chemistry methodology, she discovered that her true passion was in helping students learn organic chemistry. After earning her Ph.D. in 2008, Professor Link accepted a Lecturer position at UCI to oversee the organic chemistry laboratory program and held an adjunct position at Cypress College. In 2011 Professor Link accepted a position as Assistant Professor of Teaching at UCI, and she was promoted to Associate Professor of Teaching in 2014. She was promoted to Professor of Teaching in 2020.
James Russell
James Russell is the Senior Director of Research Support and Assurance at Unizin, a member-driven nonprofit company that delivers tools and services toward student success. James works closely with the Unizin Data Services and Solutions team to better enable members to realize their learning analytics goals through the Unizin Data Platform (UDP). In his assurance role, James collaboratively leads Unizin’s security posture, maintaining security policies, coordinating security tools, workflows, and best practices specific to the Unizin Google Cloud infrastructure. Prior to his position with Unizin, James worked for 29 years at Indiana University managing and directing IT teams in support of IT services, systems, and research.
Session 2: Course Policies and Standards
Kameryn Denaro
Kameryn Denaro is a Research Scientist at the University of California, Irvine and a member of the American Statistical Association. At UC Irvine, together with colleagues and students, she works on a range of research projects related to STEM equity and improving student success in higher education. Her research focuses on using robust methodology to solve complex problems, analyze policies, and address social justice issues in education contexts. Dr. Denaro is an author of a wide range of articles, including, Identifying systemic inequity in higher education and opportunities for improvement, Comparison of cluster methodologies for characterization of Classroom Observation Protocol for Undergraduate STEM (COPUS) data, and Quantifying disease severity of cystic fibrosis using linear quantile mixed models. She is involved in multiple National Science Foundation, Institute of Education Sciences, and Reboot funded projects, including, most recently, examining the roles of STEM teaching faculty in advancing the use of evidence-based teaching practices at research universities, pathways to Engineering collaborative, a model to advance equitable hiring of teaching-focused faculty in STEM, and pathways to computing for women of color.
Jody Greene
Jody Greene is Professor of Literature and founding Director of the Center for Innovations in Teaching and Learning (CITL) at UC Santa Cruz, where they now serve as the campus’ first Associate Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning. In 2021, they were appointed Special Advisor to the CP/EVC for Educational Equity and Academic Success. Their most recent collection, co-edited with Sharif Youssef, is The Hostile Takeover: Human Rights after Corporate Personhood (2020). They are the recipient of the UCSC Humanities Division John Dizikes Teaching Award (2008), the Disability Resource Center Champion of Change Award (2018), and, twice, of the UCSC Academic Senate Excellence in Teaching Award (2001, 2014).
Session 3: Campus Policies and Standards
Archie Holmes
Archie Holmes joined The University of Texas System as Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs in October of 2020. He provides oversight and guidance for the eight UT System academic institutions, who enroll more than 224,000 students, produced nearly 62,000 graduates a year, and have an aggregate annual operating budget of more than $7 billion. Prior to joining U. T. System, Archie was the Vice Provost for Academic Affairs at the University of Virginia and was a faculty member at both the University of Virginia and The University of Texas at Austin. As Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, he served as chief advisor to and representative of the executive vice president and provost in academic matters related to the curriculum and general health and welfare of the academic units. Dr. Holmes received his bachelor’s and PhD degrees, both in electrical engineering, from the University of Texas at Austin and the University of California at Santa Barbara respectively.
Carlos Jensen is the Associate Vice Chancellor – Educational Innovation and an Associate Professor, Computer Science and Engineering at UC San Diego.
He joined UC San Diego and the Executive Vice Chancellor (EVC) team in 2020. He is a champion of experiential learning and has extensive leadership experience in public education, with a strong emphasis on teaching excellence, educational innovation and access, and enhancing the student experience. As AVC-EI, he leads our campus educational innovation efforts, designed to stimulate the development of new academic programs and infrastructures in support of our strategic priorities for diversity and access, the student experience, organizational sustainability, and more. In this capacity, Carlos oversees the Teaching + Learning Commons, which promotes educational excellence through comprehensive services for students and educators. Before joining UC San Diego, Dr. Jensen served as Associate Dean of Undergraduate Programs in the College of Engineering at Oregon State University, and an Associate Professor in Computer Science. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the Georgia Institute of Technology
Diane O’Dowd is Vice Provost, Academic Personnel and HHMI Professor, Department of Developmental & Cell Biology at the University of California, Irvine. In her position as Vice Provost, Academic Personnel, Dr. O’Dowd oversees academic personnel processes for the main campus and medical school including merits, promotions, recruitment, and retention. In addition, she is in charge of a wide range of academic policies and programs including: family friendly policies, annual pay equity studies, professional development, grievances and discipline. Dr. O’Dowd has been a Professor at UC Irvine since 1989 and her research lab focuses on exploration of the cellular mechanisms underlying epilepsy disorders. She also conducts science education research with a focus on developing strategies that increase student learning in large introductory biology classes. Dr. O’Dowd received her B.S. in Biology at Stanford University (1979), her Ph.D. in Biology at the University of California, San Diego (1985) and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Neuroscience at Stanford University (1986-89). She became a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Professor in 2006, a National Academies Education Mentor in the Life Sciences and an AAAS Fellow in 2008.
Theme 2: Technology, Data, and Institutional Transformation – Opportunities and Challenges
Session 1: Enrollment Management Data Journey
Rebecca Ávila
Rebecca Ávila is the Assistant Dean of the School of Social Sciences at University of California, Irvine. As the school’s senior-ranking staff member, she oversees planning, operations and management for one of the top 50-ranked social sciences schools in the nation. This includes management of an operating budget of $60 million in support of nine academic departments, 250 faculty and lecturers, 76 staff, 26 degree programs and facilities in excess of 220,000 assignable square feet. From 2008-13, she served as the inaugural assistant dean in the School of Law. Prior to her appointment to the School of Social Sciences, she worked for the Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands where she held increasingly higher-level positions culminating in her role as chief operating officer. Ávila is a University of California alumna who earned her bachelor’s in political science and emphasis in international relations at the Santa Barbara campus. She holds a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Washington where she was an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow.
Tony Hwang
Tony is the Executive Director of the Office of Enrollment Management at University of California. Irvine. He supports the Vice Provost of Enrollment Management in developing and executing the strategic enrollment management plan. He guides, supports, and assesses new and existing strategic initiatives and provides leadership and support to meet strategic enrollment goals. Tony oversees the data analytics unit and manages OEM information systems. Prior to joining Enrollment Management, he directed the federal TRIO program, Upward Bound, to help support and increase the college-going rates for low-income and first-generation students. He began his advocacy of underrepresented students in higher education by first, working directly with students and their families through the UC’s outreach efforts, then through programming and curriculum development, and eventually moving into the space where he can participate in campus operations and policy setting.
Jovonte Willis
Jovonte Willis is the Director of Data Analytics in the Office of Enrollment Management at University of California, Irvine. In this role, he supports strategy and decision-making, performs research and conducts data analysis, generates and distributes reports to campus leaders and stakeholders, and built and manages the Enrollment Management Data Analytics system. Prior to joining UCI, Jovonte held several related roles in the California State University System including as director of the office of institutional research and business intelligence at California State University, Stanislaus. Jovonte earned a B.S. in Economics and an M.S. in Data Science.
Session 2: Academic Integrity: Course Design to Address Today’s Challenges
Dr. Stanley Lo is a Teaching Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology and Affiliate Faculty in Mathematics and Science Education at University of California San Diego. Collaborative projects in his research group examine how faculty conceptions of diversity and teaching inform their instructional practices, explore how student identities intersect with their experiences and learning, and develop programs to support student success. Dr. Lo earned his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Harvard University and was a Senior Research Associate in Learning Sciences at the Searle Center for Advancing Learning and Teaching at Northwestern University. He was a National Academies Education Fellow and Mentor in Life Sciences in 2011-2016 and President of the Society for the Advancement of Biology Education Research in 2021-2022.
Marco Molinaro – U of Maryland
Marco Molinaro is the Executive Director for Educational Effectiveness and Analytics at the University of Maryland, College Park, a role recently created on campus connected to the Academic Innovation and Technology unit (AIT) that includes the Teaching and Learning Transformation Center (TLTC). Prior to coming to Maryland, Molinaro served as the Assistant Vice Provost for Educational Effectiveness at UC Davis where he created and oversaw the Center for Educational Effectiveness (CEE) – a unit focused on empowering instructors and staff, improving the educational system and fostering educational innovation and discovery in service of removing disparities in undergraduate student outcomes while maximizing learning. Dr. Molinaro has over 27 years of educational experience creating and leading applications of academic analytics, technology for instruction, scientific visualization and simulation, curriculum development and evaluation. Molinaro has served on National Academy of Science, APLU and numerous NSF grant-related committees and received funding from the NSF, NIH and various private foundations such as Gates, Intel, the Helmsley Trust and HHMI.
Session 3: Transforming Teaching in Light of Technology
Michael Dennin
Professor Dennin has been Professor of Physics and Astronomy at UCI since 1997, and the Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning and Dean, Division of Undergraduate Education since 2015. His research focuses on the dynamics of foams, modeling of ice mélange in fjords, and education issues. He is passionate about public outreach in the area of science – appearing on numerous television programs. His research and outreach is recognized by his election as a Fellow of the American Physical Society. You can find Prof. Dennin on the podcast Fascinating Gadgets, Gizmos, and Gear-Based Technologies where he explains how to make fictional technology a reality. Recently, he published a science outreach book on the intersection between science and faith: Divine Science: Finding Reason at the Heart of Faith, from Franciscan Media.
Theme 3: Imagining the Future
Tom Andriola is Chief Digital Officer and Vice Chancellor for Information, Technology and Data at UC Irvine. He is responsible for ensuring the effective and strategic use of data and technology across all aspects of the UCI enterprise. He works closely with campus, faculty, and healthcare leaders to explore opportunities to drive innovation and entrepreneurship and to enhance the missions of teaching, research, patient care and public service. Andriola holds a bachelor’s degree from George Washington University, a master’s degree from the University of South Florida, and is a graduate of the Stanford Executive MBA program.
Emily Miller
Emily R. Miller, Ph.D. is Deputy Vice President for Institutional Policy at the Association of American Universities. She brings over 20 years of experience in higher education administration, research, and policy to AAU. In partnership with the association’s member research universities, Dr. Miller has primary responsibilities for advancing transformational organizational change initiatives in undergraduate and graduate education as well as the research enterprise. She directs the AAU Undergraduate STEM Education Initiative, the AAU Teaching Evaluation project, the PhD Education Initiative, and other strategic projects. Dr. Miller has published peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on evidence-informed innovations in undergraduate STEM and doctoral education; academic work and faculty reward structures; systemic organizational change at research universities; and multi-institutional strategies and approaches to advance equity and community in STEM disciplines. Dr. Miller earned her PhD in Higher, Adult, and Lifelong Education from Michigan State University; MA in Education Policy and Management from Harvard Graduate School of Education; and BA in Political Science from Gettysburg College.
Kyle Unruh
Kyle Unruh is a Data Solutions Architect at Unizin. Unizin is a non-profit consortium of twelve R1 universities that provides technology and services to shape the digital future of student success. Kyle designs and supports the Unizin Data Platform, synthesizing student behavior and outcome data across SIS, LMS, and learning tool ecosystems. Focus areas include DEI, machine learning, feature engineering, and data mart development for advisors, academic research, and institutional analytics.
Gabriela Weaver
Gabriela Weaver is Assistant Dean for Student Success Analytics and Professor of Chemistry at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She previously served as Vice Provost for Faculty Development, and director of the Institute for Teaching Excellence and Faculty Development (TEFD). Prior to coming to UMass, she served on the faculty at Purdue University as professor of chemistry and science education and the Jerry and Rosie Semler Director of the Discovery Learning Research Center. In 2012, she was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science for distinguished contributions to transforming science education at the undergraduate level. In 2019, she was awarded a Fellowship with the American Council of Education, which she carried out at Boston University. She has authored and co-authored numerous books, including two chemistry textbooks, the 2015 book Transforming Institutions: Undergraduate STEM Education for the 21st Century (and its 2021 partner volume), the 2020 book Engaging Undergraduate Students in Research at Scale, and the 2022 book Acute Crisis Leadership in Higher Education: Lessons from the Pandemic, as well as numerous scholarly articles, book chapters, and reports of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM). She earned a B.S. degree in chemistry from the California Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in chemical physics from the University of Colorado, Boulder.
