Melinda Roy

Melinda has over a decade of professional experience in data analysis and research across higher education, public service, libraries, and healthcare sectors. She has a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Non-Fiction from University of King's College.

Data Literacy & Governance for Leaders, Strategic Planners, Operations and Financial Managers

In higher education, leadership and management steer their institutions toward success. However, there are data literacy skills that can get overlooked by those in leadership, strategic planning, operations, and finance roles.

Data Governance in Higher Ed: Empowering IT Professionals

Every person on campus, from employees, leaders, and students, will interact with the work produced by IT professionals. IT employees can be a crucial asset in data governance adoption, promotion, and management.

Data Governance in Higher Education: Empowering Admissions and Financial Aid Officers

Good data governance practices, or the lack thereof, can impact a student's earliest impressions of an institution, as they interact with Admissions and Financial Aid Officers. These professionals are central to shaping student experiences and ensuring institutional success.

Enhancing Data Literacy in Higher Education: Data Entry, Records, and Registrar Teams

Data entry professionals are often the first to spot issues in procedures, identify policy gaps, or flag system failures. Their deep knowledge of front-end operations is invaluable for data governance.

Data Governance Readiness: Addressing Overlooked Data Literacy Skills in Higher Education Roles

In preparing for a formal data governance program, an institution should be aware of and address these gaps through a basic data literacy training program for all employees. A data literate organizational culture is key to the success of a data governance program.

Cultivating Advising Success: A Strategic Approach to the Advising Review

Taking the time to do an advising review is key to both determining how much of a restructure is necessary, and to determine what kind of model to restructure to.

Cultivating Advising Success: Advisor and Advisee Types

Developing an advising team requires a similar approach to building a cooperatively-maintained greenhouse: identify distinct needs for specific student groups then develop a team of advisors with complimentary roles and skills to serve those needs.

Cultivating Advising Success: Structural Models

Many post-secondary institutions have a mandate to serve their local community as well as international students, so the advising approach must be designed to meet the needs of both groups. Many institutions practicing strategic enrolment management choose to go with a hybrid model for this reason.

Cultivating Advising Success: Theoretical Approaches

Academic advising has gone through three main theoretical evolutions: Problem-based, Prescriptive-based, and Developmental advising. Best practices for advising may differ depending on the educational offerings and community they services, many institutions are moving to a Developmental approach.

Cultivating Advising Success: Should You Restructure Your Advising?

The solution to a struggling advising unit is not always a redesign; while restructuring can be an obvious way to show students you as an institution are addressing the challenges, it can be less effective than taking a more strategic, holistic approach to understanding the units’ challenges.