DISTINCTIVELY DIFFERENT
Data is critical to inform and empower caring, passionate, and expert higher ed and student success professionals... it cannot replace them.
Mike Kelly, CEO and Principal Advisor, served as Chief Data Officer for the University of South Carolina (USC) for a decade, from the role's inception to the completion of CarolinaAnalytics – a comprehensive, cloud-based, AI-ready data lake and visualization platform that enables insights with and across data cores for Student, Financials, LMS, and Workforce.
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​Mike's background, however, is not information technology (IT). After earning his bachelors in History from West Chester University of Pennsylvania, Mike completed a Masters in Student Personnel Services at USC. Afterward, Mike served as counselor and director for rural college-bound high school students in a Federal TRIO program from 1995-2004. Many of these students came from low income households and would be the first in their families to attend college. It was challenging to apply human growth and development and student development theories at a time when the Internet was creating the first Digital Divide – erecting fresh barriers for FirstGen students who lacked hands-on computing and browsing experience.
Today, institutions find themselves similarly divided: some are innovating and transforming with data analytics and AI, while many institutions know they must do better with data, but either haven't started or are struggling on the data journey.
That's where Cronin Data Advisors meets our clients: we engage to understand where you are, what's working well, assess investments in people, process, and technology, and ultimately formulate an actionable data strategy that empowers your people to advance your institutional mission, integrative planning, and strategic initiatives.
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