Florida State University has appointed James M. Hunt as the inaugural associate vice provost and chief data and analytics officer. The new position signifies a pivotal advancement in FSU’s commitment to leveraging data and analytics to enhance the university’s strategic initiatives and overall performance.

“We’re excited to have James step into this new role,” said President Richard McCullough. “He has a wealth of experience in data and advanced analytics and a deep understanding of rankings and metrics. I greatly value his insights as we continue to advance FSU’s strategic goals and achieve even greater national prominence.”

Hunt has been an integral member of FSU’s Office of Institutional Research (IR) since joining the team as its director in 2016. This new position expands his role to include data empowerment, data governance and literacy, and administrative data science to retain FSU’s status as a leader in institutional data and analytics, according to Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Jim Clark.

“With Dr. Hunt’s leadership, FSU is creating a culture that will help FSU address future challenges with historical and predictive data that will be leveraged to help determine which investments and initiatives will best advance the university.”

— Jim Clark, Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs

“With Dr. Hunt’s leadership, FSU is creating a culture that will help FSU address future challenges with historical and predictive data that will be leveraged to help determine which investments and initiatives will best advance the university,” Clark said.

As director of Institutional Research, Hunt helped to advance the university’s data capabilities and take the IR team to award-winning heights. The office has made substantial contributions to FSU’s strategic planning and improvements in statewide metrics, national rankings, academic program performance and student success, including FSU’s record retention and graduation rates.

“James has fundamentally changed how we leverage data for institutional success,” said Rick Burnette, senior vice provost and chief strategy officer. “His willingness to transform our data and analytics platform has increased access to timely and strategic data by three-fold. He is providing the foundation for a decision intelligence framework that will inject machine learning and AI into the analysis of institutional investments by predicting future outcomes of those investments. By exposing data and analytics early in the decision and assessment process, FSU is not just data informed, but data engaged.”

In addition, Hunt and his team are active leaders in enrollment management through their research on gateway course completions, impacts of tutoring and other topics, and by surfacing data to help explain student behavior and performance.

“I am excited for this new opportunity to empower faculty, staff and students with data that will help them improve their experience at the university,” Hunt said. “Thanks to efforts from the Office of Institutional Research, Information Technology Services, and many others, FSU has a strong foundation of collaborative data analytics and data-informed decision making. By investing in cutting-edge analytics tools and fostering an environment of data literacy, we can ensure that our community is equipped to harness the power of data in transformative ways and propel FSU as the most data-engaged university in the country.”

Hunt previously served as associate director of Greek Life in FSU’s Office of Student Affairs and later as the division’s assessment coordinator. He received both his master’s and doctoral degrees from FSU.

Hunt’s expertise and vision have been recognized beyond FSU. He serves as president of the Southern Association for Institutional Research and as a board member of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities’ Commission on Information, Measurement, and Analysis.

For more information about FSU’s Office of Institutional Research, visit ir.fsu.edu.

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