Yu Accepts Appointment as AVC for Institutional Research
JONESBORO – Dr. Fen Yu was named assistant vice chancellor for institutional research at Arkansas State University, Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Research Alan Utter announced today.
Yu joins A-State from Western Michigan University where she has worked the past four years and was the director of institutional research and data management. Along with leading the Office of Institutional Research for the 21,500 enrollment Carnegie Research 2 university, she was also a key leader in the management of data for WMU.
“We are extremely pleased to add an individual with such a strong skill set in managing data and interpreting data to our team at Arkansas State,” Utter said. “Dr. Yu’s background with strategic planning, predictive analysis for enrollment forecast modeling and collection of data for accreditation are three areas of expertise that were quite important in our vetting process. I am looking forward to her joining our Academic Affairs leadership team.”
Along with providing critical data to support the WMU strategic plan, Yu also guided the utilization of data as evidence for recent academic program reviews as well as in accreditation work with the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) at Western. She was also a part-time instructor in data analytics for WMU, and has made research presentations based on her work at national association meetings.
"I am thrilled to take this new and exciting step in my career and very honored to be part of A-State," Yu said. "I’d like to sincerely thank Provost Utter and the search committee for their confidence in me, and I look forward to partnering with colleagues across the campus."
Prior to joining WMU, Yu was assistant director of institutional research at the University of North Florida for eight years, and served as the interim director of IR for the 2015-2016 academic year. While at UNF, she twice received presidential excellence awards for her work.
She began her post-doctoral work career as a research analyst for the Louisiana Department of Education after completing her Ph.D. in educational research methodology at Louisiana State University. Yu begins at A-State on Aug. 1.
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