Chief Data Officer
Cal Poly Humboldt
Arcata, California, United States
Michael ‘Data’ Le is a higher education information technology leader and researcher by day, but by night, he is a data evangelist with a passion for visual analytics and sharing information to create a data-informed democracy. Mike has worked with distinction in the field of Institutional Research/Effectiveness for 17 years in both public 2-year and 4-year institutions. Mike served as the 2025 President and CEO of the California Association of Institutional Research.
At Cal Poly Humboldt, Mike is the Chief Data Officer and Director of ITS Institutional Research, Analytics, and Reporting. Mike’s primary role is to strategically govern and leverage organizational data as a critical asset to drive business value and informed decision-making. The areas of study cover student enrollment/characteristics, enrollment management (e.g., admission, retention, and graduation), enrollment projection, faculty/staff characteristics, curriculum studies, graduate programs, program review, etc. Analysis, reports, and presentations inform and advance the University's educational policy, administrative decisions, strategic planning, and assessment activities.
Mike serves as the Chair of the California State University system DataOps UserGroup, a learning community that endeavors to build a collection of technical practices, workflows, cultural norms, and architectural patterns that enable end-to-end, reliable, robust, scalable, and repeatable enterprise data solutions to support data-informed decision-making. Mike maintains professional membership in CAIR, AIR, and EDUCAUSE and serves on numerous volunteer committees.
Chief Data Officer – Institution Research’s friend, foe, or natural role?
Wednesday, May 27, 2026
2:45 PM - 3:30 PM East Coast USA Time