Michele J. Hansen, PhD

As Associate Vice President for Institutional Research and Planning (IRP) at The Ohio State University, Michele provides leadership, vision, and strategic direction for IR across Ohio State. Her responsibilities include developing and implementing a multi-year plan for growing and maintaining Ohio State’s analytic and data capabilities relative to institutional data. This involves developing and leading the Office of Institutional Research and Planning team within the Office of Academic Affairs and serving as a campus-wide resource for institutional data. She is also responsible for providing thought leadership in building a data-informed decision culture at Ohio State University by championing and collaborating with campus stakeholders in broadening data sharing, data governance, actionable insight development, and professional skill development. Other responsibilities include leadership for institutional research, mandatory reporting, academic planning, accreditation, assessment, program review, business analytics, and other data-focused decision-support activities. 

Her primary research interests are in the areas of predictive analytics, the use of thick data (quantitative and qualitative), employing analytics through an equity lens, program evaluation methods, student learning assessment, understanding the effectiveness of interventions to enhance retention and academic success of undergraduate and graduate students (applying social psychology theories to higher education), and incremental and large-scale change management.  

She has over 22 years of leadership experience in institutional research, data, and analytics. She received her baccalaureate degree in psychology from Michigan State University and her masters and doctoral degrees in social psychology from Loyola University Chicago.