• Gabbi Tanner Kraus is an Application Administrator at Purdue University in the Institutional Data Analytics + Assessment (IDA+A) office, where she supports faculty activity reporting and contributes to ongoing efforts to improve data governance and system usability. Gabbi serves as the technical lead for Purdue's implementation of Elements, a platform used to capture and showcase faculty accomplishments. Her career began in institutional research as a student data assistant in Purdue College of Science, where she worked on data analysis, dashboard design, and metadata management. Her education in both Applied Statistics and Mass Communications help her blend technical expertise with relationship-building. She mentors student workers, collaborates with vendors, and helps academic leaders make informed decisions through better data.
• Jill Blackman is Director of Data Journalism at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, where she trains the next generation of journalists to think, report, and tell stories with data. Her work centers on using data as both evidence and narrative—teaching students to uncover patterns, visualize complexity, and communicate insight through interactive maps, graphics, and multimedia storytelling. A pioneer in digital and data-driven journalism, Jill helped launch the Online News Association and led groundbreaking interactive projects at the Chicago Tribune. At Medill, she integrates reporting, analytics, and design thinking to prepare journalists for an industry where storytelling and data literacy are inseparable.
• Michelle Appel is the Assistant Vice President for Institutional Research, Planning and Assessment (IRPA) and the Chief Data Officer at the University of Maryland, College Park, where she started as a research analyst in 2002. She has applied her undergraduate and graduate education in the field of applied psychology to explore the impact of higher education, primarily in the field of Institutional Research (IR). Over almost 30 years in the profession, Michelle has held a variety of leadership positions within regional and national IR professional associations, including President of the Association of Institutional Research, and has received distinguished service awards at the state, regional, and national levels.
• Zac Lockwood is a senior data analyst with Ohio State's facilities department. He supports daily maintenance, custodial, and landscape operations for all of OSU's main campus academic properties. He started as a student-employee for facilities while attending Ohio State for undergrad and parlayed that experience directly into gaining his current full-time position after graduation. Over time, his role has evolved from basic data analysis into more advanced methodology and now into data engineering and governance, all within the same organization.
• Aaron Williams is a manager and data visualization specialist at Netflix, where he leads a team focused on developing core business metrics and the visual analytics products used to understand performance and guide strategy. He started his career as an investigative data journalist, using code and reporting to turn complex datasets into stories on politics, public health, and inequality for outlets such as The Washington Post and The Center for Investigative Reporting. That work sparked a deeper interest in the systems behind the stories, leading him into analytics product development and internal data tools. At Netflix, Aaron sits at the intersection of data visualization, product strategy, and data infrastructure, building interactive dashboards, exploration tools, and automated reporting that scale across teams. He is especially interested in how governed metrics, thoughtful design, and emerging AI tools can make institutional data more trustworthy, discoverable, and usable for researchers, analysts, and decision-makers.

Wednesday, February 11, 2026 — 1pm EST | 12pm CST | 10am PST