About The DAIR Team

The Data, Analytics, and Institutional Research (DAIR) team is made up of professionals with a wide range of experience in higher education settings. Our team has professional credentials and degrees geared towards helping the institution improve through data informed decision making. The team is responsible for a wide-array of projects. See the image below for a representative sample of what DAIR team members do.

DAIR Mission

The mission of the DAIR team is to promote sound analytic and institutional research practices, manage existing and develop new data models, and provide decision makers and external agencies with official and transactional academic, enrollment, faculty, financial, and student data.

Working in partnership across the institution, DAIR is tasked with supporting analytic deployment via the Insights program, surfacing data to assist with institutional planning and policymaking, and responding to other strategic data requests in accordance with the UNT mission and goals. DAIR promotes a culture where employees across the institution have the data training and tools they need to best respond to pressing institutional concerns.

Meet The Team

Jason F. Simon, Ph.D.
Associate Vice President - Data, Analytics, and Institutional Research
SSB - 181-J
jason.simon@unt.edu
(940) 565-2085
Professional Organizations:
Jason is involved in the Texas Association for Institutional Research (TAIR), Higher Education Data Warehousing (HEDW), and the Association for Institutional Research (AIR)
Subject Matter Expertise:
Campus Culture, Analytic Visualization, Advancement, Student Affairs, Academic Affairs

Jason leads a comprehensive enterprise-wide data warehouse team designed to bring together data sources across enrollment management, finance, academic affairs, and student affairs to promote data informed decision-making within the University of North Texas. Over his 22 year career, Jason has lead teams in advancement, student affairs, academic affairs and finance and administration. Jason brings these diverse perspectives to his work in supporting creative data solutions for strategically important challenges facing his institution. Jason has been at UNT since 2008. Prior to UNT, he has served in various roles at the University of California, Berkeley, Wichita State University, University of Vermont, and Collin College. In addition to his full-time role as Associate Vice President Jason also serves as an affiliate faculty member within the Counseling and Higher Education program at UNT. Jason is a frequent speaker at local, regional, and national conferences on data, analytics, and institutional culture. Jason also is a frequent writer and his research focuses on how campus culture can impact the success or failure of data and analytic projects. Jason is also currently working on examining how to best "future-proof" institutional research as a field within higher education.

Dan Hubbard, Ph.D.
Director of Data Management
SSB - 181-K
Daniel.Hubbard@unt.edu
(940) 369-6189
Professional Organizations:
Dan is a member of the Association for Institutional Research (AIR), the Texas Association for Institutional Research (TAIR), the Higher Education Data Warehousing (HEDW) Forum, and the Acoustical Society of America (ASA)
Subject Matter Expertise:
SAS Business Data Network, SAS Visual Analytics, Data Governance, Data Management, Insights Program Training, Peer Benchmarking

Dan is responsible for planning and leadership related to data governance, data management, training and external benchmarking at UNT. Dan’s office is heavily involved in data governance, management and training activities for UNT’s new data warehousing and analytics program, collectively called the Insights Program. Prior to joining DAIR in 2017, Dan worked in a variety of progressive institutional research and effectiveness roles within the Dallas County Community College District, and as a research assistant in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences at The University of Texas at Dallas. Dan holds a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology, a Master’s Degree in Cognition and Neuroscience, and a Ph.D. in Cognition and Neuroscience from The University of Texas at Dallas. He is a frequent presenter at regional and national conferences related to institutional research and effectiveness, strategic planning, data management and higher education administration, and has authored posters and peer-reviewed journal articles related to his doctoral training in speech production and perception, speech development in children, and speech patterns of adults with autism.

Ernest Lerma
Business Intelligence Analyst
SSB - 180-N
Ernest.Lerma@unt.edu
(940) 565-3026
Professional Organizations:
Texas Association for Institutional Research (TAIR)
Subject Matter Expertise:
Academic Affairs
Robert Fajardo, MBA
Senior Data Analyst
Office # 180P
robertfajardo@my.unt.edu
940-369-5289
Professional Organizations:
Project Management Institute, Society for Human Resource Management
Subject Matter Expertise:
SAS Business Data Network, SAS Visual Analytics, Data Governance, Data Management, Insights Program Training, Peer Benchmarking

Robert is a Senior Data Analyst and responsible for projects related to data governance, data management, designing analytical dashboards, and external benchmarking at UNT. He recently graduated with an MBA in Strategic Management from the G. Brint Ryan College of Business where he assisted in budget management and human resources. Robert is also lifetime musician which has fueled his quest for traveling to all major continents and studying music from LA to Istanbul. After completing a Bachelors in Music History Degree, he won a scholarship to play with the Henry Mancini Orchestra and earn a Master of Music Performance at the University of Miami. After completing his degree, Robert taught music and implemented industry audio visual technology to coach his drumline in Dallas, TX.

Mary Barton, Ph.D.
Director, Institutional Research
SSB - 181-L
(940) 565-2085
Professional Organizations:
Subject Matter Expertise:
Cassie West, M.A.
Senior Data Analyst
SSB - 181-E
Cassie.West@unt.edu
(940) 369-5675
Professional Organizations:
Texas Association of Institutional Research (TAIR), Association for Institutional Research (AIR), and American Educational Research Association (AERA)
Subject Matter Expertise:
Student and Faculty Data; State, Federal, and Outside Agency Reporting; Data Analysis, Statistics, and Assessment

Cassie came to UNT in March 2012 and has been a member of the Institutional Research team since April 2014. Previously she served as the Assistant Director for Diversity Research and Assessment for the Division of Equity and Diversity. Cassie supports the campus community in accreditation, assessment, and the evaluation of trends in enrollment, retention, graduation, semester credit hour completion, and other data inquires. Cassie holds a Bachelors in Child Development from Cal State University, Fullerton; a Master’s degree in Psychology from Cal State University, San Bernardino; and is currently pursuing her Doctorate in Educational Research with an emphasis on Research, Measurement, and Statistics from UNT.

Rion McDonald
Senior Data Analyst
SSB - 180-R
Rion.McDonald@unt.edu
(940) 369-5290
Professional Organizations:
Subject Matter Expertise:
Matthew J. Fields, M.S.
Principal Data Warehouse Architect
SSB - 181-G
matthew.fields@unt,edu
(940) 565-3996
Professional Organizations:
Higher Education Data Warehousing Forum (HEDW Forum), Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
Subject Matter Expertise:
Data Modeling, Data Integration, Data Warehousing, SAS Data Integration Studio, Informatica PowerCenter

Matthew leads the Data Modeling and Integration team that manages University of North Texas' legacy data warehouses in addition to developing the data models for the enterprise data warehouse that supports the Insights Program. The team utilizes numerous tools to access multiple databases and manage the ETLs that run nightly to support the reporting and analytics operations for student, financial, and human resources data at UNT and across the UNT System. Matthew's concentration is in Computer Science, resulting in earning Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees from Trinity University and Texas A&M University, respectively. He's spent over nine years in Higher Education, with more than seven years of experience across multiple departments at UNT.

Shannon Smith, BAAS-ATPI
Data Warehouse Analyst
SSB - 180-K
Shannon.Smith@unt.edu
(940) 565-4284
Professional Organizations:
Subject Matter Expertise:

Shannon provides data to meet the analytical and informational needs of UNT leadership. She assists with design, delivery and maintenance of information solutions containing financial and administrative data, working closely with the business to build and enhance methods of reporting according to the overall data architecture. She uses multiple platforms, including SAS Data Integration, Informatica, Cognos, SQL Server, SQL Server Management Studio and Framework Manager to deliver actionable data reporting for management decision-making. Her duties include mining financial and related information from a variety of sources in support of both internal and external reporting with increased responsivity for coordinating activities amongst administrative, fiscal, program and central administration areas as needed for senior leadership.

Rohini Patankar
Senior Data Warehouse Analyst
SSB - 180-J
Rohini.Patankar@unt.edu
(940) 565-3944
Professional Organizations:
Subject Matter Expertise:
Nadia Mankins
Senior Data Warehouse Analyst
SSB - 181-H
Nadia.Mankins@unt.edu
(940) 369-6190
Professional Organizations:
Subject Matter Expertise: