Overview

March 31

The ability to make data-driven decisions and act on key insights is critical in higher education. Increasing student retention and graduation rates, improving operations and containing costs all depend on enterprise-level views of data and the use of analytics.

But oftentimes, university data is siloed across departments and requires manual and time-consuming extraction before it can be valuable.

Maryville University in St. Louis experienced this painful reality when leaders looked to use predictive analytics to identify students that were on track to drop out during their first semester and provide “just in time” intervention to increase graduation rates.

Join the Center for Digital Education on March 31 at 11 a.m. Pacific/2 p.m. Eastern as we talk with leaders from Maryville University. They will discuss how they worked with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to launch a rich data lake solution combining data from their learning management and student information systems.

Register now to hear how the university is:
- Using machine learning and artificial intelligence to improve student academic success by enabling early identification of students at risk of dropping out
- Leveraging a data lake to pool multiple sources of student data to identify students who are struggling
- Upskilling IT Staff in the practical use of more sophisticated data and analytics tools

Speakers

Doug Glaze

Chief Technology Officer Information Technology, Maryville University

Doug Glaze is the Chief Technology Officer at Maryville University. In this role, he develops and oversees the strategy and technology roadmap used to support key initiatives at the university. Doug and his team partnered with the Office of Strategic Information to create the AWS platform and cloud infrastructure used to support data lake implementation. The data lake is a foundational element that will support additional data driven initiatives focused on enhancing the student experience and supporting student success at Maryville university. Doug has been in the IT industry for over 20 years, with 12 years in higher education. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration specializing in Finance from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville.

Jonathan Schlereth

Executive Director of the Office of Strategic Information, Maryville University

Jonathan Schlereth is the Executive Director of the Office of Strategic Information at Maryville University. In this role, he oversees the creation and management of data assets and analytics used to inform University strategy and guide data-driven decision making. Jonathan is part of the team leading the AWS data lake and data warehouse deployment, creating the data infrastructure needed to develop strategic reporting, and drive digital employee, and artificial intelligence initiatives. He and his team are focused on providing insight into the student journey and collaborating with other divisions to create the necessary resources to foster student success and persistence. Jonathan has an MBA with an emphasis in Decision Support Systems from Webster University. He also teaches graduate courses in Data Analytics at Maryville University.

Joshua Tepen

Cloud Engineer, Maryville University

Josh Tepen is a Cloud Engineer for Maryville University of Saint Louis. He has been in the IT industry for more than 20 years with a primary focus on system engineering. He also serves as an adjunct professor for Maryville’s School of Business, where he teaches courses on DevOps and Python programming. Over the past few years, Josh found his passion in Cloud computing. This has allowed him to work on multiple Cloud projects that have included migrating digital courses from on premises to AWS, creating a digital human concierge for students, and building a Data Lake to improve student success and retention. In 2019, Josh received the Leader in Innovation award from Maryville University for creating the first digital employee at Maryville. Josh earned his master’s degree in Software Development from Maryville University of Saint Louis and his bachelor’s degree in Computer Management Information Systems from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. He holds multiple certificates from Amazon Web Services and is an AWS Academy Accredited Educator.

Tina McQuie

Data Engineer for the Office of Strategic Information, Maryville University

Tina McQuie is a Data Engineer for the Office of Strategic Information at Maryville University of Saint Louis. She has been in the education industry for over 20 years, primarily focused on programming and database administration before transitioning to data engineering and analysis. Tina is on the AWS data lake team, working on the data warehouse deployment to support strategic reporting and student success initiatives. She has developed the ETL data processes in AWS that support data modeling and data science in AWS. Tina has an MS in Decision Support and a BS in Computer Science from Webster University, a BS in Mathematics from University of Missouri in St. Louis. Tina is enrolled in the Master's in Data Science program and teaches graduate courses in Data Analytics, both at Maryville University.

Leroy Jenkins

Business Development Manager, Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Leroy has over twenty years’ experience in customer and partner-facing sales, project management, technical service, and consulting. His areas of expertise include storage, backup, converged infrastructure, and cloud services. Two years ago he joined the AWS Education team as Senior Business Development Manager leading the development and deployment of student data solutions and programs. His focus is on helping higher education institutions turn data into business insights.

William (Bill) Rials, Ph.D.

Associate Director and IT Professor, Tulane University and Senior Fellow, Center for Digital Education

William (Bill) Rials, Ph.D., is a professor and associate director (department chair) of the Tulane University School of Professional Advancement IT and Cybersecurity Program. Where he focuses on continually delivering and updating the program curriculum based on innovative and emerging technologies, before transitioning academia and higher education, he had a diverse government technology career delivering value to state agencies, local governments, and law enforcement agencies throughout the State of Mississippi.

Webinar

Driving Better Use of Data in Higher Education with Data Lakes