IEBC Board of Directors

Michael D. Bourgeois, Ph.D.

Michael D. Bourgeois, Ph.D., is Vice Provost for Institutional Research, Decision Support and Data Strategy at Virginia Commonwealth University, where he leads university-wide work in institutional research, analytics, evaluation, business intelligence, data strategy, and data governance. His work is grounded in a simple idea: data matters most when people can use it to ask better questions, make better decisions, and improve the experience and success of students.

Over more than 25 years in higher education, Michael has worked as a researcher, faculty member, institutional research leader, consultant, and senior administrator. His career has included leadership roles at VCU, Purdue University Northwest, California State University Channel Islands, and California State University, Chico, as well as 17 years of research, teaching, and institutional work at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Across those settings, he has focused on student success, institutional effectiveness, strategic planning, organizational change, and helping universities connect work that too often happens in separate silos.

Michael previously served as president of the Association for Higher Education Effectiveness, advancing a more integrated approach to institutional research, planning, assessment, accreditation, and improvement and leading the organization through its integration with the Society for College and University Planning. He is co-author of Institutional Effectiveness Fieldbook: Creating Coherence in Colleges and Universities and has published and presented on institutional effectiveness, organizational systems, higher education policy, social networks, and data-informed decision-making.

A first-generation college graduate, Michael began his own higher education journey at Austin Community College before earning a B.A. in Psychology from Texas State University and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of California, Santa Barbara. A sociologist by training, he brings both a professional and personal commitment to making higher education work better for the people it serves. He is particularly interested in how institutions, relationships, evidence, and organizational structures shape opportunity—and how thoughtful change can help more students thrive.