CWU selects new executive director of Institutional Effectiveness
ELLENSBURG — Jason Jones will be joining the Wildcat family on October 16, coming to CWU from the Board of Governors, State University System of Florida, where he has served as the chief data officer since 2017.
He joined the Florida Board of Governors in 2008 as an education policy analyst. During his time with the board, his level of responsibility grew into director of institutional research and assistant vice chancellor roles before his appointment as the system’s chief data officer.
“Jason has broad and deep experience with institutional effectiveness and data management,” CWU President Jim Wohlpart said. “He has led data efforts at the system level for the Florida Board of Governors, working with all of the higher education institutions in the state. Moreover, he has provided leadership for using data to create and implement policy, which will be transformative for CWU.”
President Wohlpart and the entire CWU community also appreciate Jonathon Henderson's service as interim executive director of Institutional Effectiveness, Research and Planning throughout the past year.
Henderson will continue working alongside Jones and the IERP team at Central to build strong, collaborative relationships across the university and throughout the State of Washington to elevate the role of data in decision-making on the institution’s strategic goals and priorities centered on student access and success.
Jones said he looks forward to joining the Wildcat community due in large part to Central’s commitment to inclusivity and student success.
“I am drawn to the student-focused spirit of Central Washington University that is grounded in creating a safe place of belonging for everyone to pursue their talents,” he said, adding that the focus of his work will be to provide the CWU community with “accurate and timely data analysis that can be leveraged into data-informed decisions to enhance student success and institutional excellence.”
In his chief data officer position with the Florida Board of Governors, Jones played a key role in developing and updating the State University System’s Strategic Plan as well as producing annual accountability reports, producing and refining the state’s performance-based funding system, and creating a workforce supply-demand gap analysis that has been modeled in other states. He also redesigned state reports on university expenditures, financial aid and university employees.
Jones graduated from Emory University with a bachelor’s degree in biology and earned a master’s in education policy, planning and analysis from Florida State University.
