EdUp Institutional Effectiveness

KP Powers
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  • Education
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EdUp Institutional Effectiveness is a podcast for higher education leaders who want to understand what’s shaping institutional performance before it shows up in the numbers. Hosted by Kristina 'KP' Powers, PhD, the show uses the Powers Index of College & University Performance™ to explore early signals of strength and strain across data, finance, governance, culture, and partnerships. Through conversations with practitioners, scholars, and select vendors, the podcast offers clear thinking, shared language, and practical insight to support better decisions and more effective leadership.

  1. 5d ago

    Program Data Into Decisions: Mark Koveleski, Gray DI

    Grounded in the Powers Index™ of College and University Performance, this podcast explores what shapes institutional performance before it shows up in the numbers. Supported by the Institute for Effectiveness in Higher Education® and hosted by Kristina 'KP' Powers, PhD. I sat down with Gray Decision Intelligence Vice President of New & Emerging Markets Mark Koveleski, who spent nearly 18 years at the National Student Clearinghouse before helping colleges and universities put labor-market and outcomes data to work. Mark calls himself a sledgehammer rather than a chisel, and our conversation lands on what that asks of leaders: getting new information into the open and moving it toward a decision rather than leaving it in the drawer. This series is designed for leaders, practitioners, and institutional partners committed to building learning systems that translate expertise into opportunity. KEY INSIGHTS Transparency and executive leadership move together, and the institutions set up for what is coming are the ones that bring new data into the open and act on it. Introducing labor-market and program-outcome data can feel threatening to faculty; effective leaders disarm the defensiveness by making it about intellectual curiosity rather than a verdict on anyone's program. Data used continuously across academic affairs, workforce, career services and marketing does far more than a portfolio review pulled off the shelf once a year. Workforce Pell is coming, and the institutions leaning in now to connect programs to outcomes will be better positioned than the ones waiting to see whether it holds. Powers Index™ Signal(s) in Focus Signal 2: Transparency: whether leaders bring new financial and outcomes data into the open where more people can question and use it, instead of keeping it inside one office. Signal 4: Executive Leadership: whether leaders respond to what the data shows and move it toward a decision rather than leaving it in the drawer. Signal 10: Partners: whether a partner company like Gray helps a college get the right data to the people who must act on it. Key Resources KP on IE newsletter (on Substack) Kristina 'KP' Powers, PhD — EdUp Institutional Effectiveness podcast host Institute for Effectiveness in Higher Education® Powers Index of College & University Performance™

    Program Data Into Decisions: Mark Koveleski, Gray DI

  2. Aug 23

    Two Kinds of Capacity: Yesenia Espinal, Espinal Advisory

    Grounded in the Powers Index™ of College and University Performance, this podcast explores what shapes institutional performance before it shows up in the numbers. Supported by the Institute for Effectiveness in Higher Education® and hosted by Kristina 'KP' Powers, PhD. I sat down with Espinal Advisory & Analytics Principal Consultant Yesenia Espinal, who spent years leading institutional research and data analytics at Howard University before opening her own firm. She makes the case that capacity is two things and not one, staffing and structure, and that consolidating a sprawl of redundant reports can free the people an institution already has. If you have ever been told the only fix is more staff, this conversation offers a second answer. This series is designed for leaders, practitioners, and institutional partners committed to building learning systems that translate expertise into opportunity. KEY INSIGHTS Capacity works two ways, staffing and structure. Consolidating redundant reports into a smaller, well-filtered set gives the same team room to do the work. Institutions cannot automate their way around weak data foundations. AI exposes the gaps in data quality, governance, and reporting definitions rather than closing them. Documentation and reconciliation are the unglamorous work that decides whether leaders can trust the numbers they are handed. Institutional effectiveness leaders belong at the table before a system implementation begins, not after go-live, because they know which reports the institution cannot function without. Powers Index™ Signal(s) in Focus Signal 5: Operational Quality: the reliability of day-to-day execution and reporting operations that let an institution run without a few people working nights and weekends to hold it together. Signal 3: Employee Expertise: the fluency and confidence of the people using institutional data, and the structure that turns existing staff into usable capacity. Key Resources KP on IE newsletter (on Substack) Kristina 'KP' Powers, PhD — EdUp Institutional Effectiveness podcast host Institute for Effectiveness in Higher Education® Powers Index of College & University Performance™

    Two Kinds of Capacity: Yesenia Espinal, Espinal Advisory

  3. Aug 16

    Planning vs. Firefighting: Jon Hulbert, Roadmap for Change

    Grounded in the Powers Index™ of College and University Performance, this podcast explores what shapes institutional performance before it shows up in the numbers. Supported by the Institute for Effectiveness in Higher Education® and hosted by Kristina 'KP' Powers, PhD. Roadmap for Change CEO and lead facilitator Jon Hulbert makes the case that action is not always the answer, and that the campuses generating the most firefighting are usually the ones rolling out initiative after initiative without the planning time to think each one through. Drawing on organizational psychology and Barry Johnson's polarity work, he treats planning and execution as a balance to manage rather than a problem to solve once. Listeners come away with a practical way to spot when a team has tipped too far toward speed or too far toward planning, and how to course-correct before the next emergency. This series is designed for leaders, practitioners, and institutional partners committed to building learning systems that translate expertise into opportunity. KEY INSIGHTS Firefighting on the back end is usually a symptom of skipping collaborative planning time on the front end, not a lack of effort or talent.Planning and execution form a paradox to balance rather than a problem to solve once, and naming the early warning signs of tipping too far in either direction keeps a team on track.Disagreements that turn personal are often a sign that people do not see how their piece of the work connects to another unit's, not a true conflict of values.Appreciative inquiry in practice: examine what was present when an initiative genuinely worked and do more of it, examine what was present when one failed and do less of it, and write both down where the whole team can see them.Powers Index™ Signal(s) in Focus Signal 4: Executive Leadership: the judgment to name the few things that must change now and leave the rest unchanged on purpose, rather than acting on every front at once.Signal 5: Operational Quality: building the planning and collaboration time up front so a rollout produces results instead of back-end firefighting.Key Resources KP on IE newsletter (on Substack)Kristina 'KP' Powers, PhD — EdUp Institutional Effectiveness podcast hostInstitute for Effectiveness in Higher Education®Powers Index of College & University Performance™

    Planning vs. Firefighting: Jon Hulbert, Roadmap for Change

  4. Aug 5

    The Power of Alignment: Calderon and Rodriguez, EdStrat

    Grounded in the Powers Index™ of College and University Performance, this podcast explores what shapes institutional performance before it shows up in the numbers. Supported by the Institute for Effectiveness in Higher Education® and hosted by Kristina 'KP' Powers, PhD. EdStrat founding partners and former provosts Sonny Calderon and Tiffany Rodriguez, authors of the chapter "The Power of Alignment: Turning Partnership into Shared Success" in Priority Partners, make the case that a partnership works when the institution and the partner move from the same framework toward the same goal. They judge a partner by what it does for the reason the institution exists, from scaling a scope of work to an institution's actual size to bringing faculty and students into a purchasing decision. Leaders come away with a practical way to turn a purchase into a shared commitment rather than a transaction. This series is designed for leaders, practitioners, and institutional partners committed to building learning systems that translate expertise into opportunity. KEY INSIGHTS Alignment is the implementation problem: institutions stall when everyone works from a different framework, so a partner and an institution have to move from the same one toward the same goal.Capacity building over drop-and-leave: staying embedded to build a culture that can reflect on the work and carry it out, instead of delivering a scope in ninety days and departing.Scale the scope to the institution: the demand a $200,000 scope of work places on an institution enrolling fewer than four thousand students, and the case for fitting the work to the institution rather than the reverse.Bring the whole institution into the purchase: at American College of Healthcare Sciences, faculty and students evaluated each partner against a rubric built to find the tool that produced the deepest learning, turning a purchase into a mission decision.Powers Index™ Signal(s) in Focus Signal 12: Stewardship: evaluating external spend by whether it leaves the mission stronger, grounded in scaling a scope of work to what an institution can actually sustain.Signal 4: Executive Leadership: deciding which tools and partners reach evaluation, and owning the rubric that makes the call. Key Resources KP on IE newsletter (on Substack)Kristina 'KP' Powers, PhD — EdUp Institutional Effectiveness podcast hostInstitute for Effectiveness in Higher Education®Powers Index of College & University Performance™

    The Power of Alignment: Calderon and Rodriguez, EdStrat

  5. Aug 1

    Evidence You Can Trust: Viviana Unda, El Camino College

    Grounded in the Powers Index™ of College and University Performance, this podcast explores what shapes institutional performance before it shows up in the numbers. Supported by the Institute for Effectiveness in Higher Education® and hosted by Kristina 'KP' Powers, PhD. El Camino College head of institutional research and planning Viviana Unda makes the case that consistent monitoring is only half the job: the evidence an institution gathers has to be trustworthy, accurate, and accessible to everyone responsible for a decision before it can inform one. She explains how to keep a lean set of indicators tied to strategic priorities, and how to build data governance in small, sustainable steps. Leaders will leave with a practical way to turn performance data into decisions they can defend. This series is designed for leaders, practitioners, and institutional partners committed to building learning systems that translate expertise into opportunity. KEY INSIGHTS Monitoring and transparency are two halves of one discipline: tracking performance consistently matters only when the evidence behind it is trustworthy, accurate, and accessible to everyone making decisions. Define success measures and evaluation metrics with a partner at the contract stage, not halfway through, because a partner can only deliver against the metrics set from the start. Keep the indicator list lean, the way you would choose a little black dress over a prom dress: a short set aligned to strategic priorities and student outcomes surfaces barriers early. Build data governance in small, sustainable steps with named data stewards, data owners, and someone accountable for validation, rather than attempting a full infrastructure at once. Powers Index™ Signal(s) in Focus Signal 1: Monitoring — the consistency and discipline of performance monitoring; here, tracking student, employee, and governance performance steadily enough to build a body of evidence a leader can trust. Signal 2: Transparency — the clarity and accessibility of institutional information; here, ensuring evidence is defined, verified, and reachable by everyone accountable for a decision, backed by real data governance. Key Resources KP on IE newsletter (on Substack) Kristina 'KP' Powers, PhD — EdUp Institutional Effectiveness podcast host Institute for Effectiveness in Higher Education® Powers Index of College & University Performance™

    Evidence You Can Trust: Viviana Unda, El Camino College

  6. Jul 12

    From Reports to Decisions: Wyntre Stout — Precision Campus

    Grounded in the Powers Index™ of College and University Performance. Supported by the Institute for Effectiveness in Higher Education® and hosted by Kristina 'KP' Powers, PhD. Precision Campus Customer Insights and Success Manager Wyntre Stout, PhD works alongside dozens of institutions at once, and she brings a practitioner's view of what actually moves a campus forward. She and KP talk about the wide range of data maturity across colleges and universities, why the highest-value institutional research work is interpretation rather than another recurring report, and how a partner company can take routine reporting off the IR team so that expertise reaches the people making decisions. They also get into where AI genuinely helps, and the guardrails that keep it from eroding trust in the numbers. If you lead or support an institution's data work, this conversation offers a grounded way to think about where your team's time is best spent. This series is designed for leaders, practitioners, and institutional partners committed to building learning systems that translate expertise into opportunity. KEY INSIGHTS Data maturity spans a wide range across institutions, and the early, messy stage is a normal part of the journey rather than a reason to avoid looking at your data.The highest-value institutional research work is interpretation and helping the campus act, not re-running the same recurring reports.AI can widen access to data through plain-language summaries and trend-spotting, but only inside strict guardrails that protect validity, reliability, and trust in a vetted, single-source layer.A partner company earns its place by taking routine reporting off the IR team so expertise can move to decision support; the IR professional's institutional context is the one thing automation cannot replace. Powers Index™ Signal(s) in Focus Employee Expertise — the fluency and frequency with which people across an institution, inside and outside the IR office, interpret and use data; Wyntre makes the case that developing this capacity is where institutions gain the most.Partners — a partner company invested in institutional outcomes, taking routine reporting off the IR team so expertise can move toward decision support and stronger data partnerships across campus. Key Resources KP on IE newsletter (on Substack)Kristina 'KP' Powers, PhD — EdUp Institutional Effectiveness podcast hostInstitute for Effectiveness in Higher Education®Powers Index of College & University Performance™

    From Reports to Decisions: Wyntre Stout — Precision Campus

  7. Jul 5

    Mission First, Partners Second: AJ Prager, Prager Partners

    Grounded in the Powers Index™ of College and University Performance, a framework for identifying early signs of institutional strength and vulnerability before they show up in the numbers. Supported by the Institute for Effectiveness in Higher Education® and hosted by Kristina 'KP' Powers, PhD. Prager Partners Managing Director AJ Prager has spent nearly a decade building one of the only dedicated M&A advisory practices in higher education, guiding colleges and universities through mergers, acquisitions, and partnerships at every point on the spectrum. In this conversation, he walks through the strategic transaction framework his firm uses to define mission before it ever identifies a potential partner, why confidentiality works completely differently in higher ed than in corporate M&A, and why the reception to partnership has shifted markedly among presidents and boards since 2023. It's a candid look at what actually happens before an institution ever announces a partnership, for any leader wondering whether their institution has the capacity to go it alone. This series is designed for leaders, practitioners, and institutional partners committed to building learning systems that translate expertise into opportunity. KEY INSIGHTS Partnership conversations should start by defining an institution's mission attributes (programmatic, geographic, demographic, financial) before a single potential partner is identified, not after.Confidentiality works structurally differently in higher ed M&A than in corporate M&A: shared governance and faculty voice mean institutions can rarely "hang a for sale sign," so outreach happens through targeted, one-to-one conversations instead of a public process.Partnership exists on a spectrum, from a full merger of two institutions down to a lightweight cost-sharing or articulation agreement between separate legal entities, not a binary merge-or-don't decision.Higher education is a fixed-cost business, and scale drives efficiency; presidents and boards who once viewed partnership as a last resort are increasingly viewing it as a proactive way to amplify mission.Powers Index™ Signal(s) in Focus Partners — whether companies, providers, or institutional collaborators meaningfully extend an institution's capacity, or introduce complexity, cost, and fragmentation without value. This conversation applies that signal to the highest-stakes version of partnership: full institutional mergers and combinations.Executive Leadership — whether senior leaders provide sustained strategic direction and make disciplined decisions that persist over time, rather than reopening the same partnership question every budget cycle.Key Resources KP on IE newsletter (on Substack)Kristina 'KP' Powers, PhD — EdUp Institutional Effectiveness podcast hostInstitute for Effectiveness in Higher Education®Powers Index of College & University Performance™

    Mission First, Partners Second: AJ Prager, Prager Partners

  8. Jun 8

    When Dollars and Mission Align: Amanda Opperman — Lion's Share Strategies

    Grounded in the Grounded in the Powers Index of College & University Performance™, this series examines the dynamic signals shaping institutional performance before they appear in the numbers. Supported by the Institute for Effectiveness in Higher Education® and hosted by Kristina 'KP' Powers, PhD. Lion's Share Strategies Chief Impact Officer Amanda Opperman has led institutional effectiveness work inside colleges and universities and now advises from the outside as a strategic consultant and equity investor. In this episode, Amanda draws on her chapter "Aligning Dollars with Mission" in the forthcoming Priority Partners: Turning Vendor Spending into Mission Strength (July 2026) to argue that most institutional partnerships fail not because of a lack of resources — but because institutions enter those relationships thinking only about what they need, never about what the partner exists to do. The result is a transaction dressed up as a partnership, and the difference matters more now than ever. This series is designed for leaders, practitioners, and institutional partners committed to building learning systems that translate expertise into opportunity. KEY INSIGHTS Partnership is not a transaction with relationship language layered on top. Mutual benefit requires both parties to understand what the other exists to do — and to find the place where those purposes genuinely overlap before any ask is made.There are different "colors of money" — different funding sources carry different purposes, constraints, and expectations. Institutions that treat all external revenue as interchangeable miss the mission alignment that makes partnerships durable.A pre-partnership checklist should start with mission alignment, not financial need. If two organizations would have to shape-shift to make a partnership work, the juice is not worth the squeeze — no matter how compelling the pitch.Keeping your environmental scan current is a discipline, not an event. Knowing what potential partners exist to do — before you need anything from them — is what separates institutions that attract strong partners from those that chase them.Powers Index™ Signal in Focus Signal #10: Partners — measures whether an institution's external relationships produce genuine institutional lift or function as budget line items; Amanda's framework illustrates how the failure to understand a partner's purpose and objectives is what keeps Signal #10 chronically underperforming — not a lack of partners, but a lack of real ones.Key Resources KP on IE newsletterKristina 'KP' Powers, PhD — EdUp Institutional Effectiveness podcast hostInstitute for Effectiveness in Higher Education®Powers Index of College & University Performance™

    When Dollars and Mission Align: Amanda Opperman — Lion's Share Strategies
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EdUp Institutional Effectiveness is a podcast for higher education leaders who want to understand what’s shaping institutional performance before it shows up in the numbers. Hosted by Kristina 'KP' Powers, PhD, the show uses the Powers Index of College & University Performance™ to explore early signals of strength and strain across data, finance, governance, culture, and partnerships. Through conversations with practitioners, scholars, and select vendors, the podcast offers clear thinking, shared language, and practical insight to support better decisions and more effective leadership.

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