In this episode of Data Stakes, host Debbie Phelps explores how to transform high-level institutional strategy into tangible daily practice. She is joined by Dr. Callie Holden (College Director of Strategic Planning and Grant Development) and Misty Tollett (Director of Strategic Planning) from Ozarks Tech, a two-year technical community college in Springfield, Missouri. Callie and Misty share the journey of building Ozarks Tech's integrated planning model—a streamlined approach that brings student learning assessment, departmental planning, program review, and budget requests into one cohesive, user-friendly cycle. They discuss the importance of democratizing campus data, proving that you don't need complex dashboards to tell a compelling story, and explain how the planning team partners seamlessly with Institutional Research to drive data-informed decisions. To wrap up, the guests highlight the invaluable professional development and networking opportunities available through MidAIR (the Midwestern Association for Institutional Research) for higher education data professionals. In this episode, we cover:

• The Integrated Planning Model: How to consolidate conflicting timelines into a single, complementary 3-year cycle.
• Data for the Masses: Moving away from complicated charts to accessible, 10th-grade reading level data points that help every department see their story.
• Budgeting with Purpose: Why every budget request must directly tie back to a departmental or institutional strategic goal.
• IR & Strategy Collaboration: How planning departments and Institutional Research (IR) can split the data puzzle to better serve the campus.
• MidAIR: Upcoming virtual and in-person conferences, resources, and community support for IR professionals in the Midwest.

Back by popular demand! After the massive success of our first AI-focused episode, the Data Stakes podcast is returning to the world of Artificial Intelligence—but this time, we’re peeling back the curtain on what actually makes these systems work. In this special roundtable episode, host Debbie sits down with three key members of the Datatelligent (DT) team: Founder and CEO Larry Blackburn, and Director of Product Development Robert Miller, who helped kick off our popular AI series earlier this year. We’ve all heard that AI is "intelligent," but without the right environment, it’s often just guessing. In this episode, titled "Context is the Real Intelligence: Why AI and Humans Both Depend on It," we explore why context is the bridge between a "hallucinating" chatbot and a trusted business tool. In this episode, we discuss:

• The Human Shorthand: How our shared experiences and "organizational knowledge" allow us to communicate efficiently, and why AI lacks this by default.
• Context Engineering vs. Prompt Engineering: Why the future of AI isn't just about asking better questions, but about designing better information environments.
• The Semantic Layer: A deep dive into how tools like Snowflake allow institutions to build a "map" that keeps AI accurate and grounded in reality.
• Security & PII: How to maintain strict data privacy and guardrails while still giving AI the access it needs to be useful.
• Building Trust: Why providing institutional definitions is the only way to move from AI skepticism to AI adoption in Higher Ed and beyond.

Whether you’re an AI enthusiast or "AI hesitant," this conversation will change how you think about the data you feed your systems. Because at the end of the day, meaning doesn't come from words alone—it comes from context.

In this episode of Data Stakes, host Debbie sits down with Peyton Snively (Director of Student Life at Cowley College) and Eric Burr (Hope Squad Advisor and retired Chief of Police) to explore the growing mental health challenges students face today. From the peer pressure of middle school to the unique struggles of international and non-traditional college students, the stressors are real and mounting. Discover how the peer-to-peer suicide prevention program, Hope Squad, is empowering students to recognize warning signs and support one another. We also dive into how Cowley College uses targeted surveys to track student well-being, the negative impact of anonymous social media apps, and how fostering a true sense of belonging is the key to driving student success.