Every day, I am surrounded by data—student enrollment figures, graduation trends, budget allocations, course loads, and more. And I love it. When people ask my wife how I like my job, she simply says, “It’s like a kid who gets to play his favorite game every day.” I would then always add, “and every night,” because sometimes I get so immersed in the data—trying to understand it, interpret it, and make it meaningful for others—that I completely lose track of time.
But here’s the real reason I love my job: it’s not just about crunching numbers. It’s about telling the story behind them—in a way that’s meaningful to others. In a way that is claear. In a way that translates to actionable decisions.
We live in a time when access to data and research is easier than ever before. What’s harder? Making sense of it. As Simon Maechling recently put it, “Access to information is no longer the barrier. Understanding it is.” That resonates deeply for me.
Higher education is full of smart, dedicated people making tough decisions. My role is to make sure they have clear, accurate, and digestible insights when they do so that they can make data informed decisions. That means translating complex datasets into something that actually speaks to the questions leaders, faculty, and students are asking. I often hear the phrase on campus, make it Sesame Street simple, and that’s truly my goal. To take these massive datasets and make them easy to understand.
BUT, it’s not just about statistical significance—it’s about institutional significance.
The flood of dashboards and reports can be overwhelming for anyone. What matters is pulling out what’s relevant, highlighting what’s actionable, and challenging assumptions with clarity, not complexity. Facts truly are friendly, whether they provide the insight you hoped for or not. They allow you to check the pulse on an idea, whether to breathe life into it or turn down another path.
That’s the kind of storytelling I get to do with data. And that’s why I keep showing up every day, excited to bridge the gap between raw information and real understanding.
Here’s to being an effective and efficient storyteller, with data.
Brian M. Morgan
Chief Data Officer, Marshall University