Lisa Welch, Pepperdine's First-Ever University Data Officer, Featured in Dataversity Women in Data Management and Governance

In honor of International Women’s Day, senior director of Business Intelligence and University data officer Lisa Welch was selected from a national pool of nominees to be featured in the Dataversity's April edition of Women in Data Management and Governance Newsletter. 

Nominated by colleague and mentee Carly Struna, manager of University data and analytics, Welch is Pepperdine's first-ever University data officer, and has spent two decades reshaping how the institution thinks about and trusts its data. Her most enduring contribution, the University Data Stewardship Program, brought together stakeholders across the organization to establish over 500 standardized data definitions and a single, unified voice for University data. When the University President needed high-fidelity admissions data across all six schools immediately, Welch's strategic framework allowed her team to deliver comprehensive executive dashboards in a matter of days. She leads with integrity, bridges technical complexity and business impact, and mentors her team with the kind of intentionality that ripples far beyond any one organization. Welch is exactly the kind of leader this community exists to celebrate.