Dr. Mike Bohlig Retiring After 15 Years at CCCSE
After 15 years of committed and impactful service, Dr. Mike Bohlig is retiring as CCCSE’s associate director for research. Mike has worked in applied statistical research for almost 30 years in the areas of epidemiology, behavioral research, pharmaceutical clinical trials, and public education.
“As Mike Bohlig retires from CCCSE, we honor his outstanding contributions and visionary leadership,” said CCCSE Executive Director Dr. Linda García. “His work has significantly advanced our mission and positively impacted how community colleges focus on the student experience. Dr. Bohlig leaves a lasting legacy that will continue to inspire and guide us.”
Dr. Bohlig came to CCCSE in June 2009 after working for several years in leadership roles with the Institute for Public School Initiatives (IPSI) at the University of Texas System Administration Office. While Dr. Bohlig has served as CCCSE’s associate director for research he has overseen the data management and reporting on CCCSE’s five survey instruments. He has also been responsible for the psychometric analysis of CCCSE’s instruments and statistical analysis of CCCSE’s extensive database of over one million community college students.
His comprehensive knowledge and expertise in psychometrics, item response theory, structural equation modeling, and longitudinal data analysis have served CCCSE beyond measure. During his tenure, his leadership and vision have led the organization forward in myriad ways. To name just a few of Dr. Bohlig’s accomplishments, he
- oversaw the transition of CCCSE’s data reporting systems to an online platform with custom analysis features,
- developed a statistical model for measuring promising- and high-impact practices in community colleges,
- created the CCCSE Research Affiliate Program to further advance national research on community college student experiences,
- was instrumental in developing the Dual Enrollment Survey of Student Engagement (DESSE),
- developed a survey in response to the COVID-19 pandemic that provided participating colleges and the field some of the earliest available information about the impact of the pandemic on community college students,
- co-developed the Race/Ethnicity Survey with a group of colleagues and national experts,
- provided guidance to graduate students from across the country around using CCCSE data,
- served on four dissertation committees, including an extensive psychometric study of the 2017 version of the CCSSE survey, and
- published extensively in peer-reviewed journals, often sharing authorship with the graduate students he was mentoring.
In addition to these accomplishments, he has been a colleague of the highest caliber to his CCCSE coworkers and to those in the field. Dr. Bohlig shared this of his impending retirement: “After 15 years with CCCSE, the decision to retire was difficult, especially given the great people I have had the privilege to work with over the years. That said, as my retirement date draws near, my excitement grows for the next phase of life.” Dr. Bohlig’s retirement will be effective September 1, 2024.
Dr. Alicia Betsinger Named Associate Director for Research
CCCSE is thrilled to announce Dr. Alicia Betsinger as its new associate director for research. Her appointment is a homecoming, as she was an integral part of the team responsible for the earliest administrations of the Community College Survey of Student Engagement. “Not everyone gets to experience this type of full circle career moment,” remarked Dr. Betsinger. “I’m grateful for the opportunity to return to CCCSE and excited to once again serve community colleges in their quest to support and improve student outcomes through data-informed decision-making. Sometimes, the best adventures are found by returning to the paths we once knew, for they lead us home in unexpected ways.”
For more than two decades, Dr. Betsinger has helped two-year and four-year institutions, both public and private, contextualize their data and build a culture of evidence.
Dr. Betsinger joins CCCSE after serving most recently in multiple vice president roles at St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas, where she led institutional research, modeling, planning, assessment, and analytics functions, facilitated enterprise-wide strategic and operational oversight of IT systems and infrastructure and supported the Finance Division in an interim role. She delivered a five-year planning model for undergraduate enrollment, retention, and budget and collaborated on financial aid analysis and tracking.
Prior to St. Edward’s University, she served as Dartmouth College’s associate provost of institutional research for nearly seven years. She led the team that transformed the Fact Book into interactive self-service dashboards. She also worked on the creation of numerous data marts with both administrative and survey data. Before her time at Dartmouth, she served as the assistant director of business intelligence at The University of Texas System. In this role, she managed a team of analysts and consultants who built the first-generation data visualization dashboards via SAS® Visual Analytics. Before her tenure at the UT System Office, Dr. Betsinger served as the director of institutional research at Southwestern University. She assumed this position when she left CCCSE in 2007.
She holds a Ph.D. in Applied-Experimental Psychology, with an emphasis in Organizational Psychology from Saint Louis University.
Dr. Betsinger’s ample experience in delivering innovative data analysis and solutions that streamline processes and drive research agendas to meet both long- and short-term strategic goals will be instrumental in delivering CCCSE’s mission of providing actionable data to community college leaders and the field at large.