Appointment of Richard Tucker as Senior Director for Institutional Research

November 22, 2022

Dear Members of the NYUAD Community,

I am pleased to announce that Richard Tucker has been appointed as Senior Director for Institutional Research at NYU Abu Dhabi, effective November 21, 2022.

Richard will work across NYUAD departments to lead the University’s efforts to collect and analyze institutional data in support of the University’s planning, assessment, and strategic decision-making connected to the faculty, students, curriculum and student advising, academic facilities, and research to enhance the University’s impact and increase the effectiveness of constituent and stakeholder interaction. He will utilize data and analytics to help inform the implementation of our Academic Strategy.

Richard has extensive experience within the academic and research fields and has served as the (Founding) Head of Institutional Reporting & Data Governance in the Office of the President at King Abdullah University of Science & Technology (KAUST) and as the Director of Institutional Research & Planning in the Office of the Provost at Zayed University.

In these roles, Richard has coordinated internal and external institutional reporting, implemented university-wide strategic analyses, and overseen efforts to adhere to national and international data privacy and governance standards and regulations. He was instrumental in establishing the Center for Higher Education Data and Statistics (CHEDS) at Zayed University within the (then) Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research (MoHESR), has worked closely with the Commission for Academic Accreditation (CAA) on various licensure, served as part of the core steering group for its Middle States Commission for Higher Education (MSCHE) re-accreditation, and was involved in core data activities to help achieve multiple specialized accreditations (ABET, AACSB, NASAD, ACEJMC, and NCATE).

Richard has a deep knowledge of global academic practices and US higher education institutions, obtained through rigorous methodological and analytical training from the University of Rochester, Penn State, Indiana University, and Stanford; providing data science and econometric-oriented consultations at the Harvard-MIT Data Center; publishing scholarly quantitative research as a Research Fellow at Harvard; and as a faculty member at Vanderbilt. He has also served as the Director of Research and Analysis (in the Graduate School) at Northwestern and as the Assistant Vice Provost of Institutional Research and Assessment at the University of Tennessee.

At the same time, I am sad to announce that our beloved colleague Chuck Grim, Vice Provost for Institutional Research, Assessment, and Academic Affairs, will retire at the end of this academic year. Chuck has been an absolute pillar of development, growth, and success at NYU Abu Dhabi and will be sorely missed. He will be working closely with Richard during this transition to ensure academic continuity.

In honor of Chuck’s 12 years of seminal contributions to our university and community, we will host a full celebration in the spring semester. We wish him and his family all the very best for the future.

Please join me in congratulating Richard and welcoming him to the NYU Abu Dhabi community.

Best Wishes,

Arlie