The Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU) has announced that it will host an upcoming member webinar titled "From Equity Data to Action: AI-Powered Student Success at HSIs." The virtual event is scheduled for November 17, 2026, beginning at 2 p.m. Central Time. Educators, institutional researchers, administrators, and higher education leaders interested in attending can register for the session through the online registration portal hosted on Zoom.
The specialized webinar is designed to address a critical and ongoing challenge in contemporary higher education: how Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) can effectively transition away from traditional, siloed reporting models and move toward comprehensive, integrated analytic approaches. By modernizing these frameworks, colleges and universities can successfully translate raw equity data into targeted, role-specific action that directly benefits diverse student populations.
As higher education institutions face increasing pressure to demonstrate accountability, close persistent achievement gaps, and improve overall graduation and retention rates, the need for sophisticated data utilization has never been more urgent. HSIs, which enroll a significant share of the nation’s undergraduate population and play a vital role in advancing economic mobility for Hispanic and underrepresented students, are uniquely positioned to benefit from advanced technological solutions. However, many institutions still struggle to bridge the gap between collecting demographic and performance data and implementing meaningful institutional changes based on those findings.
To address these complexities, the webinar will feature insights and operational strategies from Kean University, a prominent Hispanic-Serving Institution that has been at the forefront of institutional data reform. Representatives from Kean University’s Division of Strategic Analytics and Data Illumination will share detailed accounts of how the institution is actively strengthening its internal data infrastructure. Their presentation will focus heavily on aligning high-level leadership strategy with measurable, student-centric outcomes across campus.
Furthermore, the discussion will draw extensively from broader system-level leadership experiences within the California State University (CSU) system. Presenters are slated to examine essential institutional components such as effective governance, robust accountability structures, and cross-campus alignment strategies. These foundational elements are widely considered critical for sustaining long-term institutional reform and preventing data initiatives from remaining isolated projects rather than campus-wide transformations.
A central focus of the virtual event will be the integration of artificial intelligence into higher education analytics. Presenters will explore innovative, AI-enabled approaches designed to parse complex datasets and convert them into actionable insights. By leveraging these modern technological tools, HSIs can more accurately and swiftly identify specific equity gaps that might otherwise remain obscured within large, aggregate datasets. These insights ultimately help institutions drive measurable improvements in student success, ensuring that support resources are deployed efficiently and equitably where they are needed most.
The webinar will feature two prominent leaders in the field of higher education analytics and student success. Neva Lozada, Ed.D., vice president of administration for the division of strategic analytics and data illumination at Kean University, will bring her institutional expertise to the discussion. She will be joined by Jeff Gold, Ed.D., founder and principal of Insights2Action and former assistant vice chancellor for student success at the California State University. Together, Lozada and Gold bring a wealth of practical experience in transforming institutional culture, building data capacity, and designing scalable interventions for student populations at scale.
This upcoming session is being offered as part of HACU’s ongoing member webinar series, which regularly provides professional development, thought leadership, and collaborative networking opportunities for member institutions dedicated to championing Hispanic student success in higher education.
