Eric Atchison Joins ASU System as Vice President for Strategic Research
LITTLE ROCK — Eric Atchison has joined the Arkansas State University System as vice president for strategic research, System President Chuck Welch announced today.
Atchison was previously director of system analysis, research and enrollment management for the Board of Trustees of Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning. His responsibilities at the ASU System include managing systemwide strategic research and providing broad leadership for the system’s effective use of information resources to facilitate data collection and dissemination, data analytics, and performance metrics.
“Our recent efficiency study with Huron Consulting really opened our eyes even bigger to the opportunities of data-informed decisions,” Welch said. “Eric will help us cultivate and analyze consistent, meaningful data that we can use to control expenses, reallocate financial resources and strengthen operating efficiencies across the system campuses. We have already identified about $5 million in budget savings and reallocations since the study concluded, and we expect that number to grow and enable us to better meet student and faculty needs.”
Atchison has served as president for the Mississippi Association for Institutional Research and Mississippi Banner Users Group and as the four-year system representative on the Department of Education’s National Postsecondary Education Cooperative.
“I am thrilled to have this opportunity to work closely with each institution, the campus and system leadership, and other agencies within the State of Arkansas to build an efficient data structure to inform and enhance decision-making across our state,” Atchison said.
He earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Mississippi and two master’s degrees from Delta State University. He is also a graduate of the Delta Regional Authority’s Delta Leadership Institute Executive Academy.
