The Council for Advancement and Support of Education is pleased to announce the appointment of Cara Giacomini as its new Chief Research & Data Officer (CRDO).

In her role at CASE, Giacomini will be a member of the Executive Leadership team and will have responsibility for advancing CASE’s AMAtlas initiative—a primary resource and service provider for data, benchmarking, analytics and original research to the educational advancement community worldwide, launched by CASE in 2018.

“I am thrilled to welcome Cara Giacomini to the CASE leadership team,” says Sue Cunningham, President and CEO. “It is more important now than ever for advancement leaders in CASE member institutions to have a strong command of data to inform strategic decision making. Cara’s extensive experience will enable us to take our AMAtlas efforts to their next level in service of our members.”

Giacomini comes to CASE from the University of Washington where most recently she was their Director of Analytics for its University Advancement Department. There she was instrumental in building a strong data culture where she improved donor outcomes at all levels and pioneered efforts to build infrastructure and expertise in digital analytics.

Before joining Advancement, Giacomini served as a Senior Research Scientist in the Information Technology department, studying the adoption of educational technologies and the effectiveness of IT services. She received a PhD in English and Textual Studies from the University of Washington in 2003.

Giacomini plans to use her more than 20 years of experience in higher education to increase data fluency and drive transformation in educational advancement.

“I am honored to join the CASE team and look forward to shaping the next stages in the evolution of CASE’s extensive suite of data resources,” she says. “I am most passionate about putting data into action—empowering members to utilize AMAtlas resources to answer their most pressing questions and address their evolving needs.” 

Giacomini will officially assume her role as Chief Research & Data Officer on August 24.