Phil Gordon is chief data & research officer and supports the “systemness” initiative across R.I.’s higher education sector, with a specific emphasis on growing the institutional research capacity of OPC. As part of this work, Phil oversees and supports the further development of Rhode Island Longitudinal Data Systems to advance data-informed decision-making in service of the state’s education and workforce priorities. Prior to joining OPC, Phil served as the director of institutional research & analytics at CCRI where he was responsible for providing official statistics on CCRI’s students and their outcomes, supporting enrollment management and retention, and providing analyses that enabled data-informed decisions. His work at CCRI supported making the RI Promise Scholarship permanent, identifying high-enrolled, low-pass courses, and helping more students transfer to four-year colleges. Before CCRI, Phil led assessment and analysis activities for a portfolio of programs supporting high-potential, low-income students across 18 undergraduate colleges at the City University of New York. He has a background in quantitative and qualitative program evaluation as an analyst and deputy project director at Abt Global (f.k.a. Abt Associates). Phil was a first-generation college student, and earned a B.S. in economics from Tufts University and a master’s in public policy from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
