Meet the Team

Elissa Chin Lu is Executive Director of the Office of Institutional Research, Analytics, and Assessment (IRAA) at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Working in close partnership across the university, the IRAA team provides data, analysis, and insight to drive continuous improvement and advance WPI's strategic priorities. Additionally, the office provides supports to Academic Affairs' systems.Elissa joined WPI in 2026, bringing more than 20 years of experience in higher education analytics, institutional research, and consulting. Most recently, she served as Assistant Provost of Strategic ...

Carla provides information technology support and solutions to the divisions of Academic Affairs by assisting in the design, development, testing and integration of IT tools, applications and products.

Christina is the Workday Student Lead Analyst, bringing expertise in student information systems (SIS), reporting, and business process optimization. She is responsible for delivering accurate, actionable reports that support institutional decision-making and enhance operational efficiency. She maintains and enhances Workday business processes to ensure alignment with organizational needs, data integrity, and system effectiveness. She also supports integrations between Workday and other student systems and oversees Workday Student security to ensure appropriate access and safeguard sensitive ...

Monelle is responsible for engineering datasets and developing visualizations that highlight key trends, patterns, and emerging opportunities to inform institutional insights. She also leads visualization strategy, ensuring consistency, usability, and impact across reporting.

Dan is responsible for developing analytic solutions in support of university goals using best practices with visualization tools such as Power BI.  Working with the team to ensure high levels of accuracy and precision in data reporting and data integrity, Dan designs and develops dashboards and reports to help internal and/or external customers access and analyze data.  He joined WPI in 2014 and spent more than six years in the Registrar’s Office before joining this team.  He holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and a Master of Human Resources both from ...

Melissa is responsible for the institutional research functions within the office, including ensuring the integrity and responsible use of institutional data and serving as liaison for key data collections and compliance. Having worked at WPI for over 25 years, Melissa has spent most of her time in analytics roles within admissions, enrollment and institutional research and brings a depth of institutional knowledge to the team. She holds two degrees from WPI – a BS in Biotechnology and an MS in Business Analytics.

Nick joined WPI’s Undergraduate Studies team in the fall of 2022. A graduate of Wesleyan University in Connecticut, he brings extensive experience as a business analyst and data manager for higher education and public schools. With a thorough understanding of the needs of students, instructors and administrators, Nick’s expertise lies in connecting constituents with their academic data for the most efficient and effective educational experience. He is excited to put his skills to use in support of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute community by creating practical analysis dashboards and ...

Thomas provides operational and systems support for Academic Affairs while contributing to applied research, market analysis, and assessment implementation within specific academic units. He assists with Workday reporting and audits on faculty data, supports operational initiatives with automation tools, and assists in maintaining data dashboards in Power BI.