Duggan hired as director of institutional research

Orna Duggan has come to Wilfrid Laurier University looking for information. Duggan, an Irish import, has assumed the new role of director of institutional research at WLU.

The new office will see Duggan reporting to Laurier president and vice-chancellor Max Blouw, while helping the university to develop metrics for measuring its performance in a variety of areas.

“It’s a lot easier to do strategy and to plan if [the university] has a good idea of how they are performing in relation to things around them,” said Duggan.
With a PhD in chemical engineering, Duggan has spent eight years helping universities in the United Kingdom in developing research capacity and with an implementation of policy and strategy.

Duggan hopes her previous experience will help her rise to the challenge of shaping the new position at Laurier.

“I’m really excited and looking forward to just figuring out what I have to do. It’s really exciting to come in where something hasn’t been there before,” she said.

Although much of the position has yet to take shape, Duggan sees her new role as a collaborative and supportive role, helping to shape decisions by providing administrators with enough data about their current performance to help shape future policy.

“It’s really about information and having the right information at the right time,” said Duggan.

In addition to shaping a new role within the Laurier community, Duggan will have the challenge of her first experience living and working in Canada.

“It’s all very new still. It’s lovely, people are nice. I’m really just looking forward to it,” she commented on all the new things she will have to get used to, including driving on the right side of the road and Ontario winters. “I’m hoping I won’t get caught out with the snow.”

While she is getting accustomed to her new home, Duggan said she is excited to be a part of the Laurier community.