Elise Miller

Senior Program Officer, Postsecondary Data

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

In this keynote address, Elise Miller, Senior Program Officer for Data on the Postsecondary Success team at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, will discuss the role that data plays in ensuring that the U.S. higher education system acts as an engine of social mobility and economic development, fueling the nation’s competitiveness in a global economy and making it possible for all people in the United States to live healthy and productive lives. The goal of the Foundation’s postsecondary work is to ensure that students complete a postsecondary program that will help them support themselves, engage in their communities and achieve their dreams. To achieve this goal requires innovation across the system of higher education in the U.S., not just at a handful of institutions. The higher education system must be clear, flexible, personal, valuable, and affordable. Ms. Miller will engage with the audience regarding how all these different needs for data in the system are interrelated and overlap.

 

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Kathleen Styles

Chief Privacy Officer

US Department of Education

Kathleen Styles is the Department of Education’s first Chief Privacy Officer where she serves as the senior advisor to the Secretary on Departmental policies and programs related to privacy and confidentiality. She heads a new division dedicated to advancing the responsible stewardship, collection, use, maintenance and disclosure of information at the national level within the Education Department.  She also coordinate technical assistance efforts for states, districts, and other education stakeholders, helping them understand important privacy issues such as minimizing unnecessary collection of personal information.  Kathleen is responsible for the Department’s operations relating to the Family Educational Rights Privacy Act (FERPA), the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), records management, information collection clearance, departmental directives, privacy safeguards, and disclosure avoidance. 

Kathleen previously served as the Chief of the Policy Coordination Office at the U.S. Census Bureau, where she managed a similar portfolio that included confidentiality, data management, the Freedom of Information Act, data stewardship policy, and coordination for the acquisition and management of data from other agencies.  Kathleen is an attorney, licensed to practice law in Texas and the District of Columbia, and she is CIPP-G certified in government information privacy.