Michael T. Dial, M.Ed.

University of South Carolina · University Advising Center

Direct enterprise advising technology strategy, governance, and assessment infrastructure for the institution's undergraduate advising operation, serving as implementation lead for CRM Advise (Ellucian) and the broader portfolio of advising platforms supporting 140+ academic advisors across 11 colleges and schools.

• Led enterprise implementation of CRM Advise (Ellucian) to full institutional adoption for 140+ users across 11 colleges and schools, building 51 custom processes, data entities, forms, and views that extend the platform well beyond its delivered functionality; managed Ethos/Banner integration architecture, vendor escalations, and a change-management program for the full advising organization.
• Drove full advising transition off EAB Navigate for continuing students by August 2025 and deployed CRM Advise to schedule virtual advising appointments with the entire incoming class during summer 2025.
• Independently architected and developed a full-stack, real-time, multi-tenant kiosk and queue-management system in-house rather than procuring a third-party vendor integration, delivering on-screen or QR-code self-service check-in, push and audio alerting for advisors, live wait-time visibility for administrators, and role-based administration extensible to additional colleges and schools; facilitated more than 1,500 check-ins in the first 24 active days (avg. 55/day) with adoption spreading to additional colleges and schools.
• Designed and built a FERPA-compliant GPA and grade-forgiveness calculator for advisor use, replacing manual worksheets with live projections including goal planning, term-by-term ladders, and print-ready student summaries; deployed via Cloudflare Pages with zero build dependencies.
• Direct the institutional advising assessment program through a multi-wave advising census using linear mixed models and lag regression in SPSS; findings surfaced through Power BI and Tableau dashboards have informed institutional budget conversations and established that students prioritize experiential learning and career discussions in advising appointments.
• Lead the integrated advising database, overseeing training infrastructure, assessment workflows, and digital forms at scale across 140+ advisors and 11 colleges and schools.
• Originated and led development of the inaugural Institute on Advising Leadership and Innovation at USC, a three-day national convening that drew advising leaders from 19 institutions, including directors, deans, assistant provosts, and vice provosts, to examine advising transformation models; included a dedicated session with the South Carolina Technical College System on transfer advising and student success.
• Translate advising analytics into decision tools for senior leadership, with findings routinely cited in institutional budget discussions and used to inform advising priorities across the undergraduate population.

University of South Carolina · University Advising Center

Provided administrative leadership for the centralized undergraduate academic advising program, guiding the unit through a 200% staff and program expansion while strengthening data infrastructure, technology adoption, and assessment maturity. Supervised one direct report and held functional oversight for 100+ academic advisors across 11 colleges and schools.

• Authored and operationalized the University of South Carolina Model of Comprehensive Academic Advising, a data-driven institutional framework developed through longitudinal statistical analysis establishing shared advising standards across 11 colleges and schools.
• Directed the design and rollout of an integrated advising database consolidating training, technology access, assessment, and digital student forms, replacing paper-based workflows with electronic signatures and online scheduling; the platform has processed more than 103,000 formerly paper and disparate forms since launch.
• Built Power BI dashboards translating advising analytics into accessible decision tools for institutional leadership, providing real-time visibility into student engagement, intervention outcomes, and advising program effectiveness across the undergraduate population.
• Applied longitudinal statistical analysis in SPSS to measure advising intervention outcomes; findings drove USC's institutional adoption of four-year academic advising and grounded the development of the USC Model of Comprehensive Academic Advising.
• Led recruitment, hiring, onboarding, and ongoing professional development for the expanding advising team, redesigning onboarding and establishing the Advising Training and Professional Development Committee.
• Supported expanded institutional adoption of EAB Navigate, DegreeWorks, and other platforms, including significant expansion of advisor use of Student Educational Plans.
• Cultivated collaborative working relationships with USC's 11 colleges and schools and the 25 departments of the College of Arts and Sciences to ensure consistent advising excellence across diverse academic contexts.
• Pivoted the advising operation to virtual delivery in response to COVID-19, including remote new-student orientation and faculty-advisor intervention efforts to support students struggling with remote learning.
• Established the Academic Advising Consulting Group as a standing structure for advisor-informed decision-making across the institution.
• Secured the 2020 NACADA Certificate of Merit for Outstanding Advising Programs in recognition of program excellence.

University of South Carolina · University 101 Programs

Recruited, trained, and supervised more than 230 undergraduate peer leaders co-teaching the UNIV 101 first-year seminar, supporting 4,500+ first-year students, roughly 80% of the cohort. Sustained programmatic excellence through a 20% enrollment expansion.

• Drove 166% growth in peer leader nominations and 20% growth in new applications through redesigned recruitment, cross-divisional partnerships, social media campaigns, and video production.
• Oversaw EDLP 520, the peer leader training course, supporting eight instructors across ten sections, and contributed to scheduling 250+ sections of UNIV 101 and EDLP 520 each fall.
• Facilitated faculty development for 230+ UNIV 101 instructors on course planning, engaged pedagogies, predictive analytics, and grading practices.
• Edited the Peer Leader Toolkit and relevant portions of the Faculty Resource Manual; collaborated with IT to enhance the University 101 Programs Database.
• Earned the 2018 NASPA Gold Award in the Student Union, Student Activities, Greek Life, and Leadership category for the University 101 Peer Leader Program.

University of South Carolina · Student Success Center

Managed Success Connect, USC's flagship early-alert and retention initiative and an early institutional adopter of EAB Navigate 360 for student success workflows.

• Students reached through personalized interventions informed by predictive analytics were retained at a rate 16 points higher; grew faculty referrals 39% in a single academic year.
• Designed and ran digital outreach campaigns sustaining 65–80% email open rates across the first-year cohort.
• Partnered with CSCE 490 students to develop a web-based CRM that streamlined Student Success Call Center operations and data tracking.
• Earned designation as a 2015 University Business Model of Excellence for Success Connect.