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Our Team

Jason Owen-Smith

Jason Owen-Smith

IRIS Executive Director

Jason manages the activities of IRIS and is the liaison with future and current Member Institutions.  He is an ex officio member of the IRIS Board of Directors. Together with collaborators, Jason works on projects that examine the dynamics of high-technology industries, the public value of the research university, and the network organization of surgical care.  Jason’s work makes use of large-scale administrative data to study fundamental process of network change and their effects in policy relevant domains.
[email protected]

Dharma Akmon

Dharma Akmon

Managing Director

Dharma handles the day-to-day operations of IRIS, including human resources, financial oversight, and management of internal systems and processes. Additionally, she is part of the IRIS leadership team, helping to set strategic goals and priorities for IRIS. Growing and sustaining the IRIS membership is a key part of her portfolio, as is work with the IRIS Board of Directors.
[email protected]

Najla August

Najla August

Lead Developer

Najla is a data visualization expert and applications developer. She stays in the forefront of advancing technologies and is skilled in a variety of programming platforms and languages. Her passion outside of work includes camping and hiking.
[email protected]

Kevin Bjorne

Kevin Bjorne

Technical Director

Kevin is member of the IRIS leadership team and oversees all aspects of the technical operations of the organization. He works closely with member universities, IRIS staff, and partner organizations like the federal government to provide accurate and meaningful products to be used by IRIS members.
[email protected]

Amy Butchart

Amy Butchart

Lead Programmer

Amy collaborates and coordinates with data curators, researchers, and analysts at federal agencies and at IRIS member institutions. Her work as a programmer on the IRIS team focuses on designing and documenting code to link restricted data sets and producing data products and analytic data sets. Additionally, she conceptualizes and designs additional metrics that can be built using IRIS and federal data.
[email protected]

Jiazong Gong

Jiazong Gong

Data and Development Engineer

Jiazong is a data and development engineer. His diverse programming expertise contributes to the development of interactive data reports via data visualization technologies. Additionally, he supports mining publicly available datasets and implementing machine learning models to derive insights from data.
[email protected]

Lauren Grossman

Lauren Grossman

Communications and Membership Coordinator

Lauren promotes IRIS data use, expands membership, and manages IRIS messaging, including newsletters, social media, annual reports, and the website. She develops strategies to engage the academic community, supports current and potential members, and raises awareness of IRIS among universities. 
[email protected]

Jeong-Woo Ko

Jeong-Woo Ko

Data Analyst

Jeong-Woo writes and maintains programs linking and summarizing data and making metrics for use in client reports; extracts, transforms and loads data into IRIS data servers; cleans and tests data; and creates data summaries in response to a variety of requests.
[email protected]

    Michael Little

    Michael Little

    Senior Project Manager

    Michael facilitates the completion of IRIS projects by tracking project performance, developing detailed work plans and estimates, and managing tracking systems.
    [email protected]

    Joseph Redinger

    Joseph Redinger

    Data Analyst

    Joseph writes and maintains programs linking and summarizing data and making metrics for use in client reports; extracts, transforms and loads data into IRIS data servers; cleans and tests data; and creates data summaries in response to a variety of requests.
    [email protected]

      Shadi Shakeri

      Shadi Shakeri

      Data Science Specialist

      Shadi cleans, links and disambiguates the IRIS UMETRICS dataset, which is released to research users as part of the IRIS Research Support Team. She also assists researchers that use the IRIS UMETRICS dataset by answering questions regarding the dataset, aggregates and de-identifies the data for research purposes, and debugs coding issues.​
      [email protected]

      Matt VanEseltine

      Matt VanEseltine

      Senior Data Scientist

      Matt is a senior data scientist working with large-scale data for causal and policy analysis. He creates and manages complex data architectures from large-scale restricted and public sources to support INK/IRIS research projects and contribute to IRIS production work.
      [email protected] 

      Meg Weideman

      Meg Weideman

      Administrative Assistant Senior

      Meg provides logistical support for IRIS, managing calendars and scheduling along with meeting coordination and support. Her portfolio includes office management and general administrative oversight, as well as event management. Meg’s extensive background in university administration is eminently useful.
      [email protected]

      Karen Woollams

      Karen Woollams

      Business Manager

      Karen provides pre and post-award grant administration, budget management and reporting, and print and digital publicity material design and production.  She can help with IRIS memberships and member invoicing, contracts, and assorted financial matters.  Karen is passionate about local Habitat for Humanity work and enjoys hiking, gardening and singing with the UM Choral Union.
      [email protected]

      Contact Us

      Membership Inquiries and Operations:
      Dharma Akmon, Managing Director
      (734) 615-7464 [email protected]

      Technical Issues:
      Kevin Bjorne, IRIS Technical Director
      (734) 936-0465 [email protected]

      Researcher Access:
      [email protected] 

      Scheduling Requests:
      Meg Weideman, IRIS Administrative Assistant
      (734) 615-0015 [email protected]

      Contracts, Invoicing & Grant Administration:
      Karen Woollams, IRIS Research Coordinator
      (734) 936-0444 [email protected]

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      University of Michigan
      Institute for Social Research
      Survey Research Center
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      Ann Arbor, MI, 48104-2910

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