Meet Chrystal Colquhoun
If you ask Chrystal Colquhoun what draws her to assessment, she won’t start with software, surveys, or stats. She starts with people. And with possibility.
“My professional background sits at the intersection of data, equity, and student development,” Chrystal shared. Now the Lead for Data & Assessment at the University of Toronto Mississauga’s Career Centre, she spends her days weaving together evidence, storytelling, and student success. “I’m fascinated by how evidence-informed data storytelling can enhance success for all students, particularly students from equity-deserving groups.”
It’s a philosophy that runs through everything she touches. Chrystal sees assessment as both technical and deeply human: a way to build resilient services, cultivate spaces for learning, and help staff and leaders grow together. “Assessment should be developmental, not punitive,” she emphasizes, a belief she lives out daily in her work building a culture of evidence on her campus.
Chrystal’s data journey started years before she ever worked with data tools. With academic roots in research, educational psychology, and even biology, she was drawn to a deceptively simple question: Why do students with similar educational experiences end up having such different outcomes?
Her professional path, spanning higher ed, government, nonprofit work, and industry, gave her a panoramic view of how systems shape student experiences. “Numbers can reveal patterns, but stories and context give those patterns purpose,” she says. That belief now anchors her practice: data is never neutral, and when used thoughtfully, it can illuminate what often goes unseen.
Chrystal describes her work as centering belonging, accountability, transparency, and relationship-building. Whether she’s designing a survey, mentoring a student researcher, or building a dashboard that helps someone see themselves in the findings, these values guide everything she does.
When asked about defining moments in her career, Chrystal lights up. One theme emerges quickly: opportunity, and the mindset required to embrace it. She regularly teaches the “Opportunities Mindset,” a framework that welcomes ambiguity, encourages initiative, and embraces the unexpected. It’s a philosophy she learned firsthand as a student at the University of Toronto, where research experiences, work-study roles, and mentorship shaped her career trajectory.
“These moments helped me understand how to cultivate environments where people and systems can grow through uncertainty,” she reflects. “Taking opportunities without always knowing where they’ll lead, that’s been defining for me.”
Why the Communications Specialist Role?
Chrystal has been part of SAAL for nearly four years. The community has shaped her, inspired her, and affirmed her approach to data storytelling. When the Communications Specialist position opened, she immediately recognized the intersection of her passions.
“I see communication as a hinge between evidence and action,” she explains. “It’s how we translate rigorous, methodologically sound assessment into meaningful change.”
As the incoming Communications Specialist, Chrystal hopes to highlight the human stories behind the data, the creative stories, the messy stories, and the stories that show our field’s depth. She’s especially energized by the chance to elevate diverse voices and help make assessment more accessible, human-centered, and equitable.
For Chrystal, data storytelling is nothing less than a tool of hope. “It bridges cognition and affect - the head, heart, and feet,” she explains. “When it’s done well, it invites people into the conversation instead of keeping data as something exclusive.”
Her approach starts with listening deeply. She focuses on meaning-making, on context, on recognizing who is included and who is not. She leads with stories, not statistics. And she builds toward impact by meeting people where they are, using clean design, plain language, and relational practices to help colleagues see themselves reflected in the data.
“When people feel seen in the data,” she says, “they can become co-authors of the story we’re telling.”
And because this is intentional work that asks for dedication and presence, I asked Chrystal how she celebrates and recharges. For someone so deeply immersed in data, her recharge comes from stepping away from the screen. She strolls across her 225-acre campus, reconnecting with the spaces that shaped her as a student and observing how new generations navigate them. “Inspiration returns when I slow down enough to listen,” she reflects.
Celebration, too, is deliberate. Chrystal pauses for gratitude, reflects on lessons learned, and acknowledges the people who made the work possible. Sometimes that takes the form of a debrief or infographic; other times, it’s coffee or tea, or a quiet moment of recognition. For her, closing the loop is just as important as completing the project, a reminder that every story, every insight, and every connection matters.
And so, with that, this outgoing Communications Specialist happily hands the storytelling reins off to Chrystal Colquhoun. With her thoughtful, human-centered approach, it’s [Chrystal] clear that SAAL’s communications, the stories of this important work, are in excellent hands.
This blog post was written by Jordan Bullington-Miller, Senior Research Associate, Divisional Initiatives and Special Projects, Student Affairs Research & Assessment, UNC Charlotte.