Institution and system leaders play a critical role--perhaps the most critical--in promoting student success in higher education. At most institutions, change begins at the top, with the president and other senior leaders, as they set and implement the strategic direction for their institutions. In recent years, the role that data play in developing impactful institutional policies and practices has become increasingly clear. Colleges and universities that have improved student success do so through a focus on data. In fall 2015, the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP) launched the Senior Institutional Leadership Council (SILC). The SILC is comprised of chancellors, presidents, and provosts, representing a broad range of institutional levels, sectors, and missions, as well as a variety of states. The overarching goals of engagement with the SILC are to learn more about what these institutional champions are doing and to identify and share broadly key lessons about how data can be used on campus and how policy should promote better data use. Over the past six months, IHEP and New America have recruited leaders from more than a dozen institutions and systems to the council, and through individual interviews have learned a great deal about how senior leaders view the role of data in shaping institutional policies and practices. This report lifts up the important voices of institutions and their chancellors, presidents, provosts, and other senior leaders. Leveraging lessons from people working on the ground, the report explores how these senior leaders use data to inform their daily and long-term decision making and highlights student success-focused, action-oriented examples of data use at the institution level.