In today's accountability climate, regional accrediting bodies are requiring colleges and universities to develop and sustain a culture of evidence-based decision making and improvement. But two-thirds of college presidents in a 2011 "Inside Higher Ed" survey said their institutions are not particularly strong at using data for making decisions. And despite accreditors' intense focus on learning outcomes as a core piece of evidence of institutional effectiveness, a 2009 National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA) survey revealed that 60 percent of provosts believe that they need more faculty engagement and more technical expertise to strengthen the assessment of learning on their campuses. There are two major elements that are necessary to spark and sustain evidence-based decision making and improvement. One is leadership in making sense of, strategically applying, and communicating data and findings to diverse audiences in ways that prompt organizational learning and stimulate people's desire to know more and then to act on the information. The other is a highly visible institutional research (IR) function that is integrated with complementary functions such as assessment and planning and that is widely recognized as integral to shaping institutional policy and practice. The author discusses the role of leadership in evidence-based decision making. She also describes new models for fostering evidence-based decision making and improvement. (Contains 1 table and 11 resources.)