Wendy Martinez Elected 115th President of the American Statistical Association
Wendy Martinez, director of the Mathematical Statistics Research Center at the Office of Survey Methods Research in the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), has been elected the 115th president of the American Statistical Association (ASA). She will serve a one-year term as president-elect beginning January 1, 2019; her term as president becomes effective January 1, 2020.
The ASA membership also elected Richard De Veaux, C. Carlisle and Margaret Tippit Professor of Statistics at Williams College, as ASA vice president. De Veaux's term also begins January 1, 2020.
Martinez said her overarching goal as president was to build bridges between statistics and data science and enlarge the scope of the ASA. "The ASA has made great strides to increase partnerships with international statistical societies and professional groups like the AAAS," she said. "And we can do more to enhance the diversity of the ASA, increase the visibility of statistics and ensure the future of our profession." Having a broad and robust statistically-focused community to build on the ASA's Count on Stats campaign will be vital, she added, given that 2020 is the year of the census.
Another focal point of Martinez's presidency will be K–12 education. "I taught statistics at the undergraduate level, and I understand the need to ensure students entering college are better prepared," she said. "It is imperative we continue to promote statistics at K–12 levels."
Prior to joining the BLS, Martinez was senior statistician at the Joint Forces Command and program officer for the Probability and Statistics Program at the Office of Naval Research. She was also an adjunct professor at Strayer University and George Mason University.
Martinez's professional activities are wide ranging, including serving as a coordinating editor for Statistics Surveys; member of the Federal Committee on Statistical Methodology; and leader of many ASA sections, committees, chapters and interest groups. She received an ASA Founders Award in 2017, having become an ASA fellow in 2006.
Martinez earned her doctorate in computational science and informatics from George Mason University, her master's in aerospace engineering from The George Washington University and her bachelor's in physics and mathematics from Cameron University.
Richard (Dick) De Veaux comes to the ASA vice presidency with an extraordinary list of accomplishments, not least having been a statistical adviser to the Grateful Dead—one of many consulting clients. For many years, he also taught dance at Williams College, where he has been C. Carlisle and M. Tippit Professor of Statistics since 1994.
De Veaux's academic focus is on statistical education and pedagogy, with an interest in the role statistics plays—or ought to play—in the exponentially expanding field of data science. He has co-authored six books, including Intro Stats, 5th edition, and is a contributor to the Curriculum Guidelines for Undergraduate Programs in Data Science in the 2017 Annual Review of Statistics. He has held a variety of positions at the ASA, including chair of the Statistical Learning and Data Science (SLDS) Section and the Council of Sections representative to the board.
De Veaux earned his doctorate in statistics from Stanford University, along with a master's in education. He also earned a master's in mathematics from Princeton and his bachelor's in civil engineering.
The ASA membership also elected the following:
- Anamaria Kazanis, President, ASKSTATS Consulting LLC, as Council of Chapters Representative to the ASA Board
- Mark Glickman, Senior Lecturer on Statistics, Harvard University, as Council of Sections Representative to the ASA Board
- Mary Kwasny, Associate Professor of Preventive Medicine (Biostatistics), Northwestern University, as chair-elect of the Council of Chapters Governing Board
- Ofer Harel, Professor of Statistics, University of Connecticut, as chair-elect of the Council of Sections Governing Board
The entire slate of election results, including officers for each of the ASA's 27 sections, is accessible here.
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About the American Statistical Association
The ASA is the world's largest community of statisticians and the oldest continuously operating professional science society in the United States. Its members serve in industry, government and academia in more than 90 countries, advancing research and promoting sound statistical practice to inform public policy and improve human welfare. For additional information, please visit the ASA website at www.amstat.org.
For more information:
Steve Pierson
ASA Director of Science Policy
(703) 302-1841
pierson@amstat.org
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