Positions

Chair New Projects Committee, Justin Fisher

Dr. Thomas is Professor of Preventive Medicine, Director of the Biostatistics Division,
and Verna R. Richter Chair in Cancer Research at the University of Southern California
Keck School of Medicine. He received his Ph.D. from McGill University in 1976.
His primary research interest has been in the development of statistical methods for
environmental and genetic epidemiology, with numerous collaborations in both areas.
On the environmental side, he has been particularly active in radiation carcinogenesis
and air pollution health effects research, notably as one of the senior investigators on
the Southern California Children’s Health Study and as a member of President Clinton’s
Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments. On the genetic side, he is
a coinvestigator in the NCI’s Colon Cancer Family Registry, the Genetic Analysis
Workshop, the ENDGAME consortium to develop methods for genome-wide association
studies, and past President of the International Genetic Epidemiology Society. Dr.
Thomas has numerous publications, including the textbooks Statistical Methods in
Genetic Epidemiology (Oxford University Press, 2004) and Statistical Methods in
Environmental Epidemiology (Oxford University Press, in press). These three broad
areas of interest make him uniquely qualified to address methodological challenges in
studying gene-environment interactions.

Communications Director, Chris Barker

Currently I am a statistical consultant in the Pharmaceutical Industry.  I have over 20 years of experience in Pharmaceutical drug development, with a unique background in the design, conduct, analysis and interpretation of clinical trials for  Phases I, II III and IV and also Health Economics and Outcomes Research.  My expertise is principally Biostatistics and secondly in Economics. I designed and analyzed the Phase II and III trials which led to the  successful Global registration of  CELLCEPT for patients receiving Kidney Transplants. In part due to my work in Health Economics and Outcomes research, I have a special interest in statistical analysis of messy, complicated or large datasets. As President-Elect of the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of the American Statistical Association - I am leading a volunteer initiative in schools in the San Francisco Bay Area to help provide statistical instruction to mathematics and science teachers in grades Kindergarten through 12th grade.


Co-Chair Media and Publicity Committee, Dave Olsen

Worked in the Energy Industry for over 20 years at Direct Energy and Reliant Energy. 
My current position is a Director, Pricing and Margin Analysis at Direct Energy where my team is responsible for gross margin forecasting, planning, and performance management for electric retail customers in Texas with annual revenues exceeding $1 Billion.  Also worked a Director of Load Forecasting where I was in charge of a team who forecasted energy and capacity requirements for a portfolio of electric and gas customers in 10 states and as a Senior Quantitative Analyst where I priced energy products including options for power and gas traders.  I am an Adjunct Lead Faculty at LeTourneau University (since 1997) where I taught over 100 undergraduate Math and Statistics courses including College Algebra, Business Statistics, Math of Finance, and Math Modeling for Decision Making.  I have a Ph.D. in Biometry (now Biostatistics) from the University of Texas Health Science Center Houston  and a B.S. and M.S. in Mathematics from the University of Houston.  I have been a regular SAS user for over 20 years and a member of the American Statistical Association and International Institute of Forecasters.  I am interested in using my skills and expertise to make a difference in people's lives and am glad SWB provides that opportunity.  With SWB, I have consulted on a UNICEF project in addition to being the Co-chair in the Media and Publicity Committee.




Co-Chair Media and Publicity Committee, Young Chung



Co-Chair Website, Jerzy Wieczorek

Jerzy Wieczorek is a mathematical statistician with the U.S. Census Bureau. He holds a B.S. in Engineering from Olin College and completed his M.S. in Statistics at Portland State University while working in the university's Intelligent Transportation Systems Lab. Jerzy also volunteers with StatAid and teaches beginning Polish for the Global Language Network in the Washington, DC area.

Co-Chair Website, Jennifer Sniadecki

Jennifer Sniadecki is currently employed in the pharmaceutical industry where she works on programming clinical trials, conducting simulations and performing statistical analysis.  She holds a B.S. in Chemistry from Western Michigan University and a M.S. in Biostatistics from the University of Michigan.  Her areas of interest are applying data mining methods in the life sciences and statistical computing.