Dear Section Members,
I hope this note finds you well and not too tired from last night's game.
Thank you for entrusting me as Chair of our Section. I served the Section as an At-Large Member from 2019-2021 and as Chair-elect last year.
I'm pleased to announce we added two student liaisons to the Executive Committee. Please help me welcome Wasiuddin (Wasi) Najam and Annabel Li!
My Chair Initiatives (see below for details) are to
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Press forward to establish an enduring written forum devoted to practicing statisticians, and
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Engage with Section consultants to identify specific actions the Executive Committee can take to better serve our consulting members
In addition, we will continue to work closely with ASA leadership, the JEDI Outreach Group, and the Section's Membership Outreach Committee on DEI initiatives.
A little about me
I graduated with a PhD in Statistics from Texas A&M University in 2013. I am a statistical geneticist at The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine where I develop quantitative methods and data resources to help scientists discover the genetic components of disease. As an independent consultant, I work with the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) on the AI Committee organizing Kaggle Challenges to better predict radiological outcomes.
Establish an enduring written forum for practicing statisticians to share their insights
Since 2019, I have served on the committee to establish a journal devoted to practicing statisticians and last year, we released a Special Issue on Statistical Consulting and Collaboration in Stat that showcases some of the important work of our section members and others in the practice.
Link to Special Issue: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/toc/10.1002/(ISSN)2049-1573.statistical-consulting
Please join us later this month at CSP, where we will discuss the success of the Special Issue and consider next steps for our initiative in the Closing Session, hosted by Julia Sharp. Panel members include our ASA President, Ji-Hyun Lee, and fellow co-editors of the Special Issue H. Dean Johnson, Maggie Niu, Lee-Ann Hayek, and Helen Zhang, who served as editor of Stat from 2018-2023.
I have re-established a committee, led by Dean Johnson, to identify and secure an enduring written forum devoted to statistical practice. My hope is that we find a home in the ASA, whether it is through establishing our own journal, an ongoing special issue in an existing ASA journal, or a journal article 'type' that better reflects the important contributions of consulting and collaborative statisticians.
Engage with statistical consultants to identify actions the Section can implement to better serve consulting members
Traditionally, the Executive Committee has been composed of mostly academic statisticians and as a result, the voice of consulting statisticians, whether independent consultants or working in industry, is often not heard by leadership when making decisions for the Section. I want to change this. I want to ensure the EC is well-informed by all members so our section and its members continue to thrive.
To this end, I established a short-term committee, led by Steve Simon, to engage with Section consulting members, review the current Section offerings, and identify specific actions the Section can take to better serve consultants.
Let your voice be heard. Please stay tuned for ways you can participate.
Best regards,
Robyn
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Robyn L Ball, PhD
Computational Scientist
The Jackson Laboratory
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