JSM Mentoring

GSS MENTORING ROUND TABLE AT JSM 2019 - Denver
Elizabeth Mannshardt, GSS Chair 2019

GSS hosted a mentoring Round table at JSM 2019.  The mentoring session was designed to encourage diverse participation and engage young professionals and students who may not normally have access to or interaction with more senior, advanced-career members of the GSS community.   The GSS mentoring session provided an opportunity for an informal "meet and greet" between GSS mentors and mentees, as well as organized mentor/mentee activities.  Activities, based on a professional mentoring program, provided small group face-to-face time, opportunities for career discussions, and targeted coaching on “professional small talk”.

Feedback was overwhelmingly positive from both Mentee participants and GSS Mentors.  

The mentors were very informative, particularly in regards to advice on finding careers and securing jobs in government.  - Katherine Allen, NCSU; GSS Mentee The mentors answered the mentees’ questions thoughtfully.

They were all personable and shared their more human aspects of their stories with us - Nancy Murray, Emory; GSS Mentee I walked away with advice for applying to government positions, a better understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of working in the government, and leadership tips

I encourage GSS to hold this roundtable in future years if possible!

GSS Mentors also had great feedback:

I had a wonderful time! We did end up having a general discussion, which I personally found very helpful. It was interesting to hear about what the mentees are hoping for with their careers and also to hear about the experiences of the other mentors. It made me realize that we all come to our place in life, education, and careers in different ways, bringing home the point that there is no one “right” way. - Wendy Martinez

The students were great. I was impressed by their reasons for attending the session and how carefully they listened and participated in the session.  I also thoroughly enjoyed getting to know the students and Wendy and Barry! The similarity in our three career and education pathways was interesting.

I know I found that I learn as much, if not more, by being a mentor and by participating in the session. I hope we succeeded in honoring Steven Spielberg's quote: “The delicate balance of mentoring someone is not creating them in your own image, but giving them the opportunity to create themselves.” (Steven Spielberg)
  - Stephanie Shipp

It was fun being a participant at the mentoring round table.   We indeed had a very open conversation.  I think this program should continue.  - Barry Nussbaum

To participate in next year's Mentoring Round Table at JSM, visit the GSS Professional Development Mentoring page or contact GSS Chair 2019 Elizabeth Mannshardt at mannshardt@stat.ncsu.edu

GSS Mentors at JSM 2019:

Wendy Martinez, ASA President-Elect (BLS) Wendy is the Director of the Mathematical Statistics Research Center at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and will serve as the 115th president of the American Statistical Association in 2020 and President-Elect 2019. Dr. Wendy Martinez was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan. After high school, she served as an active duty member of the U.S. Army Signal Corps, where she had the opportunity to be stationed in Germany for several years. Wendy has been serving as the Director of the Mathematical Statistics Research Center at the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) for six years. Prior to this, she worked in several research positions throughout the Department of Defense. She held the position of Science and Technology Program Officer at the Office of Naval Research, where she established a research portfolio comprised of academia and industry performers developing data science products for the future Navy and Marine Corps. Her areas of interest include computational statistics, exploratory data analysis, and text data mining. She is the lead author of three books on MATLAB and statistics. These books cover topics ranging from classical approaches in statistics to computationally intensive methods and exploratory data analysis. She became interested in data science when pursuing her PhD under Dr. Edward Wegman (GMU), who had founded a new curriculum in computational statistics that included most of the courses in what is now considered data science.  Dr. Martinez was elected as a Fellow of the American Statistical Association in 2006 and is an elected member of the International Statistical Institute.  She was recently honored by the American Statistical Association when she received the ASA Founders Award at the JSM 2017 conference.

Barry Nussbaum, ASA Past-President (retired EPA) Barry was the Chief statistician at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and served as the President of the American Statistical Association in 2017.  Nussbaum joined the EPA in 1975 and was named to Chief Statistician in 2007. At the agency, he founded and chairs the EPA Statistics Users Group. During his tenure, he achieved many successes using statistical analysis to promote health, determine environmental policy, and enforce regulations. For instance, he was the branch chief in charge of the successful drive to eliminate harmful lead from gasoline.  Since 2011, he has chaired the association’s Statistical Partnerships Among Academe, Industry, and Government Committee.  Nussbaum was awarded a bachelor’s degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a master’s and doctorate from The George Washington University. He also has taught graduate statistics courses for The George Washington and Virginia Tech universities. As an ASA member, Nussbaum served as chair of the Statistics and the Environment Section in 2000. In 2007, he was recognized for his contributions to statistics by being elected an ASA Fellow.

Stephanie Shipp, Deputy Director and Professor (UVA) Dr. Stephanie Shipp is the Deputy Director and Research Professor at the Social and Decision Analytics Division within the Biocomplexity Institute and Initiative at University of Virginia. Dr. Shipp’s work spans topics related to the use of all data to advance policy, the science of data science, and metropolitan analytics. She is leading and engaging in projects at the local, state, and federal level to assess data quality and use of new and traditional sources of data. Her research focuses on developing statistical methodology and tools for using administrative and other data to model the social condition. She conducts research on communities, innovation, and defense analytics. She previously served in the Senior Executive Service at the National Institute of Standards and Technology as the Director of the Economic Assessment Office in the Advanced Technology Program. Dr. Shipp also led economic and statistical programs at the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and began her career at the Federal Reserve Board.  Dr. Shipp was a senior Research Staff Member at the Institute for Defense Analyses, Science and Technology Policy, conducting research for the Office of Science and Technology Policy and other federal agencies. She was a member of the international advisory board for Verket För Innovationssystem (VINNOVA), Sweden’s innovation agency and continues to serve on grant selection committees. She led an expert panel to evaluate the Swedish Research Council’s Linnaeus Grants in 2012 and in 2014. She has a Ph.D. in economics from The George Washington University. Dr. Shipp is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Statistical Association, and an elected member of the International Statistics Institute.