Stats + Stories

John Pullinger is the current president of International Association for Official Statistics (IAOS) and finished his five-year term as United Kingdom National Statistician, Head of the Government Statistical Service (GSS) and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority in June 2019. There, his role was to safeguard the production and publication of high quality official statistics by all departments, agencies and institutions in the UK. On appointment he described his role as to, “mobilize the power of data to help Britain make better decisions.” He also has represented the UK internationally in EU, UN, OECD and other forums. He was both Chair and Vice-Chair of the United Nations Statistical Commission (UNSC).

Amanda Makulec is the Senior Data Visualization Lead at Excella and holds a Masters of Public Health from the Boston University School of Public Health. She worked with data in global health programs for eight years before joining Excella, where she leads teams and develops user-centered data visualization products for federal, non-profit, and private sector clients. Amanda volunteers as the Operations Director for the Data Visualization Society and is a co-organizer for Data Visualization DC. Find her on Twitter at @abmakulec

Gail Burrill is currently an Academic Specialist in the Program for Mathematics Education at Michigan State University. She was a secondary teacher and department chair in suburban Milwaukee, Wisconsin for over 28 years. She is the Immediate Past President of the International Association for Statistical Education, served as President of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and as Director of the Mathematical Sciences Education Board. Burrill co-chaired the College Board Commission on the Calculus Framework and is currently chair of the College Board’s Advanced Placement Calculus Development Committee.

Vicki Hertzberg is a Professor at Emory University in the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, where she has founded and directs the Center for Data Science. Her research focuses on, “developing and applying statistical methods for the analysis of network data as well as microbiome data.” Specific topics include infectious diseases on networks, dynamic networks and microbiome of the airplane cabin.

David B. Allison is the current dean, distinguished professor, and provost professor at the Indiana University School of Public Health-Bloomington. Prior to Indiana University, Allison was a distinguished professor, Quetelet Endowed Professor, and director of the NIH-funded Nutrition Obesity Research Center (NORC) at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). Allison has published more than 500 scientific papers with research interests including obesity and nutrition, quantitative genetics, clinical trials, statistical and research methodology, and research rigor and integrity.

Hansi Lo Wang is a national correspondent for NPR based in New York City. He reports on the people, power and money behind the 2020 census. Wang received the American Statistical Association's Excellence in Statistical Reporting Award for covering the Census Bureau and the Trump administration's push for a citizenship question. Check out his work on NPR and follow him on Twitter.

Dr. Stephen Ruberg was in the pharma industry for 38 years where he worked in all phases of drug development and commercialization – from R&D to Business Analytics. In his last 10 years at Lilly, he formed the Advanced Analytics Hub for which he was the Scientific Leader and ultimately the Distinguished Research Fellow. He retired from Lilly at the end of 2017. Since his retirement, he has formed his own consulting company, Analytix Thinking, which is dedicated to teaching good statistical principles and consulting on analytical strategies for organizations.

The Science of Sex | Stats + Stories Episode 126 by The Stats + Stories Team

Cynthia Rudin is a professor of computer science, electrical and computer engineering, and statistical science at Duke University. Previously, Prof. Rudin held positions at MIT, Columbia, and NYU. Her degrees are from the University at Buffalo and Princeton University. She is a three-time winner of the INFORMS Innovative Applications in Analytics Award. She has served on committees for INFORMS, the National Academies, the American Statistical Association, DARPA, the NIJ, and AAAI. She is a fellow of both the American Statistical Association and Institute of Mathematical Statistics. She is a Thomas Langford Lecturer at Duke University for 2019-2020.

Dr. Harrell is the founding chair of the Vanderbilt Biostatistics department. Since 2003 he has been Professor of Biostatistics, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, and was the department chairman from 2003-2017. He is Expert Statistical Advisor for the Office of Biostatistics for FDA CDER. He is Associate Editor of Statistics in Medicine, a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for Science Translational Medicine, and a member of the Faculty of 1000 Medicine. He is a Fellow of the American Statistical Association and winner of the Association's WJ Dixon Award for Excellence in Statistical Consulting for 2014. His specialties are development of accurate prognostic and diagnostic models, model validation, clinical trials, observational clinical research, cardiovascular research, technology evaluation, pharmaceutical safety, Bayesian methods, quantifying predictive accuracy, missing data imputation, and statistical graphics and reporting.