Lillian S. Lin, 2015 Jeanne E. Griffith Award Selection Committee Chair

Aldo “Skip” Vecchia was recently selected to receive the 2015 Jeanne E. Griffith Mentoring Award for his mentoring of junior staff across government.

Aldo “Skip” Vecchia was selected as the 2015 Jeanne E. Griffith Mentoring Award winner.

Vecchia is a senior statistician with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in Bismarck, North Dakota. He uses statistical approaches to understand climate variability and the effects of this variability on the water cycle. One particular problem he is addressing is understanding the hydrology of Devils Lake, North Dakota. This is a closed basin lake (there is no outlet), which recently has expanded greatly due to a prolonged wet spell. The area of the lake is about 330 square miles, and the local, state, and federal governments have spent more than $450 million for flood control. Should the lake rise another few feet, it will overtop its natural banks, spill, and water will make its way via the Red River of the North to Hudson Bay. Vecchia’s contributions have helped decision-makers understand the probability of this catastrophic occurrence.

In presenting Vecchia with a plaque and check, Carol House—co-chair of this year’s award committee—said the letters nominating him were compelling, as they described Vecchia as an expert in the field who is always willing to share his skills and encourage his colleagues. She commented that she was struck by his advocacy and support of the research others participate in, his partnerships with junior staff to build their confidence, his ability to help staff learn how to solve complex problems, and his integrity and commitment to public service. Karen Ryberg, a statistician at the North Dakota Water Science Center, nominated Vecchia for this award.

The Award

The Jeanne E. Griffith Mentoring award honors Griffith, who died in 2001 after working for more than 25 years in the federal statistical system. The award acknowledges supervisors; technical directors; team coordinators; or other members of federal, state, or local government statistical staff who make unique efforts to mentor and encourage younger staff at all levels to learn and grow and recognize and seize career opportunities. The award includes a plaque and a $1,000 honorarium.

The Ceremony

On June 10, the award committee hosted a ceremony and reception to honor Vecchia. His family, friends, and colleagues joined friends of Griffith, the award committee, and the Interagency Council on Statistical Policy (ICSP) at this event. This year’s ceremony marked the 13th annual presentation of the award and the seventh year that the ASA’s Government Statistics Section (GSS) has managed the award process.

House led the ceremony, welcoming the audience and introducing Katherine Wallman, U.S. chief statistician; Jerad Bales, chief scientist for water at USGS; and Andy Orlin, Griffith’s spouse.

Wallman introduced Vecchia, award sponsors, past mentoring award winners in attendance, and members of the ICSP in attendance. She talked about the role of the ICSP in supporting the award and acknowledged the award’s co-sponsors: the ASA GSS, National Opinion Research Center, Westat, Council of Professional Associations on Federal Statistics, American Institutes for Research, American Educational Research Association, ICSP, Stata, and ASA Social Statistics Section.

Orlin reminded the audience of the history of the award. He congratulated the winner and thanked the members of the 2015 award committee, which also includes Kevin Cecco, Brian Harris-Kojetin, Lillian Lin (chair), Bill Mockovak, and Anna Nevius. In particular, he thanked House for her participation in the award committee for more than 10 years. Orlin noted the committee has continued to publicize and spread the word about the award, keep sponsors funding the effort, and, most importantly, select a truly deserving individual to receive the award.

Bales briefly described the work of the USGS. He pointed out that even though the USGS is not a statistical agency, much of their work is dependent on statistical modeling and methodology. He also highlighted Vecchia’s role as a senior statistician at USGS and the contributions he has made in that capacity. Bales then talked about the importance of mentoring and Vecchia’s work with younger statisticians and water scientists. He read several quotations from individuals Vecchia mentored over the years. One person generic ativan good said, “It’s very reassuring to me that my son will be starting off his career getting the same kind of outstanding mentoring from Skip that I received throughout mine.”

The Recipient

Vecchia is a graduate of Colorado State University, where he earned his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in statistics. In receiving the award, he first introduced his family members who traveled from North Dakota with him. He then thanked Bales for mentoring him during his many years at USGS and his colleagues for nominating him. He noted that Ryberg is in the prime of her career at USGS, so he felt particularly humbled that she views him as a mentor. Vecchia also noted that Gregg Wiche, recently retired as Water Science Center director, has been a great supporter and Joel Galloway, Vecchia’s supervisor, has encouraged him, and now Ryberg, to explore challenging and interesting projects in stochastic hydrology and environmental statistics. He said Steven Sando and Wes Stone, water quality and hydrology experts at USGS, have mentored him as much as he feels he has mentored them, demonstrating that mentoring can be a two-way street. He also praised Kelsey Kolars, a Student Pathways intern at USGS, for her enthusiasm and abilities and noted how much fun it has been to serve as her mentor.

Vecchia thanked the many mentors who have helped him throughout his career, including former Colorado State University Statistics Department faculty Frank Graybill, Peter Brockwell, Richard Davis, Sid Resnick, Paul Mielke, Hari Iyer, and Duane Boes, who was also his PhD adviser. He also thanked the many USGS scientists who helped him early in his career, especially Bob Hirsch, Bill Alley, Jurate Landwehr, Brent Troutman, Bob Gilliom, and Richard Cooley.

Vecchia remarked that mentoring must be something you do without really knowing it, because he never considered himself to be a good mentor. Learning he was to receive the award provided him the opportunity to reflect on what makes a good mentor. First, good mentors need to be experienced, he said, and experience comes with age. He reflected on his experiences early in his career teaching and advising MS and PhD students. In retrospect, he said he was more focused on his research so tended to instruct, rather than provide ideas and let the students attack problems on their own. Vecchia now thinks a good mentor is always there to help, but not to push. Along with age (or experience), comes humility in the form of realizing you can’t do everything yourself, said Vecchia. You realize you need the people you are mentoring more than they need you.

Second, mentors need the right work environment to promote mentoring. As two of the few scientists in the water mission area of the USGS who focus on statistics, he and Ryberg are in high demand to help ensure findings published in USGS reports are well-supported by the data. As the hundreds of world-class scientists who seek their advice know the value of statistics and strive to maintain a tradition of promoting scientific rigor and excellence, it hasn’t seemed like mentoring, as these colleagues are eager to learn and the problems are interesting.

Finally, through the USGS Water Cooperative Program, Vecchia has had the opportunity to promote statistics to an audience outside his agency. This program, supported jointly by USGS and state and local government agencies, allows him to work with hundreds of scientists at other agencies and attend numerous city council meetings, local water board meetings, and conferences. Vecchia has presented findings to the North Dakota governor and his staff and to the North Dakota Congressional Delegation and its staff. He remarked that he didn’t consider any of this mentoring at the time. However, when the award was announced, in addition to lots of congratulatory emails from colleagues at USGS and people he knew from graduate school, he received the most emails from people he met through this program congratulating him and thanking him for all the mentoring he has provided through the years.

Vecchia closed by thanking those in attendance for sharing this career highlight and the honor of receiving the award.