Lisa LaVange, director of the Office of Biostatistics in the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), has been elected the 113th president of the ASA. LaVange will serve a one-year term as president-elect beginning January 1, 2017. Her term as president becomes effective January 1, 2018.

The ASA membership also elected G. David Williamson, senior science adviser at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as an ASA vice president.

“Statistics is experiencing great strides these days, from the expansion of undergraduate degree programs across the country to the surge in employment opportunities associated with the data revolution. And yet, with that energy and growth, come challenges,” said LaVange. “It could be experts in other fields who lack statistical training or even statisticians experiencing difficulty communicating about their work to lay audiences. My work in government, academia, and private industry has allowed me to grasp the big picture and relate to the experiences of statisticians everywhere. I look forward to working with the ASA Board, staff, and members to expand the value and understanding of our profession and the critical role statistics plays in all aspects of life.”

At FDA, LaVange is responsible for developing policies and procedures to guide statistical review of regulatory submissions in addition to coordinating biometric research to evaluate drugs and therapeutic biologics and providing comprehensive statistical services to CDER scientific and regulatory programs. In doing so, she oversees the work of more than 170 statistical reviewers. Prior to joining the FDA, LaVange was a professor in the Gillings School of Global Public Health at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She also spent 10 years in the pharmaceutical industry as vice president of biostatistics and data management for Inspire Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and as vice president of statistics for North American clinical development at Quintiles, Inc.

Elected as an ASA Fellow in 2004, LaVange has held numerous leadership positions, including JSM program chair, general methodology program chair, and section program chair. She was editor-in-chief of the ASA-SIAM book series, co-editor of the journal Pharmaceutical Statistics, and associate editor of Statistics in Biopharmaceutical Research.

LaVange earned her PhD in biostatistics from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1983, her master’s in mathematics from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1976, and her undegraduate degree in mathematics from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1974.

G. David Williamson is senior science adviser and executive director of the Statistical Advisory Group at the CDC and an adjunct professor in the department of biostatistics and bioinformatics in the school of public health at Emory University and Georgia Southern University. Prior to that, he was the associate director of science at the CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and chief science officer in the Office of Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory Science.

He earned his PhD in biostatistics from Emory University in 1987; two master’s degrees in statistics and biology from Virginia Tech and Georgia Southern, respectively; and an undergraduate degree in biology from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1973.

Among his appointments with the ASA, Williamson became a fellow in 2004 and was Joint Program Committee chair of JSM in 2000. Active on awards and membership committees, Williamson also served as vice chair of the Committee on Meetings from 1999–2002; was a member of the Fellows Nominating Committee of the Statistics and the Environment Section from 2004–2006; and was program chair of the Statistics in Epidemiology Section in 1997.

The ASA membership also elected:

Jim Lepkowski, professor in the department of biostatistics at the University of Michigan, as Council of Sections Representative to the ASA Board

Julia Sharp, associate professor in mathematical sciences at Clemson University, as Council of Chapters Representative to the ASA Board

Cynthia Bocci of Statistics Canada as the International Representative to the ASA Board

Terri Utlaut, principal engineer and statistician at Intel Corp., as chair-elect of the Council of Sections Governing Board

Alex Hanlon, research professor of nursing at the University of Pennsylvania, as chair-elect of the Council of Chapters Governing Board

Officers for each of the ASA’s 27 sections, are featured below:

Section Officers

Vice-Chair, Region 3, District 5

Melinda Holt, Sam Houston State University

Vice-Chair, Region 3, District 6

Ji-Hyun Lee, University of New Mexico Comprehensive Cancer Center

Vice-Chair

William Notz, The Ohio State University

Bayesian Statistical Science

Chair-Elect
Merlise Clyde, Duke University

Program Chair-Elect
Elena Erosheva, University of Washington

Council of Sections Representative
Lynn Lin, Penn State

Biometrics

Chair-Elect, 2017
Rebecca Hubbard, University of Pennsylvania and University of Washington

Secretary/Treasurer
Sherri Rose, Harvard Medical School

Council of Sections Representative
Pamela Shaw, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine

Biopharmaceutical

Chair-Elect
Heather Thomas, PRA Health Sciences

Program Chair-Elect
Qi Jiang, Amgen

Treasurer
Alan Hartford, AbbVie

Council of Sections Representative
Erik Pulkstenis, MedImmune

Business and Economic Statistics

Chair-Elect
Ataman Ozyildirim, The Conference Board

Program Chair-Elect
David Matteson, Cornell University

Secretary/Treasurer
Henry Hyatt, U.S. Census Bureau

Council of Sections Representative
Bruce Meyer, The University of Chicago and National Bureau of Economic Research

Government Statistics

Chair-Elect
Marilyln Seastrom, National Center for Education Statistics

Program Chair-Elect
Gina Walejko, U.S. Census Bureau

Secretary/Treasurer
Darcy Miller, National Agricultural Statistics Service and The George Washington University

Publications Officer
Jenny Guarino, U.S. Department of Transportation

Health Policy Statistics

Chair-Elect
Kelly Zou, Pfizer Inc.

Council of Sections Representative
Donald Hedeker, The University of Chicago

Medical Devices and Diagnostics

Chair-Elect
Xiting Yang, FDA

Program Chair-Elect
Alicia Toledano, Biostatistics Consulting, LLC

Council of Sections Representative
Greg Maislin, Biomedical Statistical Consulting and University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine

Mental Health Statistics

Chair-Elect
Yuanjia Wang, Columbia University and New York State Psychiatric Institute

Program Chair-Elect
Hongyuan Cao, University of Missouri

Nonparametric

Chair-Elect
Ingrid Van Keilegom, Université catholique de Louvain

Program Chair-Elect
Lan Wang, University of Minnesota

Treasurer, 2017
John Staudenmayer, University of Massachusetts

Physical and Engineering Sciences

Chair-Elect
Peter Hovey, University of Dayton

Program Chair-Elect
Yili Hong, Virginia Tech

Quality and Productivity

Chair-Elect
Erin Tanenbaum, NORC at the University of Chicago

Program Chair-Elect
Zhanpan Zhang, General Electric Global Research

Risk Analysis

Chair-Elect
Michael Pennell, The Ohio State University

Program Chair-Elect
Sanjib Basu, Northern Illinois University

Council of Sections Representative
Susan Simmons, The University of North Carolina at Wilmington

Social Statistics

Chair-Elect
Paul Beatty, U.S. Census Bureau

Program Chair-Elect
Asaph Young Chun, U.S. Census Bureau

Publications Officer
Morgan Earp, Bureau of Labor Statistics and The George Washington University

Statistical Computing

Chair-Elect
Juergen Symanzik, Utah State University

Program Chair-Elect
Hadley Wickham, RStudio and The University of Auckland

Publications Officer
Radu Herbei, The Ohio State University

Council of Sections Representative
Cheryl Flynn, AT&T Labs Research

Statistical Consulting

Chair-Elect
Kim Love, K.R. Love Quantitative Consulting and Collaboration

Publications Officer
Mary Kwasny, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Executive Committee-at-Large
Manisha Desai, Stanford University

Statistical Education

Chair-Elect
Beth Chance, Cal Poly

Council of Sections Representative
Erin Blankenship, University of Nebraska

Publications Officer
Ellen Kay Endriss, Career Center High School and Forsyth Community Emergency Response Team

Executive Committee-at-Large
Garrett Grolemund, RStudio
Rebecca Nugent, Carnegie Mellon University

Statistical Graphics

Chair-Elect
John (Jay) Emerson, Yale University

Program Chair-Elect
Isabella Ghement, Ghement Statistical Consulting Company Ltd.

Secretary/Treasurer
Charlotte Wickham, Oregon State University

Council of Sections Representative
Susan VanderPlas, Nebraska Public Power District

Statistical Learning and Data Science

Chair-Elect
Cynthia Rudin, MIT

Program Chair-Elect
R. Todd Ogden, Columbia University and New York State Psychiatric Institute

Council of Sections Representative
Benjamin Baumer, Smith College

Statistical Programmers and Analysts

Chair-Elect
Melvin Munsaka, Takeda Development Center North America, Inc.

Program Chair-Elect
Kuolung Hu, Amgen

Statistics and the Environment

Chair-Elect
Kathryn (Kathi) Irvine, U.S. Geological Survey

Program Chair-Elect
Erin Schliep, University of Missouri

Treasurer
Eunice Kim, Amherst College

Statistics in Defense and National Security

Chair-Elect
Arthur Fries, Institute for Defense Analyses

Program Chair-Elect
Robert Gramacy, The University of Chicago

Secretary/Treasurer
Rebecca Dickinson, Institute for Defense Analyses

Publications Officer
Joseph Warfield, The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory

Statistics in Epidemiology

Chair-Elect
Dylan Small, The Wharton School

Program Chair-Elect
Charles Hall, Albert Einstein College of Medicine

Council of Sections Representative
Diqiong Xie, FDA

Statistics in Genomics and Genetics

Chair-Elect
Debashis Ghosh, Colorado School of Public Health

Program Chair-Elect
Wenyi Wang, MD Anderson Cancer Center and Texas A&M

Statistics in Imaging

Chair-Elect
Nicole Lazar, University of Georgia

Program Chair-Elect
Lexin Li, University of California at Berkeley

Statistics in Marketing

Chair-Elect
Alan Montgomery, Carnegie Mellon University

Program Chair-Elect
Hui Lin, DuPont Pioneer

Secretary/Publications Officer
Adraine Upshaw, SAS Analytics BBVA Compass

Council of Sections Representative
Todd Sanger, Eli Lilly and Company

Statistics in Sports

Chair-Elect
Michael Schuckers, St. Lawrence University

Program Chair-Elect
Andrew Thomas, Minnesota Wild

Survey Research Methods

Chair-Elect
Karol Krotki, RTI International

Program Chair-Elect
Stas Kolenikov, Abt SRBI

Publications Officer
Tony An, SAS Institute

Education Officer
Rebecca Andridge, The Ohio State University

Treasurer
Steven Pedlow, NORC at the University of Chicago

Teaching of Statistics in the Health Sciences

Chair-Elect, 2017
Jeff Szychowski, University of Alabama at Birmingham