Affiliation:
International Statistical Institute, Queensland University of Technology

Educational Background:
BSc, Mathematics, University of Queensland
PhD, Statistics, University of Queensland

About Helen
Like many in statistics and data science, I didn’t set out to be a statistician, as I was intending to be a physicist, but discovered I was much more at home with statistical and probabilistic thinking. By the end of my honors degree in mathematics in Brisbane, Australia, I was captivated by the concepts, real-world problem-solving, and universality of statistics. Nor would I have predicted my passion for communicating statistics and where it would take me, with its data-driven approaches, real and rich contexts, importance across so many disciplines, learning environments that reflect the practice of statistics, and the explosion in technology. About 25 years ago, I had to choose between university leadership and professional and teaching leadership; I chose the latter to stay in the world of statistics and data science.

I am only the second female, and second Australian, to be president of the International Statistical Institute (ISI) in its 130-year history. I was an inaugural Australian Senior Learning and Teaching Fellow and the first female president and honorary life member of the Statistical Society of Australia. I also chaired the Australian Conferences on Teaching Statistics and served as president of the International Association for Statistical Education.

I am currently editor of Teaching Statistics and a principal fellow of the Higher Education Academy. My work in teaching; teaching leadership; and curricula design across multiple disciplines, class sizes, and educational levels received recognition and support through national awards and grants. My university teaching has ranged from large (up to 600) classes across all engineering, life, health and physical sciences, and technology to specialist courses at honors and postgraduate levels. My publications include textbooks; book chapters; and keynote, invited, and refereed papers on authentic learning and assessment in statistics, quantitative learning support, and statistical research in distributional properties.

I have chaired reviews across Australia and internationally and worked as a consultant in Australia and the UK. My innovations over many years include founding and directing university-wide math access centers, symposia in statistical thinking, and developmental programs in university teaching and communication of statistics. I have also been much involved in mathematics and statistics school curricula, resources, assessment, professional development for teachers, and a variety of extension and enrichment programs for many thousands of secondary school students.

My occupations now are in honorary international professional positions and as a grandmother to seven grandchildren, having retired from employment as a professor in statistics and director at the Queensland University of Technology Maths Access Centre.

I consider among my greater accomplishments having been a pioneer and leader in how statistics is viewed and in teaching where it matters—at the frontline. Across all my work—as counselor, teacher, professor, discipline leader, director, consultant—and professional presidencies and editorial positions, the most exciting aspects have been to make a difference to hundreds of thousands of students, staff in statistics and other disciplines, colleagues nationally and across the world, employers, school teachers and authorities, authors, and publishers.