Born and raised in Lebanon, Amal Moussa holds a PhD in statistics, earned with distinction from Columbia University. Her thesis, “Contagion and Systemic Risk in Financial Networks,” shed light on the importance of the network structure in identifying systemic financial institutions and formulating regulatory policies and has been cited as a reference by former Federal Reserve president Janet Yellen. Moussa was also awarded the Minghui Yu Teaching Award at Columbia University.

When Anna Nevius took a statistics course her senior year in college, she knew it was the field she wanted to study. After earning her PhD in applied statistics from the University of Maryland, she landed a job at the US Food and Drug Administration Center for Veterinary Medicine in their biostatistics group. Having found her dream job, she spent the rest of her career there designing studies and improving the ways data is gathered for animals who cannot verbally respond. She has since retired but continues to mentor colleagues as a member of the ASA and Caucus for Women in Statistics. She also served on the ASA Board of Directors as Council of Sections representative in addition to serving as chair of the Biopharmaceutical Section.

Andrea Rau has always loved learning. When her grandfather introduced her to BASIC on his Apple IIC, she fell in love with coding, particularly because it called for both logical and creative thinking. During college, she worked with data from the National Bone Marrow Donor Program and found it so rewarding she filled the remainder of her bachelor’s degree with statistics courses, eventually earning her master’s and PhD in applied statistics. Rau accepted a permanent researcher position near Paris at the French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food, and the Environment after graduating and made France her permanent home. There, she enjoys being at the interface of statistics and biology, working with R packages, and mentoring students.

What appealed to Holly Shulman most about statistics was how it applied a mathematical approach to real-world problems. Consequently, her greatest passion has been developing the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS), a state-population-based surveillance system of maternal behaviors and attitudes before, during, and shortly after pregnancy. PRAMS data has led to improved health through programmatic and legislative efforts. Shulman also serves as co-lead of the Healthy People 2030 Maternal, Infant, and Child Health (MICH) workgroup. Valuing professional service, Shulman served as president of the Caucus for Women in Statistics in 1999 and was chair of the ASA Committee on Women in Statistics in 2000. She is motivated by and follows in the footsteps of many inspiring women before her and hopes to inspire those who come after her.

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