Hailing from Trinidad and Tobago, Charmaine B. Dean’s academic journey was shaped by her mother’s emphasis on getting an education, even though her mother was prevented from getting one herself. Dean’s affinity for mathematics, and particularly statistics, flourished during her undergraduate years and aligned with her desire to make a tangible impact. Currently, she provides strategic direction in research, innovation, and international collaboration at the University of Waterloo. She considers her engagement in interdisciplinary research one of her greatest achievements, particularly her research in fire science, which has allowed her to collaborate with scientists, government agencies, and fire crews.
The ASA announces the candidates for the 2024 election. Voting begins April 1 and runs through April 30.
Regina Liu grew up in Taiwan with an interest in pursuing applied mathematics and actuary science, but she fell in love with probability and statistics instead. She earned a PhD in statistics from Columbia University and became an assistant professor at Rutgers University. Now a distinguished professor at Rutgers, she has established herself as an outstanding researcher and is praised for providing exceptional service to the statistics and data science profession. She has served as an editor for many journals and was president of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics from 2020–2021. She has dedicated much effort to the outreach and promotion of junior researchers and under-represented groups and is credited for making the Rutgers Statistics Department the well-known and nurturing place it is today.
While a math student at Vassar, Deborah Nolan was first exposed to statistics during a summer internship during which she helped analyze data from a survey in a women’s magazine about how family life had changed as more women became breadwinners. That experience convinced her to stay away from statistics and stick with the comfortable world of theoretical math. After graduating, she worked for IBM and learned how to code in several languages. It was her work as an applications programmer that brought Nolan back to the world of statistics, and she went on to earn a PhD in the field. Since then, Nolan has earned multiple awards for her dedication to teaching, including the ASA Waller Distinguished Teaching Career Award and Berkley’s Distinguished Teaching Award. She co-developed the first data science course at Berkeley and played a pivotal role in designing the data science major, leading to the establishment of the College of Computing, Data Science, and Society. Currently serving as the inaugural associate dean, Nolan is instrumental in meeting the growing demand for data science education, with nearly 1,000 students graduating annually with a data science major from Berkeley.
Maria DeYoreo developed a passion for swimming, running, and math when she was a child living in the Bay Area in California. While majoring in mathematics at UC Santa Barbara, she discovered her love for statistics when she attended an applied course using R. As a professional statistician at RAND, DeYoreo focuses on using statistical methods to inform public policy related to health and health care. In addition to her professional success, DeYoreo takes pride in her role as a parent to two young children and recently achieving a personal running record of a 1:35 half marathon.
