Staff Spotlight: James Earle

Hey, everyone! I’m the ASA’s new marketing and communications coordinator. I work on our emails and online content, such as Amstat News and STATtr@k, and I help promote the ASA’s events and initiatives. There’s so much going on here, and it’s wonderful being part of it and learning about this community.

I was born and raised in Massachusetts, just south of Boston, and studied biochemistry at the University of Massachusetts Amherst before realizing halfway through the program I was more excited to talk about research than to be in the lab. A few years later, I walked away with a degree in political science and I have been working in organizing and communications for nonprofits ever since.

My previous work was in politics, but it was your work as statisticians and data scientists that lured me to the ASA. Statistics and data science are driving national conversations about government, industry, and culture, so it’s a privilege to help get more people engaged in those conversations by promoting the practice and profession of statistics.

I have lived in Washington, DC, for two years with my longtime partner and high-school sweetheart, Jaclyn, plus our cat, Camille (who thinks she’s a dog). I spend most of my time at home binge-watching shows and comedy specials on Netflix, playing video games, planning the next weekly D&D session, and attempting to renovate the house.

When I want to get away from the city, I’ll zip off to a cabin in the woods of upstate New York on Lake Champlain, or I’ll go for a hike in the Berkshires and White Mountains of New England. I’m looking into making the Blue Ridge Mountains my new stomping ground, though—the central Appalachians are gorgeous. My fondness for hiking, running, and rowing also help me justify a hopeless infatuation with cheese, wine, and cooking large meals.

I look forward to meeting many of you at JSM 2016 in Chicago, but if you want to say hello now, you can find me on Twitter @James_Amstat or email me at james@amstat.org. I still have much to learn about statistics and the ASA, and I couldn’t ask for better teachers than you all in the ASA community!