Developing Leaders, Growing Community, and Ensuring a Diverse Profession

Dionne Swift and Brian Millen

Diversity Mentoring group

Members of the JSM Diversity Workshop and Mentoring Program (DWMP) Planning Committee gathered at the Denver Hilton on the morning of July 28. In the coming hour, they would greet more than 110 statisticians and data scientists, there to participate in the 10th anniversary of the program. The committee members had spent months recruiting speakers and mentors, setting the agenda, screening applicants, and securing needed funding. It was time to see it all come together.

Over the next 10 hours and coming days, students and early- to mid-career professionals from underrepresented groups engaged in interactive sessions such as the following:

• Success in Graduate School
• Transformational Leadership
• Career Success: Tips and Traps
• Influencing Without Authority
• Strategic Networking
• Developing Successful Mentoring Relationships
• Effective Presentation Skills
• Building Your Online Brand
• Interview and Career Search Tips

Renee Moore of Emory University, Lloyd Edwards of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and Elvis Martinez of Travelers Insurance shared lessons from struggles they endured during their career journeys and encouraged participants to embrace the message in each challenge they face, leverage mentors, and persevere through adversity.

DWMP speakers and panelists included established and emerging leaders in the statistics profession. Among them were Sally Morton (ASA president, 2009), Sastry Pantula (ASA president, 2010), Dionne Price (ASA vice president-elect, 2021), Rob Santos (ASA president-elect, 2021), and leaders from other statistics/biostatistics societies, as well as academic chairs and senior leaders from the government and private sectors. Notably, multiple alumni of the program served as speakers or panelists, underscoring the impact the program has had on developing today’s leaders.

Overall, 34 mentor-mentee pairs were matched for 1-1 mentoring sessions, making this the largest DWMP to date. Reflecting on the program, DWMP Co-Chair Brian Millen remarked, “While the growth of the program and the many firsts realized on this 10th anniversary are significant, what’s most important is what those statistics represent: Our profession is growing stronger—with an engaged and diverse population base whose impact will be tremendous! We look forward to the program’s continued impact on our profession for many years to come, and we are grateful for the many individuals and organizations who have served or supported the program over the past 10 years. Together, we are ensuring a bright future for our profession.”

For more information about the JSM Diversity Workshop and Mentoring Program, contact Dionne Swift, chair of the ASA Committee on Minorities in Statistics. Also, visit the ASA community to view the 2019 DWMP agenda, including session abstracts.