Affiliation: Senior Director in Lilly’s Global Statistical Sciences Department
Educational Background: PhD, Statistics, The Ohio State University; BA, Mathematics, University of Georgia
Brian A. Millen is responsible for the neuroscience therapeutic area and other programs in Lilly’s BioMedicines business unit. In this role, he provides input to clinical programs and strategy while leading the team of statisticians working in these areas.
Millen’s career at Lilly spans 19 years and multiple therapeutic areas and phases of drug development. Prior to his current role, Millen held multiple scientific leadership roles on Lilly’s research career path. These included leading statistics teams pursuing regulatory submission of new drugs, leading statistics teams in early clinical drug development, and consulting and driving improvements via statistical methods research. Millen’s primary research interests include multiple testing, methods to enable tailored therapeutics development, and adaptive design. His research in these areas has affected Lilly’s approaches to clinical trial analysis and design.
Millen’s impact on and passion for statistics extend beyond the walls of Lilly. For several years, he taught statistics courses through national organizations to nonstatistician colleagues in the pharmaceutical sector. Millen is an active member of the American Statistical Association and International Biometric Society (ENAR), where he has served in multiple leadership roles over the past 15 years. Currently, Millen is an executive committee member for the ASA Biopharmaceutical Section, for which he serves as elected Council of Sections representative and chair of the student scholarship committee.
Millen’s path to becoming a statistician stemmed from two important mentors while he was at the University of Georgia (UGA). He credits Darrel Philpot, who was a graduate student in statistics at UGA while Millen was an undergraduate math major there, with introducing him to statistics as a career option. And he credits his academic adviser, Kevin Clancey, with encouraging him to pursue a PhD in statistics upon completion of his math degree. Prior to Clancey’s influence, Millen had never considered a PhD.
While in graduate school in statistics at The Ohio State University, multiple faculty members invested significantly in Millen’s development. A few are Douglas Wolfe, Joseph Verducci, and Steven MacEachern. These individuals expanded Millen’s statistical thinking, supported his goals, celebrated his successes, and coached him through every low point. Reflecting on the role of mentors throughout his career, Millen notes, “Words have power! They can build people up or tear them down. I’m grateful to so many men and women who spoke constructively into my life and career journey. I’m committed to paying that forward through students and professionals I touch every day.” Millen is a mentor to multiple statisticians across the pharmaceutical industry, as well as graduate students in statistics or biostatistics programs.
Millen is also an advocate for diversity and inclusion. He brings this passion to his work for Lilly, the broader profession, and the Indianapolis community. He serves on Lilly Research Lab’s D&I Council, is past chair of and current adviser to the ASA Committee on Minorities in Statistics, is founder (2009) of the JSM Diversity Workshop and Mentoring Program , and is vice chair of the Board of Trustees for The Oaks Academy, a Christ-centered school committed to diversity.
Millen is a fellow of the American Statistical Association and lives in Indianapolis with his wife, Tracie, and their children, Christopher and Lindsey.
Millen’s Meaningful Quotes
“As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” Proverbs 27:17, NIV
“I’d rather see a sermon than hear one any day …” Edgar A. Guest
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