Affiliation: Director of Division of Biometrics IV in the Office of Biostatistics, Office of Translational Sciences, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, FDA
Educational Background: PhD, Emory University; MS, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; BS, Norfolk State University
Dionne Price was born and raised in Portsmouth, Virginia, a city in the southeastern part of the state. She always enjoyed applied mathematics in school; therefore, when she was awarded a scholarship in the Dozoretz National Institute for Minorities in Applied Sciences at Norfolk State University, she leapt at the opportunity. As part of the program, students were strongly encouraged to obtain summer internships, so she spent a summer working in a biostatistics unit of the National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Thus began her love of biostatistics. After completing her graduate studies at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Emory University, she went to work for the US Food and Drug Administration.
In Price’s current role, she provides leadership to statisticians involved in the development and application of methodology used in the regulation of anti-infective, anti-viral, ophthalmology, rare diseases, urology, and reproductive drug products. Her research interests are in the design and analyses of clinical trials. Price has co-authored papers in such journals as Statistics in Medicine, Clinical Trials, and Statistics in Biopharmaceutical Research. She leads cross-cutting, collaborative efforts across FDA to advance and facilitate the use of complex innovative trial designs in pharmaceutical drug development. Price’s effective communication, technical expertise, and keen understanding of regulatory policy have resulted in numerous invitations to represent the FDA on the latest statistical issues as a panel discussant, panel member, or the keynote or invited speaker at national and international conferences.
Price is an active member of the International Biometric Society (IBS), American Statistical Association, and FDA Statistical Association. She has served as chair of the ASA Biopharmaceutical Section, which boasts more than 2,000 members who share an interest in the application of statistics to the development and use of therapeutic drugs and devices in humans and animals. Price has also served on the Regional Advisory Board and Regional Committee of the Eastern North American Region of IBS. She was named an ASA Fellow in 2018 and has been elected as an ASA vice president.
As a plenary speaker at the 2019 Women in Statistics and Data Science conference, Price gave a talk titled, “Honor the Past, Celebrate the Present, and Envision the Future.” She concluded by sharing that she occasionally scribbles poems, though she does not consider herself a poet, including the following:
The Journey
I am that woman and that woman is me,
Acquiring knowledge, I’ve learned is the key,
I stand on the foundation planted long ago,
I’m rooted in numbers and love how they flow
Now is the present and data abounds,
Quantitative inclinations will need to astound,
And as we look to tomorrow and days to come,
May we solve global challenges, and still have some fun.
I am that woman and that woman is me
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