Kimberly S. Weems

Affiliation: Department of Mathematics and Physics, North Carolina Central University
Educational Background: PhD, Applied Mathematics, University of Maryland College Park; MA, Applied Mathematics, University of Maryland College Park; BS, Mathematics, Spelman College

Kimberly S. Weems is a statistician and associate professor of mathematics at North Carolina Central University (NCCU) in Durham. A native of Georgia, she earned her BS in mathematics with a minor in Spanish from Spelman College, where she developed an interest in statistics after taking classes with Nagambal Shah. Next, she earned her MA and PhD in applied mathematics with a concentration in statistics from the University of Maryland College Park under the guidance of Paul Smith. Her research interests include statistical models for count data that exhibit data dispersion, and she enjoys collaborating on projects with Kimberly F. Sellers of Georgetown University, her friend and research mentor.

Weems completed postdoctoral studies in the North Carolina State University Department of Statistics, where she later joined the faculty and served for two years as co-director of statistics graduate programs. There, she met several statisticians who have guided her throughout her career, including Dennis Boos, Jackie Hughes-Oliver, and Sastry Pantula. Since moving to NCCU in 2015, Weems has been instrumental in enhancing the graduate mathematics curriculum with statistics courses. She is the 2017 recipient of the College of Arts and Sciences Excellence in Teaching Award.

One of Weems’s goals at NCCU is to increase the number of students who pursue graduate degrees and careers in the statistical sciences. She is co-director of the NCCU-NC State Bridge-to-PhD program, an interdisciplinary, NSF-funded traineeship that equips students with advanced statistical methods for analyzing atomic-scale data. She strives to expose her students to a variety of areas in statistics and data science, and she encourages her students to pursue the path that inspires them, as she thinks this will lead to the happiest and most productive careers.

Weems’s service to the statistics community, and more broadly STEM communities, includes serving as an advisory board member of the Infinite Possibilities Conference for women of color in mathematics and statistics. Also, she is the NCCU representative to the Statistical and Applied Mathematical Sciences Institute’s (SAMSI’s) Diversity and Inclusion partnerships and initiatives. Previously, she served as a member of the ASA’s Committee on Minorities in Statistics, member and chair of the ASA’s Edward C. Bryant Scholarship Committee, and organizer and panelist for StatFest.