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Meet Emilda B. Rivers, Director of the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics

1 March 2020 2,880 views No Comment

Emilda B. Rivers is the director of the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES), the principal statistical agency housed as a division within the National Science Foundation (NSF)’s Social, Behavioral, and Economic Directorate. NCSES serves as a clearinghouse for information about the US science and engineering enterprise, often in a global context.

Prior to her appointment as NCSES director, Rivers was the NCSES deputy director. She previously led the center’s largest program area: the Human Resources Statistics Program. She has also worked for the US Census Bureau and US Energy Information Administration.

In 2017, Rivers was named by Forbes as one of 25 Women Leading Data and Analytics in the US Government. She graduated top of her class in mathematics from South Carolina State University and has a Master of Science degree from the University of Maryland, College Park. 

What about this position appealed to you?

The opportunity to serve an organization that I love, carry out a mission I believe in, and follow my passion of connecting people with the statistical information they need to make decisions.

NCSES has an incredible staff, a unique position within NSF, and a future full of possibilities. As the National Science Foundation’s independent statistical agency, NCSES embraces new ideas, innovation, and research to provide policy-relevant policy-neutral information. As one of the principal federal statistical agencies, the center continually strives to maintain credibility and trust with our diverse statistical and scientific communities.

Leading NCSES appealed to my passion of communicating the value of NCSES statistics as our nation and world meet a variety of opportunities and challenges related to scientific research, statistics and methodology, R&D performance and funding, and the education and employment of scientists and engineers. Additionally, the Evidence Act creates a platform for statistical agencies to demonstrate value, and NCSES has a larger role than ever in supporting evidence-based decision-making.

Describe the top 2–3 priorities you have for the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics.

I am working on the following three priorities:

Bringing NCSES to “the table” to showcase the data and resources we can (and do) contribute to our domestic and international statistical and scientific communities. The Evidence Act and Federal Data Strategy provide a framework that has served as the foundation for federal statistical agencies since their inception—maximizing the public use of the data we collect. There are many exciting opportunities within this “new” framework. The President’s Management Agenda outlines several cross-agency priority goals, including leveraging data as a strategic asset, which strongly encourages agencies to liberate data within the legal requirements of protecting confidentiality and privacy. One of NCSES’s core activities is the education and training of researchers in the use of large-scale nationally representative data sets, which aligns with the administration’s priorities. We are charged with ensuring openness and transparency in federal statistics, which includes access to statistical micro-level data. NCSES is at the forefront of several efforts to provide restricted-use data in secure settings to data users who meet stringent data security requirements.

Exploring innovative approaches to increase data relevance, trust, and confidence in NCSES statistics. NCSES is interacting with our communities to convey mutual benefits and demonstrate nimbleness in addressing data gaps and conveying reliability of NCSES data analytics. To address declining response rates, data quality, and timeliness, we must continue to innovate our processes throughout the survey cycle. We are exploring the use of administrative records or alternate data sources to supplement or replace survey data, such as continued exploration for using business records and perhaps transaction data to supplement our business research and development survey.

Expanding NCSES products to include data visualizations and new topics of interest, specifically the skilled technical workforce and measuring innovation. You can have the greatest staff and the greatest data, but if people cannot see themselves reflected in our data, we are not being effective.

What do you see as the biggest challenge(s) for NCSES?

Growing a staff of ambassadors who are skilled not only in collecting and analyzing data but also in communicating the value of data (a common challenge for statistical agencies). In this era of “big data,” users can get metrics from a wide variety of sources. It is our responsibility, as a statistical agency, to provide high-quality, accurate data and the narrative around data needed for interpretation.

NCSES is full of experts who know the strengths and limitations of the data. As our nation and the world produces massive amounts of information, NCSES’s greatest challenge is continually finding effective ways to communicate the value of data on the US science and engineering enterprise, often in a global context.

What kind of support from the statistical community do you look for?

As a small principal statistical agency, we heavily rely on partnerships. First, from the community, we need individuals trained in data science, data architecture, and data engineering. We need help recruiting these people with these skill sets into the federal statistical service.

Second, we need help maximizing the utility of our data. We do not have the resources to be all things to all people, so we rely on our partners to use our data to answer their research or policy questions. Our partners help us get the data in the hands of decision makers such as graduate schools and R&D policymakers (domestic and international). We cannot reach the whole spectrum of data users without partnerships.

Third, there is a shift from survey data to administrative data as primary sources for many statistics. Our international partners have been working on this for a while, and as the US system makes this shift, we rely on our international partnerships for lessons learned.

Prior to your tenure, what do you see as the biggest recent accomplishment of the agency?

We set the bar high for our surveys, reports, and congressionally mandated reports. In particular, the voluminous Science and Engineering Indicator’s Report (Indicators) produced for and under the guidance of the National Science Board (NSB) was no longer sustainable in content and process. NCSES partnered with the NSB to narrow the scope of the report, which describes the state of the US science and engineering enterprise in a global context. NCSES “reimagined” the approximately 1,500-page print-focused report to a more digestible format of nine thematic reports of fewer than 50 pages each designed for a digital platform. NCSES also created data tools and a user-friendly website for Indicators. Reception of the “reimagined” Indicators has been positive.

NCSES successfully created a community around this product by communicating value to a wide range of stakeholders, including journalists, congressional staffers, and government officials at the State Department; Office of Science, Technology, and Policy; and Congressional Research Service, to name a few. This is one example of NCSES’s resilience and tenacity to accomplish its mission, despite only being a staff of about 50 people.

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