Stephanie Zimmer
Research Statistician, RTI International

Educational Background
PhD, Statistics, Iowa State University
BS, Statistics, North Carolina State University

Stephanie Zimmer is a research statistician at RTI International. She developed an interest in statistics when she took AP Statistics in high school while attending the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics (NCSSM). The introduction to statistics at NCSSM and high demand for statisticians led Zimmer to pursue a statistics degree at North Carolina State University.

While attending NC State, Zimmer was a Joint Program in Survey Methodology Junior Fellow at the University of Maryland, which provided her with exposure to survey statistics and methodology. She also gained work experience interning at the Energy Information Administration (EIA), working on the Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS). Zimmer’s mentor and supervisor at EIA, Eileen O’Brien, helped pave the way for a professional career in survey statistics and an internship with the USDA-NASS Raleigh office during Zimmer’s final year of undergraduate studies.

Zimmer then began the statistics PhD program at Iowa State University (ISU), where she completed her dissertation work on stratification under the supervision of Jae-kwang Kim, Zhengyuan Zhu, and Sarah Nusser. As a graduate student, she worked on several survey projects for the Center for Survey Statistics and Methodology at ISU, including the National Resources Inventory and June Area Survey for the USDA.

Zimmer joined RTI International in Durham, North Carolina, as a research statistician after finishing her studies at ISU. One of her first projects was with RECS, which made life come full circle for her. Zimmer works on many projects with the Bureau of Justice Statistics at RTI, including surveys of prisoners, prisons, law enforcement agencies, and victims. She enjoys mentoring other statisticians in her group, particularly in learning R. She is involved in the Research Triangle Chapter of R-Ladies and the North Carolina Chapter of the ASA.