Alex Dmitrienko of Mediana, Ilya Lipkovich of Eli Lilly, and Paul Gallo of Novartis

Being elected an ASA Fellow is an important milestone in the career of a professional statistician. ASA fellowship has been an honor for numerous members of the Biopharmaceutical Section (BIOP). Figure 1 presents the number of elected ASA Fellows (total and BIOP members) since 1967.

As can be inferred from the graph, about 15% of ASA Fellows elected in recent years were BIOP members. We chose 1967 as the starting point because this is when the first BIOP member was elected: Edmund A. Gehan, professor emeritus of biostatistics at Georgetown University. Note it was not until 1981 that the BIOP subsection was inducted into the ASA as a full section.

To become a fellow, an ASA member is nominated by another member and the nomination is supported by three (recently reduced from four) individuals, most commonly ASA members. The nomination package and letters of recommendation are due March 1, when they are reviewed by the ASA Committee on Fellows. Decisions are typically announced in April, and the award ceremony is held at JSM, normally on Tuesday night after the ASA President’s Address.

Here, several section members—including two authors of this article—provide a summary of key points from their experiences as nominees, describe what they learned while nominating others, and share advice for those considering nomination. Many have a long history of successful ASA Fellow nominations, and some have served on the ASA Committee on Fellows. This includes Ivan Chan, Christy Chuang-Stein, Paul Gallo, and Stephen Ruberg. (Chan currently serves on this ASA committee.)

If you have questions related to the nomination process, contact Ilya Lipkovich, who currently serves as the chair of the section’s fellows nomination committee. Also, the section will be offering an ASA-sponsored webinar, “ASA Fellow Nomination for Biopharmaceutical Statisticians: Strategies and Tactics,” on September 17.

Bruce Binkowitz, Shionogi, ASA Fellow 2015

I was fortunate to have a very experienced sponsor for my nomination and consider being an ASA Fellow one of the greatest honors of my career. My sponsor taught me so much that I also learned how to write impactful supporting letters and how to sponsor a potential new ASA Fellow. I carried my experience successfully forward.

When I was nominated, my sponsor told me how it was going to go from the start, and there were no surprises. Start early by going through the application and thinking about what you want to put into each section of the nomination form. What are your strengths and weaknesses? Which sections in the application are your strengths? Write down everything you can think of and worry about the word limits later.

I learned it is not only important to think about who will write my letters of recommendation, but it is just as important how to use those letters of recommendation. The letters should be used to go deeper into accomplishments from the various sections of the application. The nomination form has a limit on how much can be written in each section. The recommendation letters can be the “extra space” you need and supplement a specific section, so tying a letter to a section in the application works well.

Also, the diversity of the letters of recommendation matters. Getting all your letters from current coworkers isn’t likely to impress the ASA Committee on Fellows. Are you a statistician in the pharmaceutical industry? Letters from FDA statisticians and academic statisticians can be a well-rounded package. Do you have a major accomplishment that needed collaboration with nonstatisticians? If the nonstatistician has a good reputation, perhaps such a letter from them can boost your package.

For most candidates, it is unlikely that everyone on the committee will know who you are, so the recommendation letters say a lot about who knows you. If you have well-respected ASA Fellow statisticians writing you letters, their credibility rubs off on your application. In addition, an extra letter may be helpful, one more than required. You then have the option to leave one out when submitting the package.

You and your sponsor should discuss where each letter fits in, and when asking someone to write a letter, you can suggest areas of focus. When requesting letters of recommendation, give the writers plenty of time (2–3 months) to write and request them to be completed well before the deadline. You can submit the packages well ahead of the deadline, when the reviewers can take the time to review the package on its own, as opposed to the bolus received at the deadline.

If you are sponsoring a nomination package, get more eyes on that package. Use your network to reach out to others who have successfully sponsored someone or used to serve on the ASA Committee on Fellows and have them read the package and give opinions. As a sponsor, you may get too close to the package, and other perspectives will strengthen it.

I have also learned that it is never too early to start planning to be an ASA Fellow. For example, this is an ASA fellowship, so what have you done for the ASA? If nothing, planning ahead to get some involvement sets you up well later on. You don’t have to be spectacular in every section of the nomination form, but understand what the sections are, identify your strengths, and decide if you need to address any weaker areas. If you are a statistical leader and mentor, discuss with your mentees the idea of becoming a fellow in the future and building a plan toward that goal.

Of course, some people never think about it, don’t plan for it, but have built strong enough accomplishments at the time of application. That was me. I was lucky, but learned that applying to be a fellow is something you can actively plan for since there is no downside to thinking about it ahead of time. And for those of us lucky enough to be an ASA Fellow, helping younger statisticians plan for their goal is a rewarding endeavor.

Ivan Chan, AbbVie, ASA Fellow 2011, ASA Committee on Fellows 2018–2020

The ASA Fellows nomination package lists several categories of contributions that may be considered, including statistical applications, administration of statistical activities, teaching, research, and service to the profession (ASA and other statistical societies). When preparing the nomination package, it is not required to fill in all categories. Instead, it is recommended to focus on the categories in which the nominee’s contributions are outstanding. The ASA Fellows website offers lots of useful advice for preparing the package. Here, I offer additional tips to help strengthen the nomination based on my experiences with the ASA Committee on Fellows.

When describing the nominee’s contribution, it is important to tell the story of the contribution and its impact, such as the challenge, innovation/novelty of the research, or application of statistical methods. For research contributions, one can include statistical methodology and development of software for implementing new statistical methods. It is good to not only include the number of publications, but also talk about the impact in terms of the number of citations (or how widely the software is used) and applications of the methods or software to solve real-life problems.

Many statisticians working in the biopharmaceutical industry are making significant contributions to drug development in a variety of capacities. For example, development or innovative application of statistical methods may have led to better data analysis and interpretation, identification of predictive genomic signatures and biomarkers, better decision-making on drug candidates, acceleration of clinical trials, and/or faster approval of new drugs. In addition, ASA fellowship recognizes organizational leadership for someone who has created a positive environment that fosters scientific excellence, innovation, influence, and the growth of statisticians in the organization. It will be important to tell the story of how the nominee’s contributions have significantly impacted the drug development or growth of the statistical organization.

Regarding service to the profession, involvement in ASA leadership activities is considered incredibly important, especially for statisticians residing in the US. Activities in other statistical societies are helpful, as well. There are many ways statisticians can get involved in the ASA (e.g., participating in local ASA chapters, the Biopharmaceutical Section, and multiple ASA committees). For international members, it is useful to describe the leadership activities connecting with the ASA’s mission of international outreach in addition to the activities in their country. As a general guideline, for example, chairing a local chapter or special interest section, serving on an editorial board of a journal, or serving on a major meeting’s program committee is considered an outstanding contribution to the profession. Be sure to include professional activities in the CV and highlight them in the nomination package.

Recommendation letters should be written by experts who know the nominee’s work and can provide accurate assessment of the contributions. It is a good strategy to have the letters covering different aspects of the nominee’s contributions, so that they will provide—in aggregate—strong support to the overall nomination. Also, supporting letters from ASA Fellows tend to carry more weight, as the letter writers have already gone through the rigorous nomination process.

Christy Chuang-Stein, Chuang-Stein Consulting LLC, ASA Fellow 1998, ASA Committee on Fellows 2008–2010

I have served on the ASA Committee on Fellows and many other award committees sponsored by statistical professional organizations. I have also nominated individuals for ASA Fellow and written supporting letters for many nominees. Based on my cumulative experience, I would like to offer some suggestions for an individual who is considering nominating a colleague now or in the future. Needless to say, all suggestions below require input from the candidate prior to implementation.

• Identify individuals who are truly familiar with the candidate’s work and are willing to spend time writing letters that describe the influence and impact of the candidate’s contributions. Specific examples of influence and impact are particularly helpful.
• Coordinate with the letter writers to take a divide-and-conquer approach to covering different categories in Section IX (Supporting Statements) of the nomination form. One writer may focus on Subsection D (Teaching and Dissemination of Statistical Knowledge) while another might focus on Subsection E (Statistical Research). This strategy allows in-depth discussions of a candidate’s contributions in diverse areas.
• Plan ahead for the candidate’s contributions in Subsection F (Activities Related Only to the American Statistical Association). Since the honor is bestowed by the ASA, it is important that a candidate has made substantial contributions to the ASA. Contributions can take many forms, including being an officer of an ASA chapter/section, a member of the organizing committee of a prominent ASA meeting (e.g., the Joint Statistical Meetings), program chair of the ASA Biopharmaceutical Section Regulatory-Industry Statistics Workshop, and a member of the editorial board of an ASA journal or the section’s Biopharmaceutical Report.
• Discuss with the candidate how to address Section VIII (List of Major Publications Containing Statistical Content). Publications with substantial statistical contributions are typically required. Statisticians who aspire to be nominated for ASA fellowship one day should plan early in their career to establish a track record on publications.

Paul Gallo, Novartis, ASA Fellow 2014, ASA Committee on Fellows 2016–2018

I had the honor of being a member of the ASA Committee on Fellows and served as its chair during the last year of my term. This rewarding experience gave me a valuable perspective on how to make a good case for nominees.

A successful nomination package is often the result of a close collaboration between the nominator and nominee to clearly and most compellingly convey the candidate’s achievements. Most potential fellows are nominated at a point in their careers in which their record of accomplishments first reaches a level that makes them viable candidates. Many successful nominees will, at a later point in the career, look like obvious choices, but that’s not necessarily the case when their nominations first come before the committee. The committee thus works extremely intensively each spring to understand and distinguish between nominees who overall may seem similarly viable.

This is complicated by the fact that nominees have varied sets of backgrounds and achievements across varied spheres of experience (academic, industry, government, etc.). The committee is also diverse in this sense. In my experience, committee members worked together conscientiously and cooperatively to help each other understand the achievements of candidates whose experiences were in different settings. A clear, complete, well-organized nomination package that appropriately emphasizes the candidate’s strongest areas of achievement will play a key role in a successful nomination.

One general piece of advice is that the nomination package should not sound like a “job description.” Literally thousands of ASA members hold important positions that their skills and experiences have qualified them for, and they perform their roles well. Describing in a general manner the background that led nominees to their current position or responsibilities they have in that position may not distinguish them from others who hold similar positions in other organizations.

The committee commonly sees nonspecific phrases with flowery adjectives describing their candidates’ attributes (e.g., “an outstanding instructor,” “an insightful consultant who gets to the heart of the matter,” “communicates extremely clearly,” “a great motivator of his/her staff,” “a valued mentor”). That may all be quite true but it’s good to keep in mind that nearly all nominations contain such phrases. The most effective packages provide specific details or illustrations that make clear to the committee why the claim is particularly and unusually true for their candidate. The supporting letters are often a good place for this.

It should not necessarily be assumed that statisticians automatically receive credit for favorable or meaningful results in important data analysis activities in which they were involved. Using the pharmaceutical industry as an example, several statisticians may have played roles in the development or approval processes of an important therapy. But does that in itself necessarily demonstrate a nominee’s contribution was vital? Perhaps the data were sufficiently strong to largely speak for themselves. But if it can be described how a statistician directly influenced the use of a novel or nonstandard study design or cutting-edge analysis method that played a key role in the development of that treatment, the case will be much stronger.

Section IX (Supporting Statements) of the nomination form includes seven subcategories we can summarize as: 1) applications / consultation: results; 2) applications / consultation: methods; 3) administration; 4) teaching; 5) research; 6) ASA service; and 7) other (including non-ASA professional service). Few, if any, candidates can excel in all areas, and most nominees’ cases will be carried on the strength of their strongest few areas. Thus, it is not required that all sub-sections of Section IX be filled out.

Among the subsections, the importance of the “service” category cannot be overlooked. While this category rarely carries a successful candidacy entirely, the committee will generally be looking for evidence of meaningful service. This is consistent with the charge the committee receives from the ASA Board of Directors and ASA constitution. Broadly, we might think of “service” as meaningful activity benefiting the statistical community, with strong emphasis on ASA-related activities, that goes beyond one’s employment responsibilities. This can take many forms, including: ASA chapter or section office or meaningful chapter/section activity; membership on ASA committees; journal editorial positions (by the way, refereeing several journal articles will generally not be viewed as meaningful service); leadership role in the organization of important conferences; impactful contributions to important working groups; and impactful outreach activities of statistics to other fields or communities.

Supporting letters are an important part of the package. Certainly, it’s helpful to obtain letters from prominent individuals in our field. But if letters only dryly repeat details provided elsewhere in the package, they will usually add little strength. The most effective letters provide some “backstory,” or deeper behind-the-scenes perspective from someone in position to know, about how or why a nominee’s achievements were impactful—details that might not fully come across elsewhere in the nomination package where space is limited.

For example, a recognized technical subject matter expert might describe why a nominee’s research papers in their area were a particular breakthrough (because the nominee came up with key insights that advanced practice or research); the leader of a working group might write convincingly about how a nominee had a driving role in the group’s accomplishments, came up with key ideas the group put forth, or was its designated spokesperson at public forums; a chapter president might describe another officer’s specific impactful contributions that enhanced chapter activities; or a journal editor-in-chief might describe an associate editor’s unique editorial contributions.

Details are always important. As mentioned previously, most packages contain broad statements with superlative adjectives, but the nominations that support these with concrete examples and illustrations can make the package much more compelling to the committee.

Ilya Lipkovich, Eli Lilly, ASA Fellow 2018

Becoming an ASA Fellow is one of the most significant and rewarding steps in my career as a statistician. Whether successful or not, however, the nomination process is important in itself for setting a stage where one can reflect on his or her contributions to the profession.

The nomination form defines multiple categories, and the nomination process is like putting together a promotional dossier. It motivates the nominee to think about where and how he or she made a difference and how its impact could be measured.

Most importantly, someone—preferably an ASA Fellow—should recognize the impact and be willing to write a supporting letter. This means more than recognition of academic achievements (research being just one of the categories by which a candidate is evaluated). A letter of recommendation from another ASA Fellow means the applicant established credibility that cannot be obtained by anything but years of dedicated work serving the community.

The many ways we influence, help, motivate, educate, and develop other people in the statistical community may often go unnoticed by us, but not by those whom we help and serve. We may give someone only a 10-minute consultation on what methods to use, while we form long-term professional relationships with others. People whose names I may now even struggle to recall have phoned or emailed me to say “thank you” for giving them advice or help with writing or debugging a piece of code, deriving a formula, or explaining how to deal with a difficult statistical problem.

In the nomination process, of course, you had better remember such people, since they might be the most willing to support your nomination. Frankly, the most delightful part for me was not that I was elected an ASA Fellow, but that I managed to earn credibility with very fine statisticians who supported my nomination.

Bill Pikounis, Johnson & Johnson, ASA Fellow 2014

My path from a nominee to the acceptance into the 2014 class of ASA Fellows covered several years. I was first approached by a longtime colleague and pleasantly surprised and honored to be even considered a potential nominee. But my instinct told me I was not ready yet, particularly with respect to service to both the statistics profession and the ASA. It has been mentioned how critical it is to hold, act, and accomplish as an officer or representative in an ASA section or chapter, for example. Tangible results matter.

I returned to the thought a couple years later and decided to take full ownership. I approached multiple longtime colleagues to gauge their perspectives. I felt one individual colleague was a clear choice to ask to be my nominator, and that person graciously agreed. I knew they would only do it if they felt my application would be worthy and stand a good chance of being successful. For the remaining colleagues, I asked each of them to consider writing a letter of support. I tried to have the letters sourced from different dimensions of my career, which has only been in positions at pharmaceutical companies: health care industry; academic; service; and regulatory interactions. One interesting footnote was that I did not rely on any current colleagues at my company for a letter of support. I asked a client manufacturing R&D area vice president who I had worked with on successful filings for new medicines. Like my nominator, I knew this person would be rational and represent my value accurately and persuasively.

I felt it was important to clear the path for my nominator and other colleagues in putting together the package. I spent one fully focused day in early January 2014 preparing a draft form I could fill in as much as possible before sending it to my nominator. I also made sure by that time to have connected my nominator to those colleagues who agreed to write letters of support. With the deadline of March 1 that year for application, I was then able to follow the lead of my nominator, who was conscientious to follow up with colleagues who had agreed to write letters, and prepare and submit the application well ahead of the deadline. There were just a couple check-ins between my nominator and me to clarify questions and keep progressing.

More recently, I have experienced the role of being a nominator and a support letter writer. While I am forever grateful that my own nomination was accepted the first time,

I have now seen the other side, where nominations were not accepted. I have felt disappointed for my nominees as if it were my own nomination. There is no individual feedback provided by the ASA Committee on Fellows to nominators or nominees on why the application was not accepted.

Time remains on our side, though, as the fellows review cycle is well established and executed on an annual basis. Hope remains if you think the application was worthy and based on reasonable, objective evidence in the first place.

In my own case as a nominator, I will continue to connect with colleagues who can advise based on their experiences, including ones who agreed to provide letters of support on the first try. They are glad to help again. Concurrently, the nominee must continue to take ownership, improve upon their qualifications, and seek advice from their networks to build a sufficiently strong application for next time.

Stephen Ruberg, Analytix Thinking, ASA Fellow 1994, ASA Committee on Fellows 2012–2014

ASA fellowship is an honor for our profession and a source of pride for recipients. As one who has successfully nominated multiple candidates, I can also say there is a sense of satisfaction that comes with a successful nomination, as well. As with many activities in life, success can depend on an intentional approach and a strategic plan.

As a nominator, I have a playbook, a strategy, a plan, or a template—whichever you may want to call it. It goes like this:

Identify a good and deserving candidate. It helps to identify people you know who have been elected ASA Fellow and understand what they have done to achieve this honor. Then, you and your candidate can assess whether they measure up. I have discussed candidacy with some individuals and pointed out they may not be ready for nomination and also identified those areas where they could bolster their accomplishments to become a worthy candidate.

Discuss with your candidate their key strengths and contributions. I usually like to focus on 3–4 key areas in which they have made strong contributions to the profession and the ASA. These could be research/publications, service on ASA committees, organizing professional meetings, teaching/mentoring statisticians, leadership within their employer organization, etc.

Identify other ASA Fellows who would be willing to write a letter of support for your candidate. I strongly recommend they all be ASA Fellows. At times, I have even solicited a few additional letters and chose the best letters to put into the nomination.

An important aspect of the supporting letters is they be complementary in the material they cover. Each letter writer should be aligned with 1–2 of the key strengths/areas you have selected. Then, as a nominator, I write a letter of “instructions” to the letter writers. The basic instructions I give for structuring their letter are the following:

• First paragraph: Describe how you know the candidate and for how long. This establishes credibility that the writer can speak with authority about the candidate’s qualifications.
• Second/Third paragraph: Use a full paragraph to cover each assigned area/strength. Those paragraphs should be explicit with contributions; contain concrete examples; and ultimately end with the value, impact, or influence of the candidate’s work.
• Final paragraph: This is where the letter writer is free to add other personal comments. This might include other notable qualities of the candidate (e.g., they are open-minded, curious, easy to work with, a good leader, etc.).
• Closing statement: The writer should make a definitive statement or two affirming the candidate is deserving of ASA Fellow.

The supporting statements in Section IX are the longest and most detailed part of the nomination form and allow considerable room for elaborating on the nominee’s contributions. It is not required to fill in each of the subsections, but a deserving candidate should have something notable to discuss in many of the subsections.

The key elements here are to discuss what is novel, above-and-beyond the call of their job/role, or demonstrates technical or administrative leadership and how those contributions were valuable, impactful, or influential to their employer, the profession, or society. As with the letters, it is more important to describe concrete examples to support your claims of the candidate’s contributions. One good example described in more detail that highlights the candidate’s contributions to an endeavor is more important than many short, vague sentences.

If a candidate has many examples in one section of the nomination, a second example may be highlighted, but there are some size constraints on the supporting statements. A general statement at the end of the section can state, for example, “There are many other examples similar to the above where the candidate provided excellent leadership for the development and approval of drug x, drug y, and drug z, which span multiple therapeutic areas. This shows the diversity and breadth of knowledge and influence of the candidate.”

This is also where statements from the additional letters (if you have any) can be incorporated. I have often used quotes from such letters in the supporting statements while pointing out who made those statements. Furthermore, there are times when I have solicited email notes from others who know the candidate to get some additional positive statements and supporting material. This might be a chapter president, a co-author of a paper, a regulator, or another academic. This helps convey to the ASA Committee on Fellows that there is broad support for the candidate.

Finally, I suggest using meaningful adjectives and adverbs in the write-up without going “over the top.” For example, use “excellent leadership,” or “considerable organizational skills” or “innovative insights,” etc. Again, a few well-placed qualifiers convey the candidate’s contributions and personal qualities.

I hope this guideline helps others organize a thoughtful, cohesive nomination package for the candidate. Allowing the ASA Committee on Fellows to see influential and impactful contributions from several directions and in several different dimensions of our profession will give the nominee the best chance of success in the committee deliberations.

Lanju Zhang , AbbVie, ASA Fellow 2019

ASA fellowship is a significant career milestone and therefore a great honor for any statistician. However, for most nominees, this honor will not come like a Nobel Prize award, delivered by a surprise phone call without one’s own involvement. Instead, it is more like a campaign for a public office, and the nominee needs to take the lead in planning, organizing the nomination team, preparing the package, and managing the whole process with the nominator. I just finished this process and luckily was awarded this honor. In the following, I would like to share some of my learnings with future candidates.

Identify key contributions and draft a citation. It is important to remember a candidate may not and does not have to excel in all the features described. As an industry statistician, I didn’t include any information about teaching or mentoring in my package. The candidate should select features in which he or she has made significant contributions and, since there is a space limit, this strategy can leave enough space to spotlight the candidate’s strengths.

Second, the citation will help determine how the candidate should prepare the package, select the letter writers, and essentially define the nomination. My citation included contributions to three areas (nonclinical statistics, adaptive designs, and professional service) and the package focused on how to substantiate the citation with examples.

Find highly influential references. Check all your professional connections and acquaintances to identify those who know you best and are willing to write a strong supporting letter. The letters should corroborate what is included in the package from a subject-matter expert’s perspective. In addition, it is extremely helpful if the letters can complement the package, instead of repeating the information presented in the package. If possible, choose references from both academia and industry. My nomination package was supported by three industry experts and an academic expert.

Start early and take ownership. It is critical to start the nomination process early. Some potential references could have already committed to other candidates. The best timing may be around late July or early August. It is important to take ownership. It is difficult to overstate the importance of the nominator who provides strategic oversight of the nomination, but the candidate should not expect to just hand over the CV to the nominator and sit back. The candidate needs to work closely with the nominator to prepare the best package.

I want to reiterate that only a few candidates are elected each year. The outcome doesn’t only depend on the strength of the candidate’s package but also on all the other candidates’ packages. So be prepared for both possible outcomes. If you are not elected, this is a good opportunity to find out more about your strengths and weaknesses and then develop a strategy to overcome the weaknesses and win the next time.

Kelly H. Zou, Pfizer Upjohn, ASA Fellow 2012

As a working statistician in the health care industry, the experience of the ASA Fellow nomination has made me realize the importance of several elements, including (1) impact, (2) influence, and (3) leadership.

To elaborate on these points, it is important to demonstrate the impact for drug development and quantitative analytics. This challenge or hurdle, however, for those working in industry is that the bulk of the work tends to be confidential and proprietary. One way is to consider becoming a Professional Accredited Statistician or, even earlier, a Graduate Accredited Statistician through the ASA. The accreditation process “testifies that there is a body of knowledge known as statistics acquired through formal education, work experience, and ongoing professional development activities. Accreditation provides a measure of assurance to employers, contractors, and collaborators of statisticians and a mark of accomplishment to society at large.” I went through this accreditation process well before I was nominated for ASA Fellow.

The second element is influence, more broadly through peer-reviewed publications, conference presentations and posters, and authorship in internal and external newsletters such as Amstat News. Fortunately, I had a career transition from academia to industry, which provided me a good foundation in research methodology and informed decision-making. By keeping book-smart and application-savvy, the nominee can possess skillsets for developing manuscripts and getting articles published through the rigor of the peer-review system in both statistical and subject-matter journals. In addition, sharing knowledge through the Biopharmaceutical Section’s various venues—such as podcasts, webinars, and newsletters—is both beneficial for improved patient care and satisfying as an applied statistician and data scientist.

Last, it is also important to actively participate through leadership in the statistical or data science community. This is particularly important for us women who have faced the glass ceiling. In other words, there are opportunities to raise one’s hand and roll up the sleeves to volunteer as an ASA officer through a section, committee, or local chapter; a conference organizing committee member; an invited session organizer; or a session chair. This may take long hours and hard work during the nominee’s spare time, but the leadership skills can be extremely valuable and transferrable to future career-related roles. For example, I actively served on ASA committees and participated in section work through several officer roles.

Several tips I gathered are as follows:

• Explore citation counts and impact factors through Google Scholar (e.g., one of my coauthored articles has been cited nearly 1,500 times).
• Work with the nominators to provide information useful for the nomination narratives and keep résumés well-crafted and up to date.
• Be hopeful but do keep a realistic and positive attitude since there can be a large pool of highly qualified nominees.

My advice to those who would like to be nominated is the following:

• Start early in your career to be an excellent statistician and engaging leader.
• Collaborate with stakeholders and ASA community members as a volunteer throughout the years.
• Be a mentee and a mentor for self-awareness and for paying it forward, respectively.

ASA fellowship is not only recognition and an honor, but also a badge for one to be a role model for a generation of statisticians.