Meet Jonathan Auerbach

Jonathan Auerbach is the ASA’s third science policy fellow. The ASA established the position in 2015 to raise the profile of statistics in policymaking and advocate on behalf of the ASA community.
 
Auerbach began his fellowship on September 1 and immediately began contributing to the ASA’s policy efforts. Together with ASA Director of Science Policy Steve Pierson, he authored a technical report estimating the benefits of extending the 2020 Census field operation deadline. The report was covered by a variety of news outlets—including the Associated Press, The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, and The New York Times—adding data analysis to the debate over whether the deadline should be extended. 

Auerbach earned an undergraduate degree in economics from Cornell University. He then cut his policy teeth as an analyst for New York City’s legislature, the New York City Council, where he worked on a variety of policy problems that faced New York City following the Great Recession—from labor contracts to debt service. He also aided in the oversight of New York City’s open data law, providing expert testimony in an oversight hearing, which he summarized in a 2014 Amstat News article.

Auerbach continued to work on policy problems as a PhD student in the statistics department at Columbia University. He was a fellow at the Bloomberg Data for Good Exchange Immersion Program, the Brown Institute for Media Innovation, Stats.org Public Understanding of Statistics, and The University of Chicago Data Science for Social Good.

Auerbach applied for the ASA science policy fellow position because he strongly identifies with the ASA’s mission of promoting sound statistical practice to inform public policy. He looks forward to working with ASA members to improve public discourse with statistics.