My ASA Story: James Cochran, Associate Dean and Professor

This series features ASA members who share their ASA stories. Our mission is to collect authentic and meaningful accounts of member experiences. If you have a story you would like to share, email the ASA’s marketing and communications coordinator, Kim Gilliam.

I am the Rogers-Spivey Fellow and Professor of Statistics at the University of Alabama. I am also the associate dean for research for my college. My research spans theory, methodology, and application.

I joined the American Statistical Association soon after joining the faculty at Wright State University (WSU). My primary field of study to that point had been economics, but I was hired to teach introductory statistics, operations research, and calculus to undergraduate business majors and MBA students.

Although my education had prepared me well for using statistics, I did not feel prepared to teach the subject and I joined the ASA in the hope of developing a better understanding of statistical concepts and learning approaches to teaching them effectively.

I attended several local and regional ASA events and quickly learned about all the ASA had to offer. After I left WSU to become the director of analytic services for a large marketing research firm and later entered the University of Cincinnati to pursue my PhD (in statistics and operations research), I maintained my ASA membership.

After earning my PhD, I became active in the ASA because I saw how the ASA helped its members and society. I also saw how the ASA could serve as a tool in pursuing my career goals (such as working with colleagues in developing nations to resolve societal issues). I became involved with the ASA in several ways: I have served on and chaired various ASA committees; served as an officer of various ASA sections; and been involved with ASA public outreach, scientific freedom, human rights, and advocacy efforts.

My ASA experiences and the friends I have made through these experiences have been highlights of my academic career, and selecting a single experience from these experiences is extremely difficult. However, if pressed, I would select the opportunity to help establish Statistics Without Borders (SWB) as my most memorable and meaningful experience as an ASA member.

After organizing workshops on making introductory statistics education more engaging and encouraging the application of statistics to societal issues in developing nations for several years, I began thinking about how to create a mechanism for ASA members to get involved in the application of statistics to societal issues in developing nations.

I eventually discussed my ideas with ASA Executive Director Ron Wasserstein, who put me in touch with a group of three colleagues—Fritz Scheuren, Gary Shapiro, and Steve Pierson (ASA Director of Science Policy)—who had begun working on a similar concept. These colleagues quickly invited me to join their effort as a co-chair with Gary.

In shortly over a decade, SWB has become internationally recognized and grown to several hundred capable and earnest volunteers who take on dozens of projects each year—and has never accepted payment or remuneration of any kind (100% of all donations are used for SWB projects and are never used for payments or reimbursements).

You can learn more about SWB at the organization’s website. There, you can find out about past SWB projects, suggest potential clients and projects, and volunteer (you do not have to be an ASA member to join SWB).

The work of this organization’s volunteers is uplifting and inspiring; whenever I feel anxious about the myriad political and societal problems we are facing, I visit the SWB website for affirmation of the basic goodness of people.

In each of the past 36 years, I have reflected on the value of my ASA membership when I receive my notice to renew. And every year, I quickly conclude that my ASA membership is a tremendous bargain. Without any deliberation, I promptly renew.