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 joined the American Statistical Association in graduate school at the recommendation of my program and, in retrospect, I am so glad they encouraged us to join! After graduate school and my postdoc work, I took on a role as associate director of a university statistics lab and found myself looking for new and different kinds of support than I had ever needed in the past. Thankfully, the ASA Section on Statistical Consulting and its network of members was already there for me. Through the community forum, business meetings at JSM, and eventually serving on the section’s executive committee, I have had many opportunities to both learn from others and contribute to the field of statistical collaboration.
… I found myself looking for new and different kinds of support than I had ever needed in the past.
One of the experiences that was most personally rewarding for me, however, came from a more general ASA experience. As a graduate student, I first became interested in the wider concepts related to statistical consulting when we used Janice Derr’s textbook, Statistical Consulting: A Guide to Effective Communication, to learn about the process of collaboration. The work was pioneering at the time it was published, teaching communication and relational skills alongside technical skills and providing videos demonstrating both positive and negative client interactions. I used these while teaching a collaboration course to my own graduate students almost 10 years later, and I was thrilled to see these videos also captured their attention and pushed them to consider client interactions in greater detail and with the importance they deserve.
Needless to say, Janice Derr had become one of my professional heroes—and it may not surprise others who have had their own heroes in the field that it took some time to dawn on me that Janice was, in fact, a real person. When I further realized she had never been nominated for the ASA W. J. Dixon Award for Excellence in Statistical Consulting, my mission was clear. I reached out to my fellow consultants in academia and quickly had a nomination letter brimming with support. When she was selected for this honor in 2017, I received my own honor of meeting her at the awards ceremony at JSM that year. Although our meeting was brief, it was incredibly meaningful to me, and her many achievements continue to inspire me in my work.
Kim Love is the owner and lead collaborator of K. R. Love QCC.
Leave a Reply