Katherine Ensor

It’s finally here: 2022! We are all hoping for a tremendous year and emergence from the marathon pandemic that has affected us in profound ways.

I am honored to serve the American Statistical Association as its 117th president. It is such an exciting and dynamic time to be a statistician. As we move into an era in which data is the new gold, it is important to share our talents, intellect, and passions and to build a more interconnected world that celebrates diversity, equity, and inclusion.

As a reflection of the powerful contributions statisticians have made throughout history to shape and prepare for the future, I chose the theme Statistics: A Foundation for Innovation for the 2022 Joint Statistical Meetings (JSM), the largest gathering of statisticians and data scientists in North America. As statisticians, we live and breathe the excitement of developing and implementing the scientific tools for discovery, inference, and action from data. We enthusiastically pass along this knowledge to generations of statisticians and data scientists. I hope you consider contributing an abstract to JSM (deadline is February 1) and joining us in Washington DC in August. Thank you to JSM program chair, Ming-Hui Chen, and the committee members for bringing forward an exceptional program.

I am also honored to succeed fellow Texan and 2021 ASA president, Rob Santos, who has just stepped into a new role as director of the US Census Bureau. Rob is, of course, an exceptional choice for leading the Census Bureau, with innate leadership skills and extensive expertise as head of research at the Urban Institute. He is the bureau’s first permanent, Senate-confirmed, Latino director.

It is worth noting the long history of the ASA supporting the Census Bureau and its critical role to our nation. Quoting 1996 ASA President Lynn Billard, “In 1839, the American Statistical Association was formed amid concern for the ‘antiquated and ineffective machinery’ that had been in use since 1790.” Over the next 180 years, ASA presidents and members have played an integral role in shaping, refining, and strengthening this central pillar of the US democratic system.

During my year as president, I see three areas of immediate opportunities for the ASA. The first is leadership, and the second is keeping vibrant data science and AI activities moving forward. The new third opportunity is in the area of sustainability and community analytics. Let me speak briefly to each of these.

Leadership: In 2018, the ASA founded the Leadership Institute. The institute was one of the core initiatives of 2018 President Lisa LaVange and emerged after longtime efforts by both Lisa and 2012 President Bob Rodriguez, among others. Our profession can point to members who hold strategic leadership positions across industry, government, and academia. Training in statistics naturally develops a foundation for leadership in large part due to the interdisciplinary nature of our profession. Further, many of the core issues of leadership are also core to our profession, such as ethics-based decisions. But leadership requires training and development, which is a key component of the current leadership endeavor.

Leadership also extends to the ASA as an organization. The ASA Board issues policy statements on matters of national importance related to data and statistics. The ASA’s policy office expertly works with appropriate entities to bring these issues forward. This is an example of ASA leadership. Expanding ASA influence to the top levels of academia, government, and industry will have a positive impact on our profession and our profession’s ability to meet global challenges.

Data Science and AI: Our field has seen an explosion of new methods in statistics and data science, integrating the best of statistical thinking with practical implementation. This new world has also brought challenges to our academic programs with strong investments in data science in other fields. Forward-looking universities rely heavily on, and invest in, their statistics departments to build the best integrated data science programs for their students. I see an opportunity for the ASA to work with university leaders to articulate the value statisticians bring to the strategic leadership table. Many universities are developing institutes and schools around data science, providing clear opportunities for advanced leadership from statisticians.

The ASA Ad Hoc Committee on Data Science, a committee I co-led with Mark Glickman, recommended forming a continuing committee on data science and artificial intelligence that will advise the ASA Board on actions in this area. The charge of the committee is to examine the ASA as an inclusive community for data scientists, regardless of one’s path to this field. There have been numerous recent advancements within the ASA with respect to data science and AI, so I look forward to working with the executive committee to constitute this new committee and to highlighting these accomplishments in a future column.

Sustainability, Community Analytics, and the Changing Landscape of Data: The time is now for statisticians to jump into the growing area of urban analytics. This area requires the best of our statistical thinking coupled with a willingness to engage local governments, NGOs, and communities to better our urban and rural environments.

Our urban environments generate massive amounts of geo-referenced data, allowing the savvy statistician to draw significant insights into how we work, live, play, and learn within our communities. Our rural environments are also critical, but the important questions and data landscape are often different.

We witnessed a surge in academic, local government, and NGO partnerships during COVID-19. We have also witnessed an increased need for improved data literacy in our workforce and a better understanding of how climate change and world events affect our methods and models. Many university partnerships have been established to advance urban science, sustainability, and planning through expert use of data and statistics. Urban and rural analytics bring an opportunity for greater involvement of local chapters in their community activities. How can the ASA help foster such collaborations?

Hand-in-hand with the questions of community analytics are the growing issues of data privacy and the changing landscape of availability of government-generated data. There have been significant changes to the availability and potential use of publicly available data. Across the globe, governments make different decisions related to data privacy. These decisions affect our roles as statisticians guided by the ASA ethical guidelines for statistical practice and professional accreditation.

These challenges go well beyond the ASA but provide an opportunity for the ASA to take a leadership role, partnering with other societies, industry, and government agencies to begin to understand these changes and expertly address their impact.

I look back in amazement at the dynamic changes in the ASA and profession since the beginning of my career as a statistician in the late ’80s. Advancing our mission of “Promoting the Practice and Profession of Statistics” has made the ASA a superb organization and professional home for us all. It continues to grow and develop as our profession grows and develops.

I look forward to serving as your president in 2022. Thank you for all that you do, and take care of yourself and others. Wishing you a successful and healthy year.