Affiliation
Senior Advisor, National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS)

Education
M.Sc., University of Maryland
BA, Purdue University

Being a statistician is, in some ways, being a storyteller—a storyteller with a deep love of caveats, perhaps. And for better or worse, that might be me. I’m Jonaki Bose, and I’ve been a federal statistician for 27 years. I’ve worked in three federal departments (Education, Transportation, and Health and Human Services), held different types of positions (production, management, advisory), and had ups and downs.

I was asked to cover three areas in this note: where I grew up; where my interest in statistics came from; and what I consider a great achievement. I wrote about the first two areas after I completed the first 15 years of my career and was happy working on a survey that focused on methodology and quality. It was interesting to mull over the third area, however. Oddly, I think one of my achievements has been longevity. Not just the time-in-seat kind of longevity, but the kind in which, even after 27 years of service and some tough times in rough federal environments, I remain engaged by the work I do.

I continue to be committed to public service and creative problem-solving in the face of systemic constraints. I have become a formal and informal mentor. I love the idea of helping newer employees find a home in the federal statistical system as I have. I enjoy building connections across the statistical work done in different federal departments—finding common ground and learning about unique work, as well.

It’s a world where there’s no boredom. That’s not to say there aren’t administrative requirements that necessitate a lot of patience to navigate. It’s more that there’s always an interesting production or methodological challenge that needs solving.

I’ve been at the National Center for Health Statistics for almost three years now. As a senior adviser, I get to work on interesting production challenges, mentor, and participate in methodological work with like-minded colleagues interested in furthering the production and use of health statistics.

My statistical career has been a wilder ride than I ever anticipated, but as far as careers go, it’s been a good one. I’ve mostly enjoyed what I do, hopefully contributed positively to the world of official statistics, made close forever friends, and grown as a human.