Affiliation: Deputy Division Director for the Frame and Survey Development Branch, Research and Development Division, USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service
Denise Abreu has been a mathematical statistician serving within the federal statistical system for more than 23 years, first at the Census Bureau and then at the US Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Statistics Service.
Having moved to New York City from the Dominican Republic as a child, Abreu was the first in her family to graduate college. Growing up, her favorite subject was math. She was mesmerized by how her mom so easily could do all sorts of math calculations to solve everyday problems, and she loved to see her brother working on his engineering projects.
Thinking math and computer science were the same thing, Abreu attended the State University of New York at Stony Brook to major in computer science. To her amazement, she genuinely enjoyed deriving maximum likelihood estimators, finding means and standard deviations, solving multiple systems of equations, and doing matrix algebra more than she did programing, thus she switched majors.
Abreu graduated with a double degree—a BS in applied mathematics and statistics and a BA in Spanish languages and literature. After joining NASS, she earned her master’s degree in survey methodology from the University of Maryland.
Abreu has been heavily involved in improving NASS’s statistical processes, from sampling to model-based estimates. However, her greatest achievement is having passed her love for math and statistics to her children. This love also influences those she leads, a staff of more than 25 mathematical statisticians, data scientists, survey statisticians, geographers, and cartographers. She derives joy from observing the dedication of her staff as each strives to meet goals that benefit them professionally and contribute to the success of NASS.
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