The Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) Outreach Group Corner is a regular component of Amstat News in which statisticians write about and educate our community about JEDI-related matters. If you have an idea or article for the column, email the JEDI Corner manager.
The Conference on Statistical Practice in February included a panel session on data-driven leadership featuring outstanding African American female leaders in statistical science.
The panel was organized and moderated by Emma Benn of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Panelists included Kimberly Sellers from North Carolina State University and Talithia Williams from Harvey Mudd College. Monica Jackson from American University was also scheduled to be on the panel but was unable to attend.
Sellers is chair of the statistics department at North Carolina State. An expert on count data, she is the author of a book about the Conway-Maxwell-Poisson Distribution, a generalization of Poisson to account for over- and under-dispersion. Her interest in statistics began early in life. Encouraged by parents with graduate degrees, she was still in elementary school when she read Black Issues in Higher Education with her father and decided to seek a PhD in statistics. She went on to become the first African American woman to lead a statistics group at Georgetown. In 2020, when the ASA Diversity Working Group led by Julia Sharp and the developing Special Interest Group on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion came together to form JEDI, Sellers served as chair.
Talithia Williams is a mathematics professor and associate dean for research and experiential learning at Harvey Mudd College, a private liberal arts college in California with a focus on STEM research and education. With a background including work at NASA and the National Security Agency, Williams’ research interests are in spatio-temporal data and analysis. The first Black woman to receive tenure at Harvey Mudd, she has become well known for public engagement, especially the TED talk “Own Your Body’s Data,” which went viral in 2014. She also hosted a NOVA series on PBS and narrated another, continuing her distinguished leadership in public outreach on mathematics and statistics. Her Falconer Lecture, “Not So Hidden Figures: Unveiling Mathematical Talent,” at the Mathematics Association of America’s MathFest in 2017 offered guidance for encouraging students—especially from under-represented groups—to develop skills in mathematics.
For these prominent JEDI leaders, finding role models early on was important. Sellers paid attention to how many African American women earned PhDs in statistics—a tiny number—and looked forward to becoming one herself. While there were few role models to be found when Sellers was growing up, their number continues to grow.
The panelists emphasized the importance of people who were not only role models but also mentors, who encouraged their work and did not require them to prove themselves over and over again, as is often the case for under-represented groups in the sciences.
Another important dimension of transformational leadership is mentoring, both having a mentor at all career stages and being a mentor for others.
Both panelists talked about the early-career demands of getting published, finding grants, and having many students—a traditional academic framework that can leave little room to pursue leadership objectives. Advancement was made through a succession of leadership roles not officially in leadership, such as leading their own statistics group, ASA committee work, and public engagement.
Williams talked about running for the board of the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science to get a set of ideas into the group and then found she was elected. This was early in her career, just four years after completing her PhD. She thought she didn’t have much to contribute at that time but soon became a powerful force for positive change. Her experience shows how it is possible to be transformational at any career stage.
Sellers and Williams also talked about traditional models of leadership with an emphasis on “keeping the trains running.” While these tasks are necessary, too much focus on them can actually become a barrier to transformational leadership. When asked by an audience member how to manage so many roles, Williams offered a key insight: When people ask you to take on new things, ask what support they will give and what current tasks can be given to others. Work-life balance is important, and true leadership isn’t just about taking on new things—it’s about new opportunities that drive real change.
Another important dimension of transformational leadership is mentoring, both having a mentor at all career stages and being a mentor for others. The panelists emphasized how this can extend beyond statistics departments and teams to include other sciences that may not be as data driven as statistics.
Data-driven leaders can be the vox datum, the voice of the data itself. All JEDIs are called to be leaders, both in justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion and in using data to solve real-world problems and find the answers everyone needs.
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