The ASA’s Government Statistics Section recently awarded the Jeanne E. Griffith Mentoring Award to two women from the National Institutes of Health: Nancy L. Geller, director of the Office of Biostatistics Research at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and Clarice R. Weinberg, principal investigator in the biostatistics and computational biology branch of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. They will be celebrated with a virtual ceremony and webinar hosted by the Interagency Council on Statistical Policy.
Nancy L. Geller is the 2011 American Statistical Association president, ASA Fellow, International Statistical Institute elected member, and 2009 Janet L. Norwood Award for Outstanding Achievement by a Woman in the Statistical Sciences winner. Throughout her career, she has taken on the incidental responsibility of mentoring colleagues and other statisticians.
Geller directs a large group of statisticians who collaborate on the design, implementation, monitoring, and analysis of clinical studies in heart, lung, and blood diseases and sleep disorders and administers most National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute statistical activities. She has been involved in the design and analysis of many seminal trials, most recently the Primary Care Pediatrics Learning Activity and Nutrition with Families trial and Chronic Hypertension Pregnancy trial. Her statistical contributions have been in monitoring clinical trials with multiple primary endpoints, and she has published more than 250 papers in statistical and medical literature. She is an associate editor of Biometrics.
Dr. Richard W. Childs, assistant United States surgeon general, described Geller’s mentoring style as supportive and inclusive. “Even though she has numerous accolades and has been a leader at NHLBI for decades, she is known for her candor, humor, and approachability, which encourages her mentees to seek her guidance and advice without hesitation,” he said. “Her open-door policy and willingness to listen to the concerns and ideas of her mentees have made her a beloved and respected figure at NHLBI,” he continued. “She takes a holistic approach to mentoring, providing her mentees with valuable advice on career development, work-life balance, and personal growth.”
Throughout her tenure at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and National Institutes of Health, Geller has mentored several junior and aspiring statisticians, ranging from high school students to postdoctoral fellows, and she has been devoted to coaching individuals from diverse backgrounds. These mentees have had successful careers, ranging from faculty positions to leadership roles in industry to appointments at the US Food and Drug Administration and US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
A hallmark of Geller’s mentoring style is using her leadership role to train the next generation of biostatisticians and data scientists. She helped start the National Institutes of Health Summer in Biostatistics and Data Science, a summer training course for undergraduate students offered by several universities across the nation. The program helps mentor young, aspiring biostatisticians and data scientists and aids senior biostatisticians in developing their careers.
Geller received unanimous support for her award nomination from predoctoral fellows, who attribute their choice to pursue doctoral degrees in biostatistics, to senior biostatisticians in academia and government, who attribute their success to her mentorship.
Geller embodies the spirit of the Jeanne E. Griffith Mentoring Award. She mentors at an individual level while also leveraging her leadership role to create the next generation of quantitative scientists in emerging areas of research.
Clarice R. Weinberg was named a “changemaker” by the University of Washington School of Public Health in 2020, an honor given to 50 out of 11,000 alumni. Among her many honors, she is an ASA Fellow, the winner of the 2005 Janet L. Norwood Award for Outstanding Achievement by a Woman in the Statistical Sciences, and the winner of the 2005 Nathan Mantel Award, given by the ASA Section on Statistics in Epidemiology for lifetime contributions to the development and application of statistical science to problems and issues in epidemiology. She is a lifelong government statistician and scientist who is curious about the underlying science.
Shyamal Peddada, a senior investigator at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, wrote that Weinberg’s curiosity is on full display during seminar talks or meetings when she asks deep, thoughtful questions that often lead to new areas of research.
Peddada also noted one of Weinberg’s biggest contributions to the growth and development of her trainees is how she teaches them to think about a problem. Rather than identifying a specific methodological question, she presents a broad research area and works with them to identify and solve important scientific questions. This line of thinking helps her trainees publish high-impact papers.
Haibo Zhou—a trainee, ASA Fellow, and tenured full professor in the department of biostatistics at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill—attributes his training and the start of his independent career with such a wealth of ideas that it led to four successful NIH R01 grants.
Another of her trainees, Chuyuan Fei, said, “What distinguishes [Weinberg] is her commitment to dedicating time and effort to the growth and development of her mentees.” Fei continued, “She provided invaluable insights and guidance at every stage of my projects, from study design to data collection, analysis, and interpretation. Through her mentorship, I honed my skills in study design and statistical methodologies for addressing complex questions, which have been instrumental in my career advancement.”
Similar sentiments were expressed by former mentees Min Shi and Michael Nodzenski in their nomination letters. Furthermore, Shi said Weinberg “serves as a great role model, especially for junior women scientists.”
David Dunson, arts and sciences professor of statistical science and mathematics at Duke University and one of Weinberg’s mentees, wrote, “Her research skills, intellect, and passion for epidemiology research provide a backdrop upon which her mentoring abilities are based. … She pushed me to substantially up my game from my initial tendency to quickly develop creative models and algorithms without sufficient justification to direct applied motivation and careful thought.” Dunson continued, “This process fundamentally improved my skills as a researcher and was key to me developing the type of exceptional applied-driven methodology and writing skills I have used to excel throughout my career. Indeed, I have [Weinberg] largely to thank for her clear causal contribution on molding me into the researcher I am today.”
Dunson concluded his letter by writing, “I give [her] my highest recommendation for this award. I cannot imagine anyone more deserving. She has had an exceptional impact on numerous young researchers over the years—this impact is driven not by her desire to improve her own CV but by a passion for exceptional science coupled with a drive to help the next generation of researchers to embrace and understand the beauty of first-rate science-driven statistics.”
In her National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences career of more than 40 years, she has mentored many doctoral and postdoctoral fellows. Almost all her trainees have gone on to successful professional careers at universities or in industry or the government.
Visit the ASA Government Statistics Section website for more information about the mentoring award.
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