Practical Significance producer Kim Gilliam recently conducted the following interview with Donna LaLonde, ASA associate executive director, and Ron Wasserstein, ASA executive director, turning the tables on her ASA colleagues and podcast cohosts. Armed with insider knowledge and member questions about the ASA, Gilliam led a discussion equally informative and entertaining—fun questions but serious answers about the ASA’s strategic plan, recent initiatives, member communication, and the incredible ASA community that keeps the association moving forward.
Donna and Ron, tell us about your day jobs.
Donna LaLonde: I came to the ASA in 2015, after being a longtime academic—I used to tell folks I had been in school my entire life. My day job at the ASA is to make sure our members—all the amazing volunteers—have the resources they need to keep the ASA community vibrant. I work with the sections, chapters, committees, and—of course—the ASA presidents who have amazing ideas about initiatives. I often say I would do this job even if I wasn’t paid. It’s my responsibility and pleasure to help make progress on what is important to the presidents and therefore important to the ASA.
Ron Wasserstein: I’ve had the privilege of serving as the ASA executive director since 2007. There is nothing I would rather be doing. I spent many years in higher education and enjoyed that. But I feel fortunate to have come over to my leadership role in the ASA. I’m also very fortunate to have worked with Donna in my previous job and—several years ago—to have been able to steal her away and bring her over to the ASA.
As for what I do, in many respects, it’s like being the CEO of a business. We have a specific kind of business. A nonprofit professional association exists to make things better for our members; to advance the profession; and to grow our members through meetings, journals, and professional development. I’m grateful for those members who—from time to time—join us on this podcast.
Ron, many members know about the mission of the ASA but may be less aware of the strategic plan that provides direction. What are some of the ASA’s strategic goals?
Ron Wasserstein: It is very important that members know we have a strategic plan. The mission of the association is to promote the practice and profession of statistics, and we do this in many ways. Those efforts are driven by the ASA strategic plan, which helps set the direction of the organization in terms of how we focus our activities, where we devote our resources—financially and otherwise.
The plan is organized into three themes: enhancing the diversity and breadth of our profession; increasing the visibility of our profession; and ensuring the future of our profession. When you get a chance, take a look at the ASA strategic plan.
Donna, if the ASA were a superhero, what would its superpower be? How does the ASA use that power for good?
Donna LaLonde: I believe the ASA superpower (or powers), if you will allow me, are community, service, and innovation. So, in terms of community, I’ll focus on the Women in Statistics and Data Science Conference as an example. Friendships are formed almost instantaneously during this event. ASA members come together, and they are excited, connecting with one another—there’s such a vibe wherever they are.
It just reinforces for me that the ASA is an amazing community in all senses of that word—willing to support each other and jump in when needed. So, “community” is definitely a superpower.
“Service” is the one I see as a staff member, because I have the opportunity to work with the committees, sections, and chapters, and I just see how generous really busy people are with their time. They are committed to the association, but to the profession, as well.
And “innovation.” I encourage you to attend a conference, watch the plenary lectures from JSM—which are available to everyone—or read a journal article. You will see we are a really smart bunch who contribute our intellectual and innovative capacity to advance science.
I’ll highlight two:
- Telling Our Stories, the inaugural video, which featured Maria Cuellar. If you haven’t seen it, please do watch it. It shows how not only do we advance science, but we serve the public good, as well. Community, service, and innovation!
- We’re also thrilled to launch the Dionne Price Public Lecture Series. We sadly lost Dionne far too early but will continue to honor her legacy with a public lecture series. We’re obviously very pleased to pay tribute to Dionne in this way, and in doing so, the lecture series will also highlight the amazing contributions ASA members make to the public good.
Community, service, and innovation—these are the ASA’s superpowers.
Donna, on a scale of carrier pigeon to telepathy, how would you rate the ASA’s communications method?
Donna LaLonde: I would love to say telepathy, but most days it feels like a carrier pigeon. We put a lot of energy into communication, and I believe we have some fantastic ways in which we do communicate. I’m going to name a few and encourage people not familiar with these to look.
One is ASA Connect, our online community that goes to all members. You will see announcements of all types in the ASA community, both from ASA staff and other members of the ASA. We also send out our monthly member e-newsletter and, of course, there’s Amstat News, which is an excellent way for us to share not only things that are important and are on our radar, but it’s also a way for members to share things that are important to them.
We’ve upped our game on LinkedIn to do outreach to the ASA community and broader community. We realize there’s not a “one size fits all” in terms of communication, and this is where we struggle. We continue to think creatively about how we communicate, what makes the most sense for the audience—and here I would definitely give a “call to action” to our listeners: let us know what we are missing. Are we sending too many emails? Not enough emails? We’ve talked about text messaging. Should we introduce text messaging? So, help us move from carrier pigeon to telepathy.
Ron, on a typical day, how many cups of coffee does it take to fuel the ASA’s productivity? Are we single-handedly keeping Starbucks in business?
Ron Wasserstein: We are no doubt powered by a certain amount of caffeine! But your question serves as a reminder of something Donna addressed, which is that when we talk about the ASA, we’re talking about many people, especially when it comes to how the ASA gets its business done.
We have 31 people employed at the American Statistical Association, most of whom are located here in the greater Washington, DC, area. But several of our staff members work remotely from various places around the country. ASA staff does a lot. But what really makes the association go are all our volunteers who serve the ASA in remarkable ways.
We have individuals who serve on committees or as chapter and section officers or lead outreach groups. Volunteers edit and review journals and help by serving on meeting planning committees and more. I did a calculation a while back and upwards of 1,500 people volunteer in some capacity throughout the year; that is truly remarkable. We have a wealth of individuals willing to sacrifice their time and use their talent to support the ASA.
Donna LaLonde: We really are incredibly grateful for all the contributions of our volunteers, and I want to say, “thank you,” to everyone who supports our mission. We are really blessed to have wonderful volunteers.
Ron, what are some of the challenges facing the ASA?
Ron Wasserstein: We are fortunate that we are in such a good place on many things so that these challenges, which I will outline, are more easily turned into opportunities than they might be. Our biggest challenge is that it costs more to do just about everything in terms of services and goods.
The ASA is a nonprofit organization, but we need to earn enough revenue from the things we do to be able to pay for all the things we want to do, need to do, and are doing that don’t provide revenue. I’ll just mention two things.
One may be nearest to my heart, and I’m sure I’m not out of turn when I say nearest to Donna’s heart, as well, which is supporting education in statistics at all levels. I mentioned earlier that one of our themes is ensuring the future of the profession. We do that in no small part by promoting statistics education at every level—from K–12 all the way through graduate school—and it takes money.
We also advocate for the profession, and that also is not free. But the things we do that earn money such as meetings, publications, and advertising make it possible to invest in our membership, our communities, and our outreach. However, the revenue has tended to drop just at the time when costs are going up.
We’re not facing a financial crisis at the ASA. We have enough money in savings, essentially, to power what we do in addition to the money we earn. But in the long run, maybe the not-too-distant run, we need to face up to those challenges and find ways to better increase our revenue.
Over the coming months and year, you will be hearing more about that from both of us and our elected leadership.
I’ll add that it seems like something is always trying to swallow up statistics in some way. Data science and artificial intelligence are the two things that stand out most prominently. Those are important areas of work, and it’s imperative that—as a community, a profession, and an association—we are at the forefront, ensuring our expertise and the voice of statisticians remain present in data science and AI. So, we continue to work with colleagues all over the world to ensure we’re well-positioned for the future.
We have strong resources, a good endowment, and, again, I cannot overemphasize this: We have members who are willing to work hard to promote our profession and build up our society. When you have that kind of resource, you always feel like the future is bright.
Donna LaLonde: Of course, I want to give a plus-one to education. Our amazing community puts so much energy into education—and I want to give a shout-out to two groups working really hard right now. One is the working group revising the College GAISE report and the other is the working group working on the next version of the Statistical Education of Teachers (SET) Report.
If you could give one piece of advice to early-career members, what would it be?
Donna LaLonde: I would say present at an ASA conference, and that could be a virtual conference or an in-person conference. What you learn by putting yourself and your work out there is just amazing—and there is just no experience that matches that. Not only will you learn a lot by making that presentation, but you will make a lot of new friends. So, find a way to make a presentation either in person or virtually at an ASA event!
Ron Wasserstein: I can’t top that advice, but I will tag onto it. Connect, connect, connect. You can’t have too many connections. I say that realizing some people are more outgoing than others. You don’t have to be outgoing; you just have to go out. You have to be where things are happening and give yourself the opportunity to meet others interested in the same things as you are. Fun fact: The ASA has all kinds of opportunities to help you find ways to connect.
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