My ASA Story: Renée Hanson

Getting a great education has always been important to me. I enjoy reading, learning, and being abreast of new and exciting research in the social sciences and science fields. I began my educational career at the University of Maryland, College Park, and earned a bachelor’s degree in African American studies and a master’s degree in sociology from American University in Washington, DC. I have always been intrigued by the statistical side of my sociology degree. After my master’s program, I continued to work, research, and publish in education, health, and history, but really wanted to know more about statistics.

I began to realize statistics are always around us, in weather predictions, the stock market, and election results. During the COVID-19 pandemic, statistics was and continues to be imperative.

In 2021, I completed an American Educational Research Association professional training seminar analyzing large-scale assessment data using R. I learned the unique design features of large-scale assessment data and provided guidance in data analysis strategies, including the selection and use of appropriate plausible values, sampling weights, and variance estimation procedures. Soon after, I earned verified data science certification in R-Basics programming and data visualization certification in R from Harvard X, a Harvard University online learning course.

I enjoyed these courses so much that I became interested in learning more about the American Statistical Association. I began to take part in several virtual workshops, webinars, and courses hosted by the ASA with other academic professional organizations. I participated in the ASA workshop Meeting Within a Meeting (now Stats&DataNet) and earned a certificate. The meeting provided middle and high school mathematics and science teachers an opportunity to discuss and apply the data analysis, data science, and statistical concepts embodied in the NCTM Catalyzing Change series and the ASA’s Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in Statistics Education (GAISE) Report: A Pre-K–12 Curriculum Framework.

Another opportunity I took part in was a virtual ASA Philadelphia Chapter traveling course: Data Visualization with R. I enjoyed learning practical skills for R programming. It helped improve the quality of my work with hands-on examples. The course focused on the R package ggplot2 and the reproducible research framework R Markdown. After this course, I felt more comfortable using R and R Markdown to create effective data visualizations.

I have been in the education field for years. Most recently, I was the associate director of an enrichment program academy for high-achieving students in mathematics, language arts, and science but wanted to take my career a step further by transitioning into a health and statistics field. In recent years, I earned my joint PhD degree in urban systems, specializing in education/global urban studies, health, and environment from Rutgers University Graduate School, Rutgers University Biomedical and Health Sciences School of Nursing, and the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

I was still quite interested in gaining statistical accreditation because I am passionate about data science and statistics, especially in the areas of education, health, and environment. Although I took nontraditional statistics education routes, I was encouraged by my late and great Washington Statistical Society mentor Carol Blumberg to pursue the field by gaining more statistical ability and applying for the ASA statistics certification program. Because I have a sociological and quantitative background, years of professional work experience in the social sciences, and a PhD, I was elated to be accepted as an ASA Graduate Statistician. I am grateful to Carol for steering me in the right direction; I miss her kindness, expertise, and great sense of humor.

I have continued to gain experience in statistics and data science as a peer reviewer, taking part in professional development workshops, seminars, and courses. In recent years, I have been designated as a peer reviewer for AERA in preparation for the AERA annual meetings. I was invited as a peer reviewer for the 2023 AERA Multiple Linear Regression: The General Linear Model section. I have assessed both quantitative and qualitative research proposals and studies.

I served as one of the judges for the 2024 Undergraduate Statistics Project Competition by the Consortium for the Advancement of Undergraduate Statistics Education and the ASA. I also served as a judge for the 2024 ASA Statistics Project Competition. I continue to be active with ASA volunteer academic services, statistical groups, and ongoing mentorship with a professor and statistician. Most recently, by invitation from Manning Publications, I completed a peer review for an upcoming academic book in machine learning and statistics scheduled for publication this year.

The ASA has certainly provided me with countless opportunities, and I want to become a lifelong learner and eventually an expert statistician. With the exciting advances in technology, open-source platforms like R, and big data, I am more passionate about data science and statistics, especially in the areas of health and education. I believe ASA membership, accreditation, course participation, and volunteer academic services are excellent to further a person’s pathway into a statistics career. I hope to eventually earn full ASA Professional Statistician accreditation. Furthermore, these experiences are teaching me to become more of a leader, team player, and hard worker toward a newfound career.

This series features ASA members who share their ASA stories. Our mission is to collect authentic and meaningful accounts of member experiences. If you have a story you would like to share, email the ASA’s marketing project manager, Kim Gilliam.