Claire McKay Bowen, Emily Griffith, Fred Hulting, and Kristen Olson
Each year, the American Statistical Association awards the distinction of Fellow to members who have made a positive impact through service to the association and exceptional professional contributions to consulting, applications, teaching, research, or leadership.
For the 2026 class of Fellows, nominations are due by March 1, 2026.
Are You Ready to Be Nominated?
The only strict eligibility requirement for ASA Fellow is that the nominee is an ASA member for three consecutive years prior to nomination. However, the recognition is competitive, and the committee is permitted to only choose up to one-third of one percent of the ASA membership each year. For example, 45 Fellows were chosen from among the 118 nominees in 2025.
Because of the variety of professional roles among ASA members, there is no one profile or specific list of qualifications that makes someone a Fellow. The committee looks for evidence of leadership and impact in the nominees’ roles, no matter what those roles might be. Leadership and impact can take many forms; selected Fellows come from many sectors and backgrounds.
Although many nominees are in academic positions with a traditional portfolio of research, teaching, and service, being in a tenured academic position is not necessary for being selected as a Fellow. For instance, Fellow Emily Griffith serves as the co-associate department head and a professor of practice at North Carolina State University, where she is active in her local ASA chapter. Meanwhile, Fellow Claire McKay Bowen is a senior fellow at the Urban Institute, where peer-reviewed publications are not a requirement for career advancement.
While there are no quotas by sector or other demographic, each Fellows class will generally represent the makeup of the nominees. For example, the following table compares the 2025 percentages for ASA membership, Fellow nominations, and selected Fellows for the three sectors:
| ASA Membership | Nominations | Fellows | |
| Academia | 39.7% | 80% | 73.3% |
| Industry | 23.9% | 9.6% | 13.3% |
| Government | 6.7% | 10.4% | 15.5% |
| Other | 29.7% | NA | NA |
How Is a Candidate Nominated?
Nominations come from multiple sources. Some members are nominated because ASA section or chapter officers identify who they think are good candidates. Other nominations arise because the nominee themselves wants to be nominated. Others are generated because a colleague, mentor, or organizational awards coordinator identifies them as someone to be nominated.
No matter how a nomination is started, the committee members don’t know where the nominations come from; all the applications look the same to the committee. The best nominations make a strong case for the importance of the impact the nominee has had in their statistical work.
It is okay for a nominee to ask to be nominated. Nominees should ask friends, colleagues, or mentors who are Fellows to evaluate their portfolio and write a letter of support for the nomination. If an eligible ASA member should be nominated, tell them. Some eligible ASA members might not think they are ready to be nominated when they are.
There is not a single career point at which a person can be nominated. In fact, many ASA Fellows are in their early- to mid-career stages. Nominees who are early in their career or whose portfolio might need to be strengthened should consider asking their professional network to nominate them for other awards. These nominations provide useful experiences in putting nomination packets together and build a stronger record of accomplishment for the Fellow nomination.
Nominees who are not selected can be renominated in a future year. Each year, only about 35% of nominees are selected as Fellows, so not being selected doesn’t mean the nominee is unqualified. The cap of one-third of one percent limits the number of Fellows selected, and some years are more competitive than others. When considering resubmission, the nominator and nominee should seek advice about improving the nomination packet before resubmitting.
The Nomination and Selection Process
Nominators and nominees should start by thoroughly reviewing the ASA Fellows webpage. It has a list of all requirements and a variety of resources to help the nominator put together the packet. All nomination packets include the online nomination form, a PDF with three letters of support, and a PDF of the nominee’s CV.
Before submitting the nomination, it is important to ask colleagues to review the nomination and suggest improvements. Reviewers who are not familiar with the nominee can comment on how the nomination communicates impact to statisticians from other fields, and including statements from colleagues and coworkers can speak to the nominee’s impact within the field.
Once the nominations are submitted, the members of the Committee on Fellows are responsible for evaluating them and selecting the Fellows. The committee is composed of nine members, with three each from academia, government, and industry. The committee receives the nominations a few days after the March 1 deadline and makes final decisions by early April. The committee members read and evaluate the nominations and meet multiple times to discuss what makes a nomination exceptional.
During these evaluations, the committee is looking for evidence of impact, leadership, and service to the ASA. There is no one-size-fits-all nomination, as excellence will look different depending on sector, job role, and career path. Successful nominees communicate continued impact and leadership in their statistical positions and service to the ASA. Service to the ASA can look like serving in elected positions or on national committees, being active in sections or chapters, and taking on editorial roles. Successful nominees typically discuss what their role and contributions were in each service positions.
Most committee members will know nothing about the nominee aside from what is presented in the nomination and might not be deeply familiar with the nominee’s specialization. Thus, it is critical that the nomination form and letters clearly communicate the nominee’s role and contributions to statistical knowledge, teaching and mentoring, consulting, administration, and leadership more broadly; how they stand out in that role; and how their work is impactful.
Creating a High-Quality Nomination Packet
High-quality nominations tell a story about a nominee’s excellence, impact, and leadership in multiple areas. Rather than summarizing a nominee’s CV, nominations and letters of support should fill in the details about a nominee’s contributions, detailing what was important or unique about the nominee’s role in papers published, classes taught, or industry products developed.
Nominators and letter writers should help contextualize the nomination within the area of statistics, sector, and/or department. As statisticians, some quantifying is helpful. Strong nominations help the committee members understand how the nominee’s portfolio compares to others in similar roles or at similar career stages. Communicating what makes this nominee particularly strong relative to their peers, with evidence from the file, is critical.
For instance, successful Fellow candidates often publish peer-reviewed books and papers. Providing information about the number and quality of the publications is useful. Beyond these initial metrics, the committee wants to know what makes these publications important, including how the publications have contributed to statistical theory, practice, or substantive areas in ways that were not previously understood.
Impact can be demonstrated through measures of journal quality and citations, but also how the work has been translated by others into practice. Describing how others have used the information from the publications—including, for example, their translation into software development, industrial product development, data collection improvement, or policy development or implementation—is useful. Additionally, some candidates have successfully gained external funding support for their work. Providing context about the type of funding and its impact helps the committee understand the nomination more completely.
For those in the industry and government sectors, organizations and roles can vary widely. Successful nominations will provide context by clearly describing the candidate’s role and organization, as well as demonstrating how their contributions made a significant and positive impact on the organization, customers, clients, or communities.
Teaching and mentoring have many manifestations. In an academic setting, when describing teaching and mentoring, contextualizing the type of classes—including how many classes, whether they are required at the undergraduate and graduate level, the size of the classes, and the importance of the classes in the curriculum—helps the committee understand the role the candidate plays. Explaining the candidate’s contributions to the scholarship of teaching and learning are also seen as valuable. Teaching and mentoring don’t have to take place in a formal classroom, however. When a nominee has mentored junior staff or students, both the number of staff and students mentored and the impact of the mentoring through student placement, staff or student career trajectories, and collaboration on publications can be helpful for the committee to understand a nominee’s contributions.
Finally, professional service, particularly ASA service, is an important piece of the nomination. Successful nominees describe their service roles and contributions, as well as show a consistent record of participation in ASA activities.
It’s Time to Get Started
Nominations must be submitted by March 1, 2026. It takes time to prepare a high-quality nomination, so now is the time to start. Questions can be emailed to Emily Fekete, ASA manager of volunteer engagement and chapter relations.
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