What happens when you combine statistical expertise, cross-cultural collaboration, and a mission to build statistical capacity internationally? You get the ASA Educational Ambassador Program. In a recent episode of Practical Significance, Carolina Franco, Andrzej Kosinski, and Paulo Canas Rodrigues joined cohosts Donna LaLonde and Ron Wasserstein to discuss the mission of this initiative (established in 2005), which empowers statisticians from countries with a demonstrated need to attend the Joint Statistical Meetings, gain advanced training, and go back to spark lasting change in their home countries. This program is based on a commitment to principled statistical practice and the power of sharing knowledge across borders.
Donna Lalonde: Tell us about your day job.
Carolina Franco: I’m a principal statistician at NORC at the University of Chicago, which is a nonpartisan research organization that provides research and consulting services across many sectors. And in my role, I lead statistical methodology efforts for projects in social sciences and public health, bringing expertise in statistical modeling. And beyond my work at NORC, I’m also active in the service to the profession, including serving on the ASA Committee on International Relations in Statistics.
Andrzej Kosinski: I have been a member of the ASA Committee on International Relations in Statistics for several years, and, this year, I will finish serving as the chair of this committee. I’m a professor of biostatistics in the department of biostatistics and bioinformatics at the Duke University Medical School in Durham, North Carolina, and a member of the Duke Clinical Research Institute.
Paulo Canas Rodrigues: I’m a professor of statistics and data science at the Federal University of Bahia, in Brazil. I also lead here the Statistical Learning Laboratory, where I coordinate teaching research and outreach activities at the interface of statistics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. Among other activities, I also serve as the president of the International Society for Business and Industrial Statistics and president-elect of the International Association for Statistical Computing.
Ron Wasserstein: Carolina, as a member of the ASA Committee on International Relations in Statistics, share your perspective on the mission of the Educational Ambassador Program.
Carolina Franco: This is a great program, and I’m excited to talk about it. Scholars from various countries are sponsored to attend the Joint Statistical Meetings and take continuing education courses on emerging topics in statistics. Then, they’re expected to return home and teach what they learned.
The minimum requirement is to offer the equivalent of one graduate-level course—equivalent to a one-semester course—with no fewer than 10 people, but many ambassadors go far beyond that and organize courses and webinars that reach audiences across their country and even multiple countries.
The first educational ambassador, who was from Argentina, was selected in 2005. We are celebrating the 20th anniversary of the program, which is very exciting.
The ambassadors are selected through a competitive process, and the goal of this process is to maximize the impact of the award. We typically focus on countries where access to the kinds of advanced statistical training at JSM may be more limited.
Over the years, we had several countries represented, including Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, Pakistan, Namibia, Nigeria, Costa Rica, and many more. The program is administered by the Committee on International Relations in Statistics and is extremely impactful in fostering the exchange of knowledge and international collaboration.
Ron Wasserstein: Paulo, as a former educational ambassador, how would you describe the program?
Paulo Canas Rodrigues: I discovered this great program by chance. I became an ASA member not so long before and received a newsletter with the information to apply. I feel this program is a very special and prestigious opportunity, especially for people who live and work in developing countries.
The program is not just about attending one of the major conferences in our field, it is also about learning, connecting, and sharing. This allows people from underrepresented countries to take a chance and attend one of the largest gatherings of statisticians from all around the world. It is very important to support early-career colleagues and researchers from developing countries.
At JSM 2024 in Portland, I took two courses: one on text analysis and another on large language models, because I would like to grow my expertise in these fields. JSM was a very nice learning and networking experience, and I left with many ideas and resources I continue to apply and share at home, which facilitates a more meaningful impact.
Donna Lalonde: Andrzej, you’ve led the committee, so you have a good sense of what makes an ideal candidate. What qualities make an ideal candidate for the Educational Ambassador Program—beyond the academic and professional credentials?
Andrzej Kosinski: I want to stress that we opened the applicant pool beyond strictly requiring a doctoral degree in a statistical field, as it used to be. Now we ask the applicants to just hold a postgraduate degree. While a PhD is still preferred, this flexibility allows compatibility with varied academic environments around the world.
Beyond academic credentials, it’s very important that the candidate is involved in teaching and dissemination of statistical methods at a recognized university or research organization so they can share and spread the knowledge learned at JSM.
We are looking for applicants who are likely to keep in touch with us and may be willing to join potential future initiatives.
For example, we are hoping to initiate an ASA “international data quest” for students. So, with such an initiative, collaboration with past educational ambassadors can be very valuable. Keeping in touch and being engaged is very important.
Ron Wasserstein: Paulo, please share your experiences as the educational ambassador. You’ve talked about learning, connecting, and sharing. Can you speak further about what you did when you returned home and some of your goals for the future.
Paulo Canas Rodrigues: In fact, I did not go back home to Brazil. I was on a sabbatical leave in 2024, so I went back to Indonesia and worked there throughout the end of 2024. I gave a couple of talks and a half-course there related to text analysis and large language models. I’m teaching one month per year in Cameroon, and I also gave talks there on this field.
When I got back to Brazil in early 2025, I launched a new master’s- and PhD-level course called Large Language Models: Foundations and Inference. This is a course for our graduate program in statistics and data science. This course combines both theoretical and practical components, and it covers topics such as embedding attention mechanisms and statistical inference for large language models. My plan is to offer this course annually.
I also began organizing open seminars on generative AI, featuring international speakers—including one of the lecturers from the CE courses I attended at JSM 2024—and have been sharing resources with academic networks across Latin America and Africa.
In addition, I have started involving graduate students in research on LLMs and generative AI.
So, the impact of the Educational Ambassador Program has been truly meaningful, not just for me personally, but also for my students and broad academic network, reaching diverse audiences across several countries.
Donna Lalonde: Carolina, you’ve provided a rich history of the Educational Ambassador Program, which is certainly a measure of success. Would you share more in terms of the successes of the program?
Carolina Franco: One thing I’d like to say is that Paulo is a great example of the success of the program. He had an impact that went beyond his home country to various other countries. And, in fact, Paulo exemplifies what I view as success, and there are two aspects of it. One is bringing new educational opportunities to places where they may not have existed otherwise, and we saw a lot of that with Paulo’s experiences.
But there’s a second important aspect, and that’s relationship building. The ASA is enriched by bringing in voices and perspectives from around the world. And as we’ve already mentioned, we often stay in touch with educational ambassadors for years after they were active with us. In fact, I could give a couple of examples.
One of our past ambassadors from Nigeria helped establish the first ASA student chapter in Africa. That was very exciting. This reached students and universities across the country.
There’s another cool example. During the pandemic, many educational ambassadors spoke about how their countries were affected by the pandemic and how they adapted to the challenges that were brought about by it, and this resulted in a very interesting article in Amstat News, written by members of the Committee on International Relations in Statistics.
Donna Lalonde: Paulo, as you reflect on your time at JSM and as an educational ambassador, what else would you like to highlight in terms of successes of the program?
Paulo Canas Rodrigues: I believe success is not only about meeting the formal requirements of the program, but also about making a lasting impact. That can be done in classrooms, training, research, and professional networks.
When the knowledge gained at JSM becomes new courses, collaborations, student mentoring, or outreach activities, then we can say the goal is really being achieved.
I also think success means helping statisticians from the developing countries and underrepresented regions to gain more visibility and confidence to take leadership roles in the international statistics community.
Donna Lalonde: Andrzej, what’s your perspective on the success of the Educational Ambassador Program.
Andrzej Kosinski: The success of a program happens, indeed, when dissemination of knowledge happens. And Paulo, clearly, is a wonderful example. Another part is it leads to an ever-expanding circle of statistical thinking and connections around the world.
We are planning to organize a conference call with past educational ambassadors available so they can share their current work or teaching methods. So, keeping in touch and developing further connections is very much part of this program and ultimately a measure of its success.
Ron Wasserstein: The deadline to apply to be an ASA educational ambassador is December 15. Paulo, since you prepared an application for the program, let’s start with you. What are some tips for someone to apply for this program?
Paulo Canas Rodrigues: I have two pieces of advice. One, which I apply to my own life, is to be honest and realistic. For this proposal, it is important to try to describe in a clear and practical way how this knowledge will be shared after JSM. It will be important to show that you have some ideas, some structure, and some motivation to make it happen. It can be through teaching or organizing events, or webinars, or collaborations.
Secondly, don’t be afraid to show your passion. The committee is looking for people who truly care about education and the development of statistics in different regions of the world. So, it’s important your enthusiasm is shown in the proposal, so that the committee members who are making the selection can understand you are passionate about education and about sharing knowledge.
Ron Wasserstein: Andrzej, because you’ve evaluated candidates, from your perspective, what are some tips for applying for the ASA Educational Ambassador Program?
Andrzej Kosinski: Well, the first is a practical one. Please apply early. Occasionally, it happens, for example, a support letter does not come on time, and then, unfortunately, we cannot consider such an application.
But emphasizing what Paulo mentioned, please be clear about your teaching environment. Also explain in reasonable detail how you intend to share your knowledge during the year after you attend JSM as an educational ambassador. So, detail and clarity are important. And, of course, a strong dose of enthusiasm in the application is always impressive, and I’m glad Paulo mentioned it.
Ron Wasserstein: Carolina, what is your advice for those applying to the program?
Carolina Franco: This is my sixth year on the committee, so I evaluated a lot of applications. My advice is to make sure every part of your application highlights the impact your selection as an educational ambassador would have on your country, region, and beyond.
Of course, you want to emphasize your own qualifications and to show you’re well positioned to make the program successful. But we really care about impact, as well. Be specific and concrete. Like Paulo and Andrzej mentioned, provide a clear and concrete plan of how you will disseminate the knowledge you gain. Explain who will benefit, why there is a need for this training in your country or region, and how your proposal will address that need. So, that would be my advice. Just be concrete.
And I absolutely agree about the passion. How can we not? Right? That’s everything in life. Be passionate about what you’re doing! The deadline to apply for the ASA Educational Ambassador Program is just around the corner: December 15. Learn more and submit your application.
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