Current Role: Assistant Professor of Statistics, Amherst College
Education: BA, Mathematics, Messiah College; PhD, Biostatistics, The Ohio State University
My family is from New York, and that’s where I was born, but I lived in Virginia Beach through elementary school and then a small town in rural Ohio for middle and high school.
I became interested in statistics through mentorship and exposure to opportunities. I always enjoyed it, but with little guidance or exposure to other possibilities, I assumed I should become either a high school math teacher or an accountant.
I credit Sam Wilcock at Messiah College for nurturing my initial interest in statistics. I majored in math and was required to take two statistics courses as part of the major, both of which happened to be with him. After doing well in both courses, he encouraged me to continue taking courses in statistics and complete the statistics minor. With each course I took, I became more interested in the field.
By my junior year, I no longer wanted to be a high school math teacher, but I still didn’t know what careers in math or statistics looked like beyond teaching. I was introduced to biostatistical research through the Summer Research Opportunities Program in Computational Biology and Biostatistics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
I was inspired by the faculty and graduate students in the program and impressed by the impact of statistical research on scientific understanding and clinical practice in health care. That experience motivated me to apply for graduate school and, a year later, I began a PhD program in statistics at The Ohio State University.
After taking a couple courses in biostatistics and attending a local conference on health disparities that discussed the results of several cluster-randomized trials, I transitioned to the PhD program in biostatistics and decided to research statistical methods for these types of trials.
Today, I work at Amherst College and continue to research statistical methods for cluster-randomized trials and other correlated data with applications to mental health and aging research.
No part of this journey has been easy, but some of my proudest professional moments include hearing “Dr. Bailey” for the first time, walking across the stage for graduation with my family and chosen family cheering me on in the audience, entering my office at Amherst for the first time, getting the acceptance email on my first publication, and now being able to support other students on their journeys—especially through my roles in the STEM Incubator Program at Amherst and the ASA Committee on Minorities in Statistics.
There is something steady and deliberate in the way this piece brings Brittney Bailey into focus, not as a figure set apart, but as someone shaped by the same questions and effort that mark any honest path. It does not lean on spectacle, but instead shows the kind of work that grows over time, through study, mentorship, and a willingness to stand where others have not always been welcomed. Her involvement in efforts like StatFest and the broader push to open doors in statistics speaks to a quiet kind of leadership, the kind that builds rather than declares . What stays with me is the sense that this journey is not just about achievement, but about making room for others to follow, and that is the kind of contribution that carries weight long after the moment has passed.