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News about activities of the Washington Statistical Society
A Chapter of the American Statistical Association


May 2000

 


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Annual Election for Board of Directors

An election ballot for the 2000-2001 program year of the Washington Statistical Society Board of Directors is enclosed in the surface mail version of this issue. Biographical information on the candidates is also provided in this issue. Ballots must be received by Wednesday, May 31, 2000 to be counted. Results will be announced at the WSS Annual Dinner at June 7, 2000.

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Conference: Improving the Quality of Medical Care Statistics

The Committee on National Statistics (CNSTAT) will host a seminar on Improving the Quality of Medical Care Statistics on Friday, May 12, 2000, beginning at 3:00 p.m. The seminar will be held in the Lecture Room of the main National Academy of Sciences building, 2100 C Street, N.W.

The session will begin with a discussion of recent developments in national statistics, followed by a seminar and discussion on the research and methodology for improving the quality of medical care statistics. The seminar will include a presentation by Dr. David Cutler, Professor of Economics at Harvard University. Dr. Cutler will address the question of how the price of health care can be measured more accurately, and then focus on how to quantify changes in the effectiveness and value of treatment, which has broad application outside of economic measurement. Dr. Cutler will describe and assess the current research developments--both inside and outside the statistical agencies--and strategies and priorities for future research. The presentation will outline ideas for implementing consistent frameworks for economic and health statistics and in turn, national health accounts. Discussion will follow the presentation.

There is no cost for this seminar but pre-registration is required. Please send an email to: cnstat@nas.edu if you would like to attend. Or, if you prefer, you may call the Committee's office, 202-334-3097.

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GMU Fall Graduate Courses In Statistics

The Department of Applied and Engineering Statistics offers a Master of Science Degree in Statistical Science, a Ph.D. in Information Technology, a Ph.D. in Computational Sciences and Graduate Certificates in Federal Statistics and Signal Processing. All courses are offered in late afternoon or evening.

STAT 530: Mathematical Methods for Statistics and Engineering
M 7:20p.m. - 10:00p.m., (Gantz)

STAT 544: Applied Probability
R 4:30p.m. - 7:10p.m., (Davis)

STAT 554: Applied Statistics
W 7:20p.m. - 10:00p.m., (Sutton)

STAT 574: Survey Sampling I
T 7:20p.m. - 10:00p.m., (Bolstein)

STAT 658: Time Series Analysis and Forecasting
M 4:30p.m. - 7:10p.m., (Bell)

STAT 662: Multivariate Statistical Methods
W 7:20p.m. - 10:00p.m., (Miller)

STAT 663: Statistical Graphics and Data Exploration
T 4:30p.m. - 7:10p.m., (Carr)
STAT 679: Topics in Survey Design and Analysis R 7:20p.m. - 10:00p.m., (Staff)

STAT 682: Computational Methods in Engineering and Statistics
W 4:30p.m. - 7:10p.m., (Nash)

STAT 751: Computational Statistics
W 4:30p.m. - 7:10p.m., (Gentle)

CSI 771: Computational Statistics
W 4:30p.m. - 7:10p.m., (Gentle)

INFT 746: Stochastic Calculus
R 7:20p.m. - 10:00p.m., (Habib)

INFT 776: Real Analysis and Statistics
M 7:20p.m. - 10:00p.m., (Habib)

INFT 877: Geometric Methods in Statistics
T 7:20p.m. - 10:00p.m., (Wegman)

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Biographical Information Of Candidates For
The 2000 - 2001 WSS Board Of Directors

President

| Treasurer
Representative-At-Large | Methodology Section Chair

President

David Marker is an Associate Director and Senior Statistician with Westat. In this position he coordinates statistical activities on numerous tasks for many different government agencies. Recent projects have included statistical support for water pollution regulations, a national survey of human exposure to lead and allergens in homes, customer satisfaction surveys for the Department of Commerce, and evaluations of the ability of national surveys to produce state-level and demographic subgroup estimates for HHS. Over the last 6 years, David has served as a senior consultant to several European statistical agencies on continuous quality improvement (CQI). He also presented a two-day JPSM short course (with Lars Lyberg) on CQI. David has twice been elected to the WSS Board of Directors, as Methodology Chair (1988-90) and At-Large Member (1997-99). As an At-Large Member he took the lead in developing WSS= policy on defending statistics in the public arena (responding to statistical topics in the press), which has been used as the basis for the new ASA policy. He was a co-organizer and speaker at the five WSS Quality Assurance in Government Symposia. David is on the Executive Board of the ASA Section on Statistics and the Environment. He has conducted training sessions on CQI for the International Association of Survey Statisticians in England, Turkey and Latvia, and been an invited speaker on small area estimation in Poland, Finland, Latvia, and San Francisco. David also participated in two workshops on small area estimation sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences. He is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Official Statistics (JOS) and has had articles published in JOS, Environmetrics, and Statistical Science (in print); and chapters in the books Environmental Statistics, Assessment, and Forecasting; Survey Methodology and Process Quality; and Survey Nonresponse (in print). He has Ph.D. and masters degrees in biostatistics and statistics, respectively, from the University of Michigan and bachelor=s degree in mathematics from the University of Maryland.

Andy White is Director of the Committee on National Statistics (CNSTAT) at the National Research Council (NRC), the research arm of the National Academy of Sciences. CNSTAT brings the academic and federal statistical communities together to improve the statistical methods and information on which public policy decisions are based. Andy also served as a senior study director for two projects on decennial census methodology and as committee deputy director prior to his appointment as director. Before joining the NRC, he was Chief of the Statistical Technology Staff in the Office of Research and Methodology at the National Center for Health Statistics and also served as a senior member of the Survey Design Staff. Andy has been active in the professional statistical community in a variety of capacities. He is currently Chair of the American Statistical Association=s (ASA) Council of Chapters (COC) Nominating Committee and recently served as COC Vice Chair for three years. Prior to that, he was the WSS Representative on the Council for three years. He has been a member of the WSS Executive Board for the past six years, has served as a science fair judge, and has been elected methodology chair and a short course committee member in the past. Andy served as an elected member of the Statistics Section Council of the American Public Health Association and also as member of the annual meeting program committee. He has also served as a program organizer for the Public Health Conference on Records and Statistics, as an editor and reviewer for Vital and Health Statistics, and has served as a referee for the Journal of the American Statistical Association, Journal of Official Statistics, Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Communications in Statistics, Biometrics, American Journal of Public Health, Journal of Chronic Diseases, Journal of Economic and Social Measurement, and the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. He is active in the community, serving as a volunteer instructor for high school juniors and seniors when they spend a week in Washington each year with the Presidential Classroom. Andy holds a Ph.D. in biostatistics from the University of Michigan and has been invited to lecture on statistics, sampling, survey design, geographic information systems, and cognitive issues in surveys at the University of Chicago, USC, UCLA, Case Western Reserve, University of Washington, Brown University, University of Texas, University of Maryland, Yale University, University of Rhode Island, Indiana State University and Strayer College. His current research interests include census, survey, and sampling methodology; economic measurement issues; evaluation; and statistical policy.


Treasurer

Jill M. Montaquila is a senior statistician at Westat. Prior to joining Westat in 1995, she was a mathematical statistician at the Bureau of Labor Statistics. She holds a Ph.D. in Statistics from American University and an M.S. in Statistics from Miami University. She is currently Treasurer of the WSS and has previously served as the social events coordinator for WSS and as the WSS Quantitative Literacy co-coordinator for Fairfax County. Jill is also an active member of the Caucus for Women in Statistics, currently serving as a Newsletter Features Editor. Her statistical interests include sample survey design and estimation.


Representative-At-Large

Brenda G. Cox (Ph.D. Statistics, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University) is a senior fellow in the Washington, DC office of Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. Her more than 20 years of experience in survey sampling spans the design and conduct of national, state, and local surveys on diverse topics such as health care utilization and expenditures, customer satisfaction and access to care, education and career outcomes, alcohol and substance abuse, crime victimization, nutrition and the homeless, emergency food assistance facilities, child support enforcement, agricultural production, employee benefit plans, small business finances, and the environment. Dr. Cox chaired the committee that organized the 1993 International Conference on Establishment Surveys (ICES) and edited the resultant monograph on Business Survey Methods. She is also a member of the committee organizing the 2nd ICES to take place in June 2000. She is currently serving on the WSS Fellows Committee and previously served as Methodology Program Chair. She co-authored a text on Methodological Issues for Health Care Surveys and served on the organizing committee for the 1997 International Conference on Health Policy Methods. A fellow of the American Statistical Association (ASA), she is Chair of the Survey Research Methods Section, Past Chair of the Council on Chapters, and a member of the Committee on Meetings and the Committee on Nominations. Previously, she has served as President of the North Carolina and Princeton-Trenton Chapters of the ASA and as an associate editor of the Journal of Business & Economic Statistics.

Jeri Mulrow is a statistician at Ernst and Young. Prior to that, she worked at the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago as a survey statistician and as a Mathematical Statistician at the Statistics of Income (SOI) Division of the Internal Revenue Service. Jeri has been active in the professional statistical community in several capacities. She is currently Chair of the Individual Membership Subcommittee of the American Statistical Association and does the social arrangements for the Washington Statistical Society. Jeri was a past Membership Chair of the Caucus for Women in Statistics. Jeri has also served as a Washington Statistical Society Short Course co-chair. Jeri holds a Master,s in statistics from Colorado State University and has taught statistics classes at Southern Illinois University. Her research interests include survey sampling, survey methodology, and statistical thinking and quality initiatives.

Elizabeth Nichols is a statistician at the U.S. Bureau of the Census where she works in the Center for Survey Methods Research (CSMR). Her primary research interests lie in survey methodology issues surrounding the use of electronic surveys for self-administered surveys. Prior to her position in CSMR, she worked in the demographic, economic and decennial areas of the Census Bureau. She completed her BS in Mathematics at Loyola College, Baltimore and her MS is Statistics at the George Washington University. From 1995-1999 she served as the WSS Secretary.

Stuart Scott is a mathematical statistician in the Office of Survey Methods Research, Bureau of Labor Statistics, where he has worked since 1976. Activities for WSS include Methodology section co-chair (1998-2000) and Science Fair judge most years 1993-2000. This past year, he has helped initiate video conference seminars for WSS with the Joint Program in Survey Methodology, NCHS, Census, and Westat. He has made numerous presentations at ASA for both the Survey Research Methods and Business & Economic Statistics Sections. Stuart is a member of the organizing committee and a session organizer for the 2nd International Conference on Establishment Surveys this June. Current interests include seasonal adjustment, time series modeling, and data editing/screening. He served as an associate editor for Journal of Official Statistics 1989-95. He has a BA in mathematics from Rice University and a PhD in mathematics (statistics) from Catholic University. He has taught at the University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario.


Methodology Section Chair

Steven B. Cohen is Director of the Division of Statistical Research and Methods within the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. In this capacity, he is responsible for the statistical design of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey and conducts and directs research primarily focused on survey design, sampling, estimation, measurement error, and imputation. Steve also has served as an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins University since 1992, and previously served as an Associate Professor (part-time) in the Department of Health Services Administration at the George Washington University from 1983-1989. He is currently Chair of the ASA Section on Health Policy Statistics and a member of Section Council for the Statistics Section of APHA. He also served as Program Chair of ASA's 1997 International Conference on Health Policy Research focused on Methodologic Issues in Health Services and Outcome Research. Steve received a Ph.D. in Biostatistics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1978. He is an ASA Fellow ,has authored or co-authored over 80 journal articles and publications, including the text Methodological Issues for Health Care Surveys with Brenda G. Cox, and serves as an editorial collaborator for 8 statistical and methodological journals.

Alan H. Dorfman lead seminars at St. John's College, until, later than most, inspired by chi-square and fruitflies, he made statistics his career choice. He did his graduate work by chance at Johns Hopkins University, guided by the theories of Richard Royall, the practical savvy of Allyn Kimball, the dedication of David Duncan, and the maxims of Alan Ross. During this period he spent a summer gaining experience working on the National Health Care Expenditure Survey, under the valued aegis of Steve Cohen, who (again by chance) happens to be his worthy rival for this important position. Afterwards, he did some teaching and research, up North and down South, until self realization set in, and he came to government service at BLS, where he has consulted and done research for close on ten years (and served as BLS Statistical Seminar Chairman for most of that time). The principal consequence of this history is that he fully expects to be well into his nineties before being able to achieve a sufficiently remunerative retirement. He likes to work in partnership, especially with organized workaholics. In this regard, Rick Valliant, R. Royall, and he have recently completed a book on the Prediction Approach to Survey Sampling, which will doubtless prove to be a great boon for understanding the great bulk of sampling seminars, once it appears. In his leisure moments, he is ruled by a wife, and two on-their-way-to-adulthood kids.

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Using Federal Statistics in the Work Place

The National Association for Business Economics in conjunction with the Bureau of Labor Statistics will present "Using Federal Statistics in the Work Place". This skills seminar will be held on May 9, 2000 at the BLS in Washington, D.C. For the program and registration information, click here: http://www.nabe.com/publib/statsem.htm.

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SIGSTAT for May, 2000

SIGSTAT, the Special Interest Group in Statistics for CPCUG & WINFORMS, has resumes monthly meetings on the 2nd Wednesday of each month. All meetings are at 12:30 in Waugh A, 1800 M St, NW. See www.econ.ag.gov/sigstat/ for directions to the meetings and a current schedule. First time attendees should contact Charlie Hallahan at 202-694-5051 or hallahan@econ.ag.gov and leave their name for inclusion on the list left at the guard's desk.

The May SIGSTAT meeting will be on the 10th with a discussion about nQuery Advisor which is used by researchers in study planning and Equivtest which is used in analysis of bioequivalence and bioavailability studies.

Directions to the building can be found at the SIGSTAT website, www.econ.ag.gov/sigstat/.

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Note From The WSS NEWS Editor

Items for publication in the Summer 2000 WSS NEWS should be submitted no later than June 23, 2000. E-mail items to Michael Feil at ynomus@erols.com.

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WSS People

President
Mary Batcher (202) 327-6740
Past President
Dwight Brock (301) 496-9795
President-Elect
Cynthia Z.F. Clark (301) 457-2165
Secretary
Tom Mule (301) 457-8322
Treasurer
Jill Montaquila (301) 517-4046

Vice Chair for District 2 of
Council of Chapters

Ron Fecso (703) 306-1780 ext. 6906
Council of Chapters Representative
Carolee Bush (301) 457-3840
Representatives-at-Large
Carolyn Shettle (202) 537-6793
Linda Atkinson (202) 694-5046
 
John Czajka (202) 484-4685
Glenn White (202) 327-6414

WSS Program Chairs
Agriculture & Natural Resources
Anne Peterson (703) 235-5218 ext 113
Economics
Art Kennickell (202) 452-2247
Linda Atkinson (202) 694-5046
Methodology Section
Stuart Scott (202) 606-7383

Methodology Program
Ginny de Wolf (202) 395-7314
Public Health and Biostatistics
Paul Hshieh (301) 295-9762
Jai Choi (301) 458-4144
Public Policy
Carolyn Shettle (202) 537-6793
Phil Ross (202) 260-5244
Quality Assurance
Amrut Champaneri (202) 690-3130
Short Courses
Robin Lee (202) 327-7575
Social & Demographic Statistics
Roberta Sangster (202) 606-7517
Manual de la Puente (301) 457-4997
Statistical Computing
Bob Jernigan (202) 885-3170
Doug Samuelson (703) 978-5030
Data Collection Methods
Brad Edwards (301) 294-2021
Linda Stinson (202) 606-7528
Jonaki Bose (202) 219-1619

Employment
Fotios Kokkotos (202) 822-5592
WSS NEWS Editor
Michael Feil (301) 443-4234
Electronic Mail
Michael L. Cohen (202) 334-3765
Michael Greene (703) 247-1575
S.V. (Vince) Massimini (703) 883-5893
Membership
Renee Miller (202) 426-1117
Antionette Martin 202) 426-1110
Fritz Scheuren (202) 261-5886
Quantitative Literacy
Wendy Rotz (202) 327-7822
Carolyn Carroll (703) 379-4500
Science Fair
Lee Abramson (301) 415-6180
Video Librarian
Mel Kollander (202) 537-6700
Social Arrangements
Jeri Mulrow (202) 327-6772
Local Arrangement
Kevin Cecco (202) 874-0464
WSS Historian
Michael P. Cohen (202) 219-1917
WSS Committee on ASA Fellows
Phil Kott (703) 235-5211 x 102
Jacobs Memorial Committee
Paul Cook (703) 235-5218
Wendy Rotz (202) 327-7822
Shiskin Committee
Howard Hogan (301) 457-2665
Hansen Lecture Committee
Nancy Kirkendall
Wes Schaible
Rich Allen
Bob Groves
Joseph Waksberg
Student Representative
Currently Vacant

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First posted April 28, 2000
Last modified June 2, 2000

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