WSS
NEWS

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


May 1998

 


Contents:



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Newsletter by E-Mail

Dear Colleague:

In the January Newsletter we wrote a letter urging those of you who have ready e-mail access to receive the Newsletter by that means. We have been very pleased with the response and would like to thank those of you who have signed up for the e-mail version of the Newsletter. About 40 percent of WSS members now take the Newsletter by e-mail, a substantial benefit to the Society's finances.

We recognize that e-mail delivery of the Newsletter is not convenient for some members. For regular e-mail users, however, e-mail delivery has some notable benefits, in addition to helping the Society's finances. Since there are no postal delays, the e-mail version of the Newsletter can arrive a week or more before the paper version. E-mail subscribers also receive announcements of late changes to our monthly program and of meetings of other organizations. Some members prefer to print the Newsletter from the WSS home page with its more attractive layout (a PDF version is also available here).

We encourage those of you who have not yet signed up for the e-mail delivery to do so. It is very easy. All you need do is to send a message to Vince Massimini at SVM@MITRE.ORG, asking to be added to the e-mail distribution list. If you are an ASA member, it would also be helpful if you could include your ASA membership number (to be found on your mailing label on materials sent from ASA, such as Amstat News). Please make the effort to send Vince a message now. It will take only a minute of your time, and it will make an important contribution to our Society's financial health.

Sincerely,
Phillip Kott
Past President
Graham Kalton
President
Dwight Brock
President-Elect

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Annual Election for Board of Directors

An election ballot for the 1998-1999 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 Monday, June 1, 1998 to be counted. Results will be announced at the WSS Annual Dinner at June 17, 1998.

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1998 Annual Dinner

The WSS Annual Dinner will be held Wednesday, June 17, at Athenian Plaka Restaurant in Bethesda. We are pleased to have Leslie Kish (Institute for Survey Research, Univ. of Michigan) as the featured speaker. Please see the reservation form for details. This is a great opportunity to see friends, meet colleagues, and make new acquaintances! All are invited. We hope to see you there!

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Open Board Meeting

You are invited to the June WSS Board of Directors Meeting which will be held on Tuesday, June 30, 1998; 12:30 pm, in the BLS Cognitive Lab, Postal Square Building, 2 Massachusetts Avenue. If you are interested in attending, for security purposes, you must submit your name to Elizabeth Nichols(Elizabeth.May.Nichols@ccmail.census.gov) prior to the meeting.

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Biographical Information of the Candidates
for the Board of Directors for 1998 - 1999

President | Representative-At-Large | Methodology Section Chair | Treasurer


President

Mary Batcher is a statistician at Ernst and Young. Prior to that, she was the Chief of the Statistical Support Section at the Statistics of Income (SOI) Division of the Internal Revenue Service. Mary has been active in the professional statistical community in several capacities. She is currently an Associate Editor for the Journal of the American Statistical Association and a Past President of the Caucus for Women in Statistics. Mary has also served as a Washington Statistical Society Representative at Large and chaired the Curtis Jacobs Memorial Committee for several years. The Jacobs Memorial Prize is co-sponsored by the Washington Statistical Society and the American Statistical Association (ASA). She has also chaired the Committee on Tutorials for the ASA Survey Research Section. In the past, Mary was also active in area PTA, holding elected office at both local and county levels. Mary holds a Ph.D. in statistics from the University of Maryland and has taught statistics classes in an adjunct faculty capacity at both the University of Maryland and George Washington University. Her research interests include survey sampling, statistical disclosure avoidance, and survey methodology in general.

Ruth Ann Killion has worked at the US Census Bureau in a number of capacities, most recently as Chief of the Decennial Statistical Studies Division. At one time, she was Executive Director for Research, Planning and Evaluation with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Her interests are in survey methodology, sampling, estimation, evaluation, and long range planning. Ruth Ann has a Masters (abd) in Mathematical Statistics and Psychology from Florida State University and has done graduate work in Management and Administration at the University of Maryland. She served as Secretary to WSS for four years and has been a very active volunteer in Quantitative Literacy projects. Ruth Ann says that perhaps the most exciting thing she has done has been working with the students at the Public Statistics Day held as part of the ASA annual meetings.

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Representative-At-Large

John Czajka is a Senior Researcher at Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., where he has been employed since 1978. John has a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Michigan. Since 1983 he has directed a series of statistical support contracts with the Statistics of Income Division of the Internal Revenue Service. This work has included the evaluation of current procedures and the development of new methodologies for handling incomplete data and addressing problems of nonsampling error in a number of contexts. In recent years, John has devoted much of his research to issues involving the representativeness of panel data and the research uses of administrative records. He is chair of the ASA Survey Research Methods Working Group on the Technical Aspects of the Survey of Income and Program Participation. Since 1995, John has also served on the National Research Council's Panel on Alternative Census Methodologies. John was a member of the WSS Board of Directors from 1986 through 1993. During the final three years of that tenure he was the WSS (and ASA district) representative on the governing board of the ASA Council of Chapters.

Joe Fred Gonzalez, Jr. has been a WSS member since 1972. He received a B.S. in mathematics in 1970 from St. Mary's University, San Antonio, Texas, and a M.S. in statistics in 1982 from the George Washington University. He works as a mathematical statistician in the Survey Design Staff, Office of Research and Methodology, National Center for Health Statistics. His duties include: sample design and estimation for national health surveys; small area estimation; quality control procedures; statistical modeling; statistical computer graphics; statistical consulting; coordinator of statistical seminars; and, technical review of proposed surveys and biomedical studies. Also, he is adjunct professor of mathematics at Montgomery College and adjunct professor of mathematics/statistics at the University of Maryland University College. He served as a member and chair of the ASA Committee on Minorities in Statistics for about 10 years and participated in numerous activities such as: producing two directories of minority statisticians and development of a videotape to encourage minority students to consider statistics as a profession.

Paul B. McMahon is currently with the Statistics of Income Division of the Internal Revenue Service. He has been a member of the WSS and ASA for about 15 years, contributing a number of papers on sampling from administrative records systems. He has also served on the Federal Committee on Statistical Methodology's Subcommittee on Nonresponse.

Carolyn F. Shettle recently joined COSMOS Corporation as a Project Director, leading a cross-site evaluation of a major substance-abuse prevention program funded by SAMHSA. Her prior experience includes being the Director of the Doctorate Data Project and Chief Statistician of the Division of Science Resources at the National Science Foundation. Her doctorate is in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin, Madison with a major in research methods and statistics. She is currently the Treasurer of the Washington Statistical Society (WSS) and is on WSS's Statistics and Public Policy Planning Committee. In addition to being active in WSS, Carolyn is currently the Council of Sections Representative for the Government Statistics Section and was the 1996 Program Chair for the Government Statistics Section.

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Methodology Section Chair

Charles R. Perry is a mathematical statistician with the Research Division of the National Agricultural Statistics Service. He has more than thirty years experience within the government and private sector as a mathematician, statistician, research scientist, research project manager, international consultant and educator, and college professor. He has managed and conducted research on a number of topics including: robust and composite estimation procedures, plant processes and yield component models, expert systems for predicting disease development in wheat, satellite remote sensing methodology for crop condition assessment, and sample selection in multiple surveys with an emphasis on minimizing response burden. Charles holds a Ph.D. in mathematics from Texas Tech University. He has taught numerous mathematics and statistics courses at Texas Lutheran College and the USDA Graduate School. He currently teaches a course in statistics at George Washington University, where he is an adjunct Professorial Lecturer.

Stuart Scott is a Mathematical Statistician in the Office of Survey Methods Research, Bureau of Labor Statistics. He has a Ph.D. in statistics from Catholic University of America. Stuart is a member of the organizing committee for the 2nd International Conference on Establishment Surveys, and a former Associate Editor of the Journal of Official Statistics. He has served as a WSS Science Fair judge. Research areas include seasonal adjustment, time series modeling, and measurement errors in surveys.

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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 an M.S. in Statistics from Miami University and is currently completing her Ph.D. in statistics at American University. Since 1994, she has served as the social events coordinator for the WSS. She previously served as 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 and as a Representative-at-Large. Her statistical interests include sample survey design and estimation.

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Nominations are sought for the
1998 Roger Herriot Award for Innovation in Federal Statistics

After the sudden death in May, 1994 of Roger Herriot, an Associate Commissioner for Statistical Standards and Methodology at the National Center for Educational Statistics, the Washington Statistical Society, the Social Statistics and Government Statistics Sections of the American Statistical Association established an award in his memory to recognize individuals who develop unique approaches to the solution of statistical problems in federal data collection programs.

The award is intended to reflect the special characteristics that marked Roger Herriot's career:

The award is not restricted to "senior" members of an organization; nor is it to be considered as a culmination of a long period of service. Individuals at all levels, from entry to senior, federal employees, private sector employees, or employees of the academic community, may be nominated on the basis of the significance of the specific contribution.

The recipient of the 1998 Roger Herriot Award will be chosen by a committee of representatives of the Social Statistics Section and Government Statistics Section of the American Statistical Association and a representative of the Washington Statistical Society. Roger Herriot was associated with and strongly supportive of these organizations during his career. The award consists of an honorium of $500 and a framed citation.

Joseph Waksberg (Westat), Monroe Sirken (National Center for Health Statistics) and Constance Citro (National Academy of Sciences) are previous recipients of the Harriot Award.

A nomination form can be obtained by contacting Daniel Kasprzykat 202-219-1588, 202-219-1325 (fax), or e-mail Daniel_Kasprzyk@ed.gov. All nomination forms should be returnedto the:

Roger Herriot Award
c/o Daniel Kasprzyk
4906 Colonel Contee Place
Upper Marlboro, MD 20772-2875

Completed nomination forms must be received by May 8, 1998.

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SIGSTAT Meetings

April - June 1998

The May meeting of SIGSTAT on the 13th features a demo of the SAS Analyst Application, a point-and-click interface for performing basic statistical analysis in SAS. The application computes summary and descriptive statistics, fits ANOVA and regression models, produces histograms and box-and-whiskers plots, and performs a variety of hypotheses tests and sample size and power computations not otherwise availabe in SAS.

The June meeting of SIGSTAT on the 17th (Note June's meeting is on the 3rd Wednesday) features a demonstration of two products from Ward Systems, the developer of the neural network software NeuroShell. Easy Predictor/Easy Classifier are designed for users with no previous experience with neural networks. Easy Predictor treats neural networks with a continuous output while Easy Classifier deals with categorical outputs. Instead of manuals each product comes with an online Instructor to guide the user through the process of building a neural network.

All SIGSTAT meeting are held in Waugh A on the 3rd floor of 1800 M St, NW. Directions to the meetings and a full schedule can be found on the SIGSTAT website www.econ.ag.gov/sigstat/. First-time attendees should contact Charlie Hallahan at 202-694-5051 or hallahan@econ.ag.gov to leave your name for admittance to the building.

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WSS Newsletter Editors Position

You too can be a newsletter editor! Please contact Mike Feil at mfeil@helix.nih.gov if you are interested in the process of editing newsletters or in learning how to do it.

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WSS People

President
Graham Kalton (301) 251-8253
Past President
Phillip Kott (703) 235-5211 ext. 102
President-Elect
Dwight Brock (301) 496-9795
Secretary
Elizabeth Nichols (301) 457-4865
Treasurer
Carolyn Shettle (301) 215-1500

Vice Chair for District 2 of
Council of Chapters

Andrew A. White (202) 334-2511
Council of Chapters Representative
Ron Fecso (703) 306-1780 ext. 6906.
Representatives-at-Large
N. Clyde Tucker (202) 606-7371
Sandra West (202) 606-7384
 
Alan R. Tupek (703) 306-1780
David Marker (301) 251-4398

WSS Program Chairs
Agriculture & Natural Resources
Bill Iwig (202) 720-3895
Stan Freedman (202) 426-1099
Economics
Linda Atkinson (202) 219-0934
Art Kennickell (202) 452-2247
Methodology
Karol Krotki (202) 944-5243
Brenda Cox (202) 484-4231
Public Health and Biostatistics
Trena Ezzati-Rice (301) 436-7022 ext. 133
Rene Gonin (301) 517-8084
Public Policy
Carolee Bush (202) 366-6946
Phil Ross (202) 260-5244
Quality Assurance
Amrut Champaneri (202) 690-3130
Glenn White (202) 327-6414
Statistical Computing
Bob Jernigan (202) 885-3170
Mike Fleming (703) 235-5213 ext. 170
Social & Demographic Statistics
Michael Horrigan (202) 606-5905
Edith McArthur (202) 219-1442
Short Courses
Roberta Sangster (202) 606-7517
Fritz Scheuren (703) 549-1120
Data Collection Methods
Brad Edwards (301) 294-2021
Linda Stinson (202) 606-7528

Employment
Bill Arends (202) 720-6812
WSS NEWS Editors
Michael Feil (301) 443-4234
Fran Chevarley (301) 436-7093 ext. 153
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 (703) 549-1120
Quantitative Literacy
Carolyn Carroll (703) 352-1712
Science Fair
Lee Abramson (301) 415-6180
Videotapes
Mel Kollander (202) 973-2820
Social Arrangements
Jill Montaquila (301) 517-4046
Local Arrangement
Wendy Rotz (202) 874-0969
WSS Historian
Michael P. Cohen (202) 219-1917
WSS Committee on ASA Fellows
Brenda Cox (202) 484-4231

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First posted May 6, 1998
Last modified May 6, 1998

Webmaster: Dan Jacobs, Maryland Sea Grant