WSS NEWS

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

---

May 1998

---

Contents:

• Newsletter by E-Mail
• Annual Election for Board of Directors
• 1998 Annual Dinner
• Open Board Meeting
• Biographical Information of the Candidates for the Board of Directors for 1998 - 1999
• Nominations are sought for the 1998 Roger Herriot Award for Innovation in Federal Statistics
• SIGSTAT Meetings
• Employment Opportunities
• Short Courses
• WSS Newsletter Editors Position
• WSS People

Newsletter by E-Mail

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.

Return to top

Annual Election for Board of Directors

Return to top

1998 Annual Dinner

Return to top

Open Board Meeting

Return to top

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

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

President

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.

Return to top of section

Representative-At-Large

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.

Return to top of section

Methodology Section Chair

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.

Return to top of section

Treasurer

Return to top of section

Return to top

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

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

• Dedication to the issues of measurement
• Improvements in the efficiency of data collection programs; and
• Improvements and use of statistical data or policy analysis.

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.

Return to top

SIGSTAT Meetings

April - June 1998

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.

Return to top

WSS Newsletter Editors Position

Return to top

WSS People

Return to top

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

Webmaster: Dan Jacobs, Maryland Sea Grant