Dr. Ji-Hyun Lee Department of Biostatistics

2025 ASA President

It is with great honor and humility that I have been elected to the esteemed position of the 120th American Statistical Association (ASA) President. I am deeply grateful for the trust placed in me. In the upcoming years, as President-elect in 2024 and as President in 2025, I anticipate the opportunity to collaborate and work alongside each of you. Together, we will strive to positively impact, accomplish remarkable achievements, and make a better society.

The Conductor

“To take ownership of a performance, even when somebody is waving their hands or leading from a violin, everyone feels they own this orchestra, and they own this piece of music and this concert.“
— Pekka Kuusisto, Finnish violinist and conductor

One of my passions outside of work is playing the cello in a local orchestra. Each member of the orchestra has their own voice. Whether playing the main melody or the harmony, each musician is responsible for developing a precise tone while tuning into other players’ performances to create a cohesive, beautiful sound. As the designated leader, the conductor’s role is to help coordinate the individual sounds, transforming them into a harmonized symphony. The orchestra cannot achieve success unless each member takes ownership of their contribution to the group under the conductor’s baton. I see the orchestra as a metaphor for the ASA, our professional organization. If elected as the ASA President, I will prioritize listening to and coordinating the contributions of every member in order to achieve greater success for our organization as a whole. I am humbled and honored that my colleagues at ASA have trusted my ability to fulfill this critical leadership role. I am thrilled about the opportunity to serve you and our shared professional home. My candidate statement is here.

Driven to Make a Positive Impact

I have been a long-time advocate for the field of statistics and its importance in society by devoting myself to professional statistical societies. I have been a member and volunteer with ASA for many years. I began my ASA journey by volunteering in my local chapter. Later I became a District Vice-Chair on the Council of Chapters Governing Board and, subsequently, a member of the ASA Board of Directors.

In addition, I served as a committee member for ASA accreditation (PStat/GStat), a member of the ASA Task Force on Sexual Harassment and Assault, a founding member of the JEDI Outreach Group, and an ASA representative for the Joint Mathematical Meetings. I am an elected ASA fellow and a certified professional statistician through the ASA, or PStat, which I proudly list on my CV.

Outside of the ASA, I served as president of the Caucus for Women in Statistics (CWS) in 2017. The CWS is an international professional statistical society formed in 1971 to advance the careers of female statisticians. During my presidency, one of the group’s remarkable achievements was a new mentoring program, which drew many young statisticians. I am also a member of the Korean International Statistical Society (KISS), and I served on the Board of Directors from 2017 to 2022. Last summer, as the local chair, I supported the International Chinese Statistical Association (ICSA) Annual Symposium 2022, held in Gainesville, Florida, at my home institution.

Building Strategic Bridges

ASA membership has significantly declined recently due to the pandemic and the emergence of various data science fields. We need to recruit more students, minorities, statisticians in small and diverse sectors, and other members of data science communities. While working as Vice Chair for District 6, I was surprised to learn that many statisticians are unaware of or underuse the valuable benefits and resources that ASA offers. This is especially true for statisticians in nonacademic sectors, master’s-level statisticians, and those more geographically isolated from the major statistics communities. These challenges are opportunities for us to expand our reach.

As a founding member of the JEDI Outreach Group and Past President of the Caucus for Women in Statistics, I see many opportunities to further diversify our association at all levels. This would enhance ASA programming and decision-making and increase our organization’s impact. The ASA chapters are critical to building local connections to support diverse recruitment to the membership and profession. My experience with the Council of Chapters would be an asset to help chapters attract new members and increase awareness of ASA activities.

Enhancing the Visibility of the Profession

In this data-driven era, we need a clear strategy to ensure our members are leaders and well-represented in science, medicine, society, and policy efforts. Building bridges with other leading professional societies in a wider range of disciplines, not only in data science but also in medical and other non-quantitative fields, is an effective way to elevate the role of statistics in team science. These bridges would foster collaborations, promote statistical literacy and advance scientific discovery.

The ASA has initiated several strategies, including the Data Science and Literacy Act of 2023, a partnership with CSAB for accreditation of data science and other programs by ABET, and a pilot program to develop partnerships with leading professional societies in medicine. The latter aims to elevate team science and collaboration, increase scientific rigor, promote statistical literacy and sound practice, and increase the visibility of our field. Working closely with the ASA Professional Issues and Visibility Council and the many ASA Sections and Interest Groups, I aim to continue to build on these efforts to develop and strengthen our external partnerships.

Opportunities to Create Change: Fostering an Inclusive Culture

Statisticians have played a critical role in experimental study designs, rigorous data analysis, and inferences through innovative analytical methods development and applications in various fields. I have been fortunate that my career has thrived in places where statistical collaborative team scientists are greatly valued. However, many statisticians work in less supportive environments that still do not adequately recognize and reward their vital contributions. As a lifelong statistical collaborator, I will continually advocate for statisticians as indispensable team players. I will work on this effort with the Science Policy team and related experts in the ASA.

Looking Forward: Precision Training

I firmly believe there are numerous leadership roles (see the NOLS leadership¹): designated leader, active follower, peer leader, and self-leader. Grounded in my parents’ strong belief system, I am passionate about helping others. I naturally first took the active follower role because of the joy I derived from the collaborative team scientist’s role and my personality. It was rewarding to support the group’s leader in achieving the team’s goals. When I started to take an administrative leadership role for small groups, my leadership type was always based on team decisions. I will strive to be an example for ASA members, showing that ASA is becoming the most inclusive and diverse organization possible and that all of us have the potential to become leaders in different roles.

A more diverse ASA leadership program will benefit ASA members with different backgrounds, from junior to senior levels, and expand the ASA leadership talent pool. In this intensive team science and collaborative environment, special or precise leadership training will be increasingly important. Precision leadership programs consider different leadership styles, roles, and responsibilities. I will work with sections, chapters, isolated statisticians, educators, and the leadership program committee to expand the ASA leadership program to meet the needs of our diverse members.

REF: 1.  “Four Key Leadership Roles“