As part of ENAR's education initiative, our webinars promote continuing education for professional and student statisticians by disseminating cutting-edge knowledge to our membership. An ENAR webinar (or "WebENAR") can strengthen your background in methodology and software, provide an opportunity to learn about a topic outside of your primary area of specialization, or deepen your understanding of an area in which you already work. We invite you to participate and benefit from the expertise of some of North America's leading statisticians and biostatisticians.
The Webinar Committee of the ENAR Regional Advisory Board (RAB) is coordinating this ongoing series of 1- to 2-hour webinars given by renowned experts. Registration is free for current ENAR members. The webinars are planned to be broadly available and we encourage groups at your institution or workplace to participate together. WebENARs provide excellent learning opportunities for students and professionals alike.
Registration fees are waived for ENAR members, however, advance registration is still required for all attendees. Please email enar@enar.org if you have any questions.
Enhancing Learning and Communication with Interactive Tools in Statistics and Health Surveillance
Friday, April 11, 2025
9:30-11 am EST
Presenter:
Collin Cademartori
Wake Forest University
Collin Cademartori is an assistant professor in the Department of Statistical Sciences at Wake Forest University. Prior to joining Wake, he completed his PhD in Statistics at Columbia University. His research interests include observational causal inference, Bayesian inference in poorly identified problems, and model checking. He is also interested in developing interactive tools for better statistical pedagogy, particularly at the introductory level.
Interactive Activities for Improving Intuition and Reducing Abstraction in Introductory Statistics Courses
Concepts like sampling variability, confidence levels, and p-values are notoriously difficult to convey to introductory statistics students. Common to all of these concepts is the need to think counterfactually about not just the estimate, interval, or test statistic that we have in hand, but about what we could have obtained if some random process had turned out differently. In this talk, I will present an interactive tool designed to help introductory students gain intuition for this type of thinking by making abstract counterfactuals concrete. Specifically, I will demonstrate a general two-step process whereby students simulate a random process on their own computers, the results of which are then aggregated and displayed on the instructor’s computer for the whole class. Through a few worked examples, I will show how the combination of interactivity and aggregation allows us to replace abstract questions like “how could your estimate have been different?” with concrete questions like “how did your estimate differ from your classmates’ estimates?”
Presenter:
Paula Moraga
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST)
Paula Moraga is an Assistant Professor of Statistics at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), and the Principal Investigator of the GeoHealth research group. Prior to KAUST, she held academic statistics positions at Lancaster University, Harvard School of Public Health, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Queensland University of Technology, and University of Bath. She received her Master's in Biostatistics from Harvard University and her Ph.D. in Statistics from the University of Valencia. Paula's research focuses on the development of innovative statistical methods and computational tools for geospatial data analysis and health surveillance, and the impact of her work has directly informed strategic policy in reducing the burden of diseases such as malaria and cancer in several countries. Paula has published extensively in leading journals, and has created educational materials that impact learning on a large scale, including her books Geospatial Health Data (https://www.paulamoraga.com/book-geospatial/) and Spatial Statistics for Data Science (https://www.paulamoraga.com/book-spatial/). Paula received the prestigious Letten Prize by the Letten Foundation and the Young Academy of Norway for her pioneering research in disease surveillance, and her significant contributions to the development of sustainable solutions for health and the environment globally.
Building Interactive Geospatial Visualizations for Health Surveillance using R
Geospatial health data are essential to inform public health and policy. These data can be used to understand geographic and temporal patterns, identify risk factors, measure inequalities, and quickly detect outbreaks. In this talk, I will give an overview of R packages for mapping and the creation of interactive dashboards to communicate geospatial data and results. I will also show how R was used to develop Dengue-tracker (https://diseasesurveillance.github.io/dengue-tracker/index.html) an interactive surveillance system for dengue monitoring in Brazil. Finally, I will discuss the importance of effective communication and dissemination to inform policymaking and improve population health.
Purchase Webinar Recording (4/11/2025).
From Connections to Career Growth: Social Media Strategies for (Bio)Statisticians
Monday, April 21, 2025
11-12 pm Eastern
Speakers:
Natalie Exner Dean, Emory University, Rollins School of Public Health
Laura Hatfield, University of Chicago
Kimberly Sellers, North Carolina State University
Abstract:
Join us for a webinar designed for folks who are eager to enhance their professional development through effective use of social media. This session will feature three amazing panelists who will share their expertise and experiences on how to strategically use LinkedIn and other social media platforms to advance your career in the (bio)statistics field.
Our panelists will discuss a range of topics, including:
Following the panel discussion, there will be an interactive Q&A session where attendees can ask questions and gain personalized advice from our experts. Whether you're looking to expand your network, enhance your professional visibility, or discover new career opportunities, this webinar will provide you with valuable insights and practical tips to help you succeed.
Speaker Bios:
Dr. Natalie Exner Dean is an Associate Professor of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University. Dr. Dean’s research focus is on methods to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions targeting emerging infectious diseases, especially vaccines. Dr. Dean is co-director of the Emory Alliance for Vaccine Epidemiology (EAVE) and co-director of the Summer Institute in Statistics and Modeling in Infectious Diseases (SISMID). She is a co-Principal Investigator of the CDC-funded Emory Center for Infectious Disease Modeling and Analytics Training Hub (CIDMATH). Dr. Dean was the 2024 recipient of the Communications Award in the Joint Policy Board of Mathematics.
Dr. Laura Hatfield is a Senior Fellow in the Statistics & Data Science department at NORC at the University of Chicago. Dr. Hatfield’s expertise spans several critical areas, including quantifying variation and causal inference. She has developed statistical tools to reveal patterns of variation, identify subgroups, and quantify tradeoffs in health care measures. In addition to her methodological innovations, Laura has contributed significantly to health policy and health services research. Currently, Dr. Hatfield provides statistical leadership for the International Health Systems Research Collaborative and leads the Data and Methods Cores of two NIH-funded Program Project grants.
Dr Kimberly Sellers is the Department Head and Professor of the Department of Statistics at North Carolina State University. Her areas of interest focus on discrete data modeling, with regard to distribution theory, discrete multivariate analysis, regression analysis, control chart theory, and statistical computing. Dr. Sellers is the author of the reference, The Conway-Maxwell Poisson Distribution (Cambridge University Press) which was released in March 2023, and is a frequently requested speaker (both nationally and internationally) for her research and/or service activities to advance the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) fields and workforce. Dr. Sellers is an Elected Member of the International Statistical Institute, a Fellow in the American Statistical Association, and a Fellow of the Association for Women in Mathematics.
Register for Webinar on 4/21/2025.
