2022 Pride Scholarship Goes to 3 Diversity Champions

About Allison Theobold

(she/they)

Allison Theobold, an assistant professor in the statistics department at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo, graduated with a PhD in statistics with an emphasis in statistics and data science education in Spring 2020 from Montana State University. Theobold’s research focuses on innovation in statistics and data science education, with an emphasis on equitable pedagogy and learning trajectories.

While at MSU, Theobold facilitated Safe Zone trainings and mentored students in the campus LGBTQIQ+ and Women in Science and Engineering mentoring programs. During her graduate work, she also served as a statistical consultant for MSU’s Statistical Consulting and Research Services, working toward broadening researchers’ awareness and mindfulness of the language they use when collecting and analyzing data intersecting with gender and sexual identities.

“For too long, researchers have added generic gender questions into their surveys without considering why they are collecting these data,” explained Theobold. “Survey respondents deserve to know how their personal information will be used and, if these pieces of data are necessary, they deserve inclusive options for gender and sexual identities. Surveys shouldn’t uphold the false pretense that gender is binary or ‘other’ people’s lived experiences,” she continued.

Additionally, Theobold designed and led a series of data literacy workshops for undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, and staff across MSU as part of her dissertation research. In both her classroom and these data literacy workshops, Theobold reshaped students’ access, achievement, identity, and power across the curriculum, making MSU a more inclusive space for members of the LGBTQIQ+ community and encouraging others to do the same.

“As a new faculty member who started a position during COVID, the ASA Pride Scholarship opens opportunities for me to connect with fellow researchers in mathematics and statistics education,” said Theobold. “Additionally, the scholarship will support the creation and facilitation of Safe Zone–style workshops at the United States Conference on Teaching Statistics and Electronic Conference for Teaching Statistics, which I have long thought would be a great asset for our community.”

About Yin-Jen (Alex) Chen

(she/her)

Yin-Jen (Alex) Chen, a transgender woman of color and PhD student at North Carolina State University, is already working to help minority students thrive and succeed in the statistics field. While working on her research—dimension reduction and low-rank approximation in high-dimensional statistics—Chen makes sure to find time to mentor younger students. One example is the Grad-Future Workshop she served on as a panelist. The workshop, organized by the NC State Statistics Department, is geared toward students who are interested in graduate school in statistics and social justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion.

“Women, people of color, and LGBTQIA+ people are usually marginalized and overlooked in the STEM field, and these systematic biases in turn affect their daily life and perpetuate overt and covert discriminations in the society,” said Chen. “Therefore, I hope I can contribute my knowledge and experiences to help the minority thrive in the field of statistics and data science.”

After graduation, Chen hopes she can mentor and guide younger students, especially from the LGBTQIA+ community and the racial minority, in the statistics and data science fields.

“I have the faith that mentoring and education in a safe environment is the crucial way for them to grow and an important step to encourage diversity and inclusion in the statistics field, and even in STEM research,” Chen said.

About Jeremy Seeman

(he/him)

Seeman is a PhD candidate in the department of statistics at The Pennsylvania State University working toward a dual degree in statistics and social data analytics. His dissertation work proposes a new statistical methodology in support of valid statistical inference with confidential data under formal privacy guarantees in the presence of data that are public or must be made public, which subsequently could have significant policy implications.

Seeman’s interdisciplinary statistical work is motivated by being a queer statistician, some of his personal experiences, experiences of others like him, and his desire to use his work and position to help LGBTQ+ folks and be an ally for other marginalized people.

“I have seen and experienced firsthand the importance of LGBTQ+ perspectives in statistics,” said Seeman. “Such involvement is essential in the social sciences, where the politics of imbuing statistical processes with socially desirable values like privacy, fairness, and transparency necessitates listening to LGBTQ+ and other marginalized voices.”

In addition to his work and studies, Seeman mentors LGBTQ+ undergraduate students and has helped coordinate outreach events with the Penn State Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity. He also contributes to the statistics department’s Climate and Diversity Committee, whose mission is to further the college’s vision of providing a supportive and welcoming environment in which all its diverse members can carry out their individual missions of research, service, teaching, and learning.

Seeman said, “Through my involvement with my department’s Climate and Diversity Committee and my volunteer work with the Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity, I have been humbled finding new ways to improve academic and STEM experiences not only for LGBTQ+ folks, but as an ally for other justice initiatives.”