Educational Ambassador


Educational Ambassadors Sought

The American Statistical Association (ASA) Committee on International Relations in Statistics (CIRS) is seeking qualified nationals from Rwanda, Indonesia, Laos, Burma, Bolivia, Peru, and Saudi Arabia to serve as 2023 Educational Ambassadors.

In 2023, the ASA will select one Educational Ambassador to receive funding to attend the Joint Statistical Meetings and take one or more continuing education (CE) courses in an emerging area of research. The ambassadors will then return to disseminate the subject matter in their home country and/or region.

The application deadline is December 31.

Selected ambassadors will be expected to complete the following:

  • Attend the 2023 Joint Statistical Meetings (JSM) in Toronto, Canada, to take CE courses in an emerging area of statistics research.
  • Return to their home country and, within the next year, offer the equivalent of a one-semester master’s-level class with no fewer than 10 students on the subject matter of the CE course and write lecture notes in the language locally deemed most appropriate. Ambassadors are expected to repeat the offering at least once. The committee understands there can be practical or organizational considerations that make this a challenging requirement, so we are prepared to work with the ambassadors to devise an appropriate plan. The ASA will also investigate the possibility of providing further assistance through recorded webinars related to the CE course material.
  • Provide periodic updates and submit a final report within one year of attending JSM to the ASA through the Committee on International Relations in Statistics and the ambassador’s home institution. The report should describe how the transfer of knowledge was accomplished and how the ambassador invited statisticians from their country to work with them on the subject matter of their CE course.

The ASA will arrange and pay for the selected ambassador’s airfare, hotel, meeting registration, and CE course registration. The ASA also will reimburse the visa application fee and provide a $500 stipend. The Educational Ambassador will also receive free ASA membership for a year.

Candidates for the ambassadorship must hold a PhD or equivalent degree in statistics or a related field and be employed at the level of assistant or associate professor at a recognized university or research organization promoting the teaching and application of statistics.

Interested candidates should use this link to submit the required materials.

  • A curriculum vitae
  • A proposal (at most two pages) describing why the applicant should be selected for the award, how the ambassadorship will help disseminate knowledge of statistics in the applicant’s country and how the ASA’s expectations set forth above will be implemented upon the applicant’s return home.
  • A letter from the head of the academic unit (e.g., department chair, director, or dean) indicating institutional support for the applicant’s dissemination plan
  • One letter of recommendation

 

To welcome new international members to the American Statistical Association and create a trust for cooperation, the Educational Ambassador Program was launched by the Committee on International Relations in Statistics in 2005 to recruit a number of educational ambassadors from foreign countries. The program was developed to advance lasting collaboration between the ASA and other international statistical societies for permanent exchanges of knowledge.

Qualifications

A person holding a PhD in statistics or biostatistics who is open to studying a new area of research and who has an interest in teaching this new area of research is qualified to be an educational ambassador.

Selection Process

The Committee on International Relations in Statistics (CIRS) puts out a call for applications through various international channels. The committee members and Chair also serve as the selection committee.

The applicants are required to submit the following:

  • A curriculum vitae
  • A proposal (at most two pages) describing why the applicant should be selected for the award, how the ambassadorship will help disseminate knowledge of statistics in the applicant’s country and how the ASA’s expectations set forth above will be implemented upon the applicant’s return home.
  • A letter from the head of the academic unit (e.g., department chair, director, or dean) indicating institutional support for the applicant’s dissemination plan
  • One letter of recommendation

Activities

Educational ambassadors are subsidized to attend the Joint Statistical Meetings. At JSM, the chosen educational ambassador will attend a Continuing Education (CE) course in an emerging area of research (unknown in their own country) and receive a complimentary ASA membership for one year.

The educational ambassador will then return to his or her home country and, within the next year, teach a class of no fewer than 10 students at the master’s degree level the subject matter of the CE course taken.

The educational ambassador will give a report to the Committee on International Relations in Statistics about his or her experiences as an educational ambassador.

The educational ambassador is encouraged to repeat the class he or she taught in neighboring countries in person or through webinars.

The Martha Aliaga Educational Ambassador Program Fund

Martha Aliaga

A fund in memory of Martha Aliaga, former ASA director of education who created the Educational Ambassador Program with the Committee on International Relations in Statistics, helps support this program. Martha was passionate about statistical education and international outreach. We remember and honor her extensive contributions to enhance statistics education globally with this program.