New Leaders Commit to Raising Statistical Profession’s Visibility
ALEXANDRIA, VA, May 15, 2025 – Today, the American Statistical Association announced the election of Brian Millen as the 122nd president. His term begins January 1, 2027, with a one-year term as president-elect beginning January 1, 2026.
Acknowledging his passion and respect for the ASA, its volunteers, and members, Millen is committed to ensuring a healthy, anchored, and agile ASA that fulfils its mission of promoting the practice and profession of statistics. He is looking forward to hearing ideas from the membership and supporting member-driven initiatives. As president, Millen plans to enhance the capabilities of the Leadership Institute, grow mentoring programs, and collaborate with academic programs on ways to embed leadership principles in graduate-level training.
Reflecting on the statistics profession, Millen notes, “Statisticians play key roles in critical decisions and insights that impact society. We must do a better job of sharing stories of the impact of our discipline, highlighting the impact of our members—including those who have been historically underrepresented—and bolstering our outreach efforts so our impact and value proposition are known.”
In his current role as vice president, global head of biostatistics, epidemiology, and real-world data analytics at Biogen, Millen provides strategic direction to the organization and contributes to a growing data- and analytics-driven culture within research and development. His career in the pharmaceutical industry spans more than two decades. Prior to his current role, he served at Lilly in multiple senior leadership and technical roles across the clinical development lifecycle. He holds a PhD in statistics from The Ohio State University and a BA in mathematics from the University of Georgia.
Millen became a member of the ASA as a graduate student. Highlights of his leadership service include 2023 chair of the ASA Biopharmaceutical Section, founder of the JSM Diversity Mentoring Program (2009), and chair of the Committee on Minorities in Statistics (2009-2012). Millen is an elected Fellow of the ASA.
Julia Sharp was elected to serve as ASA vice president. Her term will begin January 1, 2026. During her tenure, she seeks to use her background in academia and government, along with her extensive ASA service, to tackle the challenges statisticians face today.
As Sharp points out, “Statistics stands at a transformative moment, and our association must lead in advancing sound statistical practice across disciplines ... The complexities ahead demand collaborative solutions. Throughout my career in academia and government, I’ve tackled complex challenges by bringing together many perspectives and harnessing collective expertise to implement effective solutions. I will bring this proven collaborative leadership approach to advance ASA’s mission and serve our membership.”
Sharp joined the National Institute of Standards and Technology as a mathematical statistician in 2023 and currently serves as acting statistical engineering division chief. Previously, she was a professor and director of the Graybill Statistics & Data Science Laboratory in the department of statistics at Colorado State University. She joined the faculty at CSU in 2016 following about nine years at Clemson University. She earned a BS in mathematics from the University of Evansville and an MS and PhD in statistics from Montana State University.
Sharp is an elected Fellow of the ASA and, in 2024, was awarded the ASA Founder’s Award. She has served in leadership roles on the ASA’s Conference on Statistical Practice Steering Committee, Meetings Task Force, and Council of Chapters Governing Board.
The ASA membership also elected the following board members:
- Pedro L. Silva, Vice President, SCIENCE (Sociedade para o Desenvolvimento da Pesquisa Científica); Consultant, World Health Organization; Consultant, NIC.br; Board of Directors International Representative, 2026-2028
- Ruixiao Lu, Vice President, Head of Biostatistics and Statistical Programming, Alumis; Board of Directors Council of Chapters Representative, 2026-2028
- Martin Slawski, Associate Professor, Department of Statistics, University of Virginia; Board of Directors Council of Sections Representative, 2026-2028
ASA members also elected officers for each of its 30 sections.