The Links Lecture Award was created in 2017 by the American Statistical Association to honor the significant contributions of three pioneers who advanced the US federal statistical system’s ability to meet these data demands—Constance Citro, Robert Groves, and Fritz Scheuren.

Starting with the End in Mind:  A Statistical Product 

The U.S. Census Bureau has been a leader in statistical innovation throughout its history and has demonstrated a sustained commitment to providing an accurate portrait of our nation through the delivery of statistical products. Meeting our nation’s current statistical information needs is a daunting task, requiring more timely, accurate, granular, and customizable information about our people, places, and the economy. New data sources, advanced in statistical methods, and data science innovations will help us to meet those demands. In today’s digital era, massive amounts of data are generated as we go about our daily lives. This provides an incredible opportunity to revolutionize how we capture and use data to develop relevant statistical products. By widening our lens and not limiting ourselves to the data our surveys produce, we can design statistical products that are informed by what our what data users need, and that cross program areas. However, to do this we must be willing to integrate our survey data with other data sources, while accounting for multiple dimensions of quality and confidentiality protection. This presentation will share how the U.S. Census Bureau plans to re-envision its data enterprise based on a statistical product first approach. This approach includes eliciting the purposes and uses our statistics are to support, collaborating with internal and external data users to develop the products using ALL our data assets, and then embracing varying access modes for statistical product dissemination to support stakeholder needs at all levels of data acumen. The research and enabling technologies to support this journey will modernize and transform our official statistical infrastructure.

Presented by Sallie Keller

Dr. Sallie Ann Keller is chief scientist and associate director of the U.S. Census Bureau’s Research and Methodology Directorate. She also holds an endowed distinguished professorship in biocomplexity at the University of Virginia. Keller is a nationally recognized research scientist whose areas of expertise are social and decision informatics, statistical underpinnings of data science, and data access and confidentiality. Keller is an elected member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, an elected member of the International Statistics Institute, and a fellow and past president of the American Statistical Association. Keller earned her Ph.D. in statistics from Iowa State University.

Discussant Emilda Rivers

Emilda B. Rivers is the Director of the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES), one of the thirteen U.S principal statistical agencies and the statistical agency for the U.S. National Science Foundation (USNSF). She leads NCSES in delivering data on research and development funding and performance; the science and engineering (S&E) workforce; U.S. competitiveness in science, engineering, technology, and R&D; and the condition and progress of U.S. science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education. She recently served as Chair of the White House Advisory Committee on Data for Evidence Building. She received recognition for significant public servant contributions by the American Association of Public Opinion research as the 2022 Public Service Award recipient. Mrs. Rivers holds a master’s degree in survey methodology from the University of Maryland College Park.

October 30, 2024

First Approach

Presented by Dr. Sallie Keller