Congratulations to PhD student Ashley Mullan on capturing the WSDS (Women in Statistics and Data Science) Conference Travel Award, sponsored by the Biopharmaceutical Section (BIOP) of the American Statistical Association. Her outstanding achievements and leadership in the field of biostatistics truly impressed the Travel Award Committee. In addition to a monetary prize, Mullan was recognized at a BIOP town hall on September 19, 2025, and will receive a certificate at the 2025 WSDS conference, with further recognition in August 2026 at the BIOP Mixer during the Joint Statistical Meetings in Boston.
WSDS 2025 will convene in Cincinnati, Ohio, from November 12 through November 14. Presenters with connections to Vanderbilt Biostatistics include:
Alexis Fleming (PhD candidate)
- First author and presenter of “Modeling Engagement in Mobile Health: Considerations for Multi-Treatment Designs,” in Speed Session 2 and Poster Session 2 – Nov. 12, 4:00 pm. Co-authored by associate professor Andrew Spieker.
- Speaker, “We CANS do it: Translating Complex Child Welfare Data into Actionable Insights with R Shiny,” in the “Community Counts” panel session – Nov. 14, 10:30 am
Lisa Levoir (MS 2025)
- First author and presenter of “All models are wrong, but some are useful: An Evaluation of Estimators for the Conditional Average Treatment Effect (CATE),” in Speed Session 2, Nov. 12, 4:00 pm, and Poster Session 2, Nov. 13, 7:30 am. Co-authored by associate professor Andrew Spieker and assistant professor Bryan Blette
- Organizer, “The Biostatistics Garden: Growing Careers, Cultivating Community, and Leading with Impact” panel – Nov. 13, 2:30 pm
Sarah Lotspeich (PhD 2021)
- Co-instructor, “The Statistician’s Storybook: Crafting Accessible and Engaging Presentations” workshop – Nov. 12, 8:00 am
- Speaker, “Examining the Impacts of Measurement Error in Quantifying Health Disparities: A Case Study on Type-2 Diabetes and the Food Environment,” in the “Teamwork Makes the Dream Work” panel session – Nov. 13, 10:00 am
- Organizer, “Data at Full Tilt: Accelerating Discovery with Wearables and Smartphones” panel – Nov. 13, 10:00 am
- Speaker, “Why and how we validate EHR data: Making them aud-it they can be,” in the “Data at Full Tilt” session – Nov. 13, 11:45 am
- Organizer, “Community Counts: Data Science for Equity and Public Health” panel – Nov. 14, 10:30 am
- Co-author of “The Impact of Neighborhood Food Insecurity on Type-2 Diabetes Prevalence Amid Measurement Error” (to be presented by Darcy Green in Speed Session 1 and Poster Session 1) – Nov. 12, 3:00 pm and 5:00 pm
- Co-author of “Access Under Uncertainty: Examining Measurement Error When Evaluating Food Equity” (to be presented by Cassandra Hung in Speed Session 2 and Poster Session 2) – Nov. 12, 4:00 pm, and November 13, 7:30 am
- Co-author of “Correcting Error-Prone Food Access Measures: A Comparative Study of Strategic Validation Sampling Designs” (to be presented by Yizhi Zhang in Speed Session 2 and Poster Session 2) – Nov. 12, 4:00 pm, and Nov. 13, 7:30 am
- Co-author of “Multi-state time-to-event modeling of Huntington Disease stage progression” (to be presented by Madhuri Raman in Speed Session 3 and Poster Session 3) – Nov. 13, 11:45 am and 5:35 pm
- Co-author of “Overcoming Censoring in Predicting Huntington Disease Progression: a Comparative Modeling Study” (to be presented by Abigail Foes in Speed Session 3 and Poster Session 3) – Nov. 13, 11:45 am and 5:35 pm
- Co-author of “Saving lives, reducing costs: Predicting healthcare utilization from whole-person health using partially validated electronic health records data” (to be presented by Grayson Weevil in Speed Session 4 and Poster Session 4) – Nov. 13, 2:30 pm, and Nov. 14, 7:30 am
Lucy D’Agostino McGowan (PhD 2018)
- Organizer, “Methods with Meaning: Celebrating The ‘Why’ Behind Statistical Innovation” panel, Nov. 13, 11:45 am
Ashley Mullan
- Organizer, “Teamwork Makes the Dream Work: Leveraging Different Approaches to Learn from Data” panel – Nov. 13, 10:00 am
- Chair, “Advanced Modeling for Spatial and Longitudinal Health and Environmental Data” panel – Nov. 13, 11:45 am
- Speaker, “Linking Potentially Misclassified Healthy Food Access to Diabetes Prevalence,” in the “Community Counts” panel – Nov. 14, 10:30 am