Brian Millen for
ASA President
I am grateful and honored to be nominated for the office of ASA President. I have been a member since graduate school, and I have benefitted and grown significantly from decades of participation and service in ASA. From these experiences, I bring a high level of passion for the ASA and sincere respect for its many volunteers and employees.
Given that how one leads is as important as what one does as a leader, I want to first share with you how I will lead, if elected.
…with a listening posture, committed to hearing the many great ideas that come from our membership. To that end, I will be accessible to members and will advocate for support of member initiatives as a means to move quickly in supporting ASA’s strategic aims
…with a sense of optimism. Associated with each challenge the ASA faces is an opportunity for heightened impact for our members and profession.
…with a proclivity for collaboration to ensure diverse perspectives are considered and synergies realized.
In addition, I’d like to share themes of focus for my term, if elected:
Celebrating and Telling Our Story
We must do a better job of sharing stories of impact of our discipline, shining a light on the impact of our members, including those who have historically underrepresented, and bolstering our outreach so our impact and value proposition are known. Telling our Story has important implications for our profession, our membership, and our advocacy.
Equipping and Cultivating Leaders
Members of our profession are influential leaders in govt, private sector, and academia. Their success is enabled by core skills from our discipline, mentoring, and learned leadership skills. As President, I will seek to enhance the capabilities of the Leadership Institute, grow our mentoring programs, and partner with academic programs on collaborative ways to embed leadership principles in graduate level training.
Advocacy
Scientific policy advocacy is an important and active area of service of ASA. The current climate suggests we may need to dial this up – speaking and acting with increased pace and clarity. Potential areas of advocacy include (but are not limited to) protecting public access to data and federal statistics, influencing funding pathways that are important to scientific advancements and the work of developing the next generation of leaders in the field, and traditional advocacy and education for sound statistical principles in research.
Healthy, Anchored & Agile
Being a “big tent” requires ASA to continuously adapt to meet the needs of a changing membership while staying rooted in mission. Review and update, where necessary, of governance and financial models to enable agility while ensuring organizational and financial health will be a priority.