Practical Significance

In this episode of Practical Significance, co-hosts Ron Wasserstein and Donna LaLonde talk with Meaghan Parker of the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing about the changing landscape of science journalism and why accurate, independent reporting remains essential to public understanding and trust.

Data and computing shape nearly every aspect of modern life, yet K–12 education has struggled to keep pace. In this episode of Practical Significance, Donna LaLonde and Ron Wasserstein welcome Nick Horton (Amherst College) and Anna Bargagliotti (Loyola Marymount University) to discuss the National Academies report, Data and Computing in K–12 Foundational Competencies 2026. Together, they unpack the report’s […]

What can a salary survey tell us about the current state of the statistics profession? Quite a lot as it turns out. In this episode of Practical Significance, cohosts Donna LaLonde and Ron Wasserstein welcome Christine Filer and Gary Langer of Langer Research Associates to discuss the findings of the recent ASA Work and Salary […]

What does it take to prepare statisticians for the realities of modern clinical trials? This month, “Practical Significance” cohosts Donna LaLonde and Ron Wasserstein are joined by Ji-Hyun Lee (University of Florida) and Nolan Wages (Virginia Commonwealth University) to discuss the new ASA Clinical Trials Certificate Program. Lee and Wages explore the gap between traditional […]

In this episode of Practical Significance, hosts Donna LaLonde and Ron Wasserstein are joined by longtime JSM docents Jessica Kohlschmidt (The Ohio State University) and Justin Jacobs (Oak Ridge National Laboratory). If you’ve ever walked into JSM and felt like you needed a translator, a map, and a friend all at once, docents are exactly that. Kohlschmidt and Jacobs […]

It’s Mathematics and Statistics Awareness Month, and Practical Significance is celebrating with a special guest—Francesca de Rosa, founder of FDR Strategies, to explore the growing field of serious gaming, where statistics, probability, modeling, and data-informed design come together.

In this episode of Practical Significance, cohosts Donna LaLonde and Ron Wasserstein welcome Real World Data Science managing editor, Annie Flynn (Royal Statistical Society), and editorial board members Monnie McGee (Southern Methodist University) and Willis Jensen (CHG Healthcare) to talk about what stories need to be told. Real World Data Science, a publication from the Royal Statistical Society in […]

What does a journal look like when you design it for the research world we’re living in, along with the one we’re building? In the latest episode of Practical Significance, cohosts Donna LaLonde and Ron Wasserstein welcome the editorial leadership team behind ASA Discoveries, the American Statistical Association’s new open-access journal. Editor-in-Chief Bo Li (Washington […]

A call to action kicks off the New Year and season six of “Practical Significance.” Cohosts Donna LaLonde and Ron Wasserstein welcome incoming ASA President Jeri Mulrow, who shares her thoughts about leadership, service, and the evolving role of statistics and asks members to become communities in action. Her experiences—from growing up in Helena, Montana, […]

During this traditional year-end edition of Practical Significance, co-hosts Donna LaLonde and Ron Wasserstein sit down with four outgoing ASA Board leaders—Ingrid Van Keilegom, Jenny Thompson, Melinda Holt, and Bonnie Ghosh-Dastidar—for a candid and inspiring conversation about their time on the board and the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead. The guests pull back the […]

Two distinguished leaders in federal statistics—Nancy Potok, former chief statistician of the United States and CEO of NAPx Consulting, and Connie Citro, senior scholar at the National Academies’ Committee on National Statistics, join hosts Donna LaLonde and Ron Wasserstein this month. Together, they discuss how the ASA is working collaboratively with other organizations to identify ongoing […]

Grace Wahba was awarded the 2025 International Prize in Statistics in recognition of her groundbreaking work on smoothing splines, which has transformed modern data analysis and machine learning. Wahba was among the earliest to pioneer the use of nonparametric regression modeling. She joined the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1967 as the first female faculty member […]