Board of Directors of the SSC
Executive Committee (2011-2012)
President: John Brewster, P.Stat., University of Manitoba
 | John Brewster is a Professor and Head of the Department of Statistics at the University of Manitoba. He has served the SSC as Secretary, President of the Business and Industrial Statistics Section, Chair of the Publications Committee and as a regional representative on the Board of Directors. John obtained B.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in mathematics from the University of British Columbia and an M.Sc. degree in mathematics from the University of Toronto. His main research interests are in experimental design, foundations of statistics, statistical decision theory and computer experimentation. He has consulted and collaborated with companies and organizations in Manitoba and has given a number of workshops on experimental design in the aerospace, agri-food, mining and semiconductor sectors. John is a former Director of the Statistical Advisory Service, former Director of the Institute of Industrial Mathematical Sciences and a past recipient of the Dr. & Mrs. H.H. Saunderson Award for Excellence in Teaching at the University of Manitoba. |
President-Elect: Christian Léger, Université de Montréal
| Christian Léger is Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at Université de Montréal. He has served the SSC in various capacities, notably elected on the Executive as Secretary (1998-2000), elected as Regional Representative of Québec on the Board of Directors for three mandates (1991-1995; 2000-2002), appointed as Program Secretary and non-voting member of the Executive (2005-2008), Program Chair of the 2010 Annual Meeting and Local Arrangements Chair of the 2004 Annual Meeting, as well as Chair or member of many committees of the SSC. In 2009, he was awarded the SSC Distinguished Service Award. He has also served the statistical community in many other ways, notably as Chair of the Board of Directors of the National Program for Complex Data Structures, Interim Director of the Centre de recherches mathématiques (CRM), member of NSERC Statistical Sciences grant selection committee, and member of the Statistics Canada's Advisory Committee. Christian received a B.Sc. in Mathematics from McGill University in 1983 and a Ph.D. in Statistics from Stanford University in 1988. His research interests involve resampling methods, model selection, and various applications. |
Treasurer: John J. Koval, P.Stat., University of Western Ontario
 | John Koval is Professor of Biostatistics in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of Western Ontario. After receiving his B.Math. and M.Math. in Statistics from the University of Waterloo, he travelled to England to study at Imperial College, where he earned an M.Phil. in Statistics from the University of London. He returned to the other London, where he obtained a Ph.D. from the Department of Statistical and Actuarial Sciences at Western. After a postdoctoral fellowship at Waterloo, he held faculty appointments in the Departments of Mathematics and of Statistical and Actuarial Sciences at Western. His research interests include epidemiological regression models, models for panel data, and the handling of missing data. He has been funded as a Principal Investigator by the National Cancer Institute of Canada, from which he has received grants to conduct a 10-year cohort study looking at psychosocial factors in smoking in adolescents and young adults. He has been a member of the SSC since the early 1980's and served as a member of several SSC consulting services committees. He was Treasurer of the Biostatistics Section from 2000 to 2007. Currently he is a member of the Accreditation Appeals Committee. |
Executive Secretary: Julie Trépanier, Statistics Canada
| Julie Trépanier has been an Assistant Director in the Household Survey Methods Division of Statistics Canada since 2006. Earlier, she worked in the Business Survey Methods Division as a Methodologist (1992-97), a Senior Methodologist (1997-2000), a Section Chief (2000-04) and Assistant Director (2004-06). She has a Bachelor's degree in Mathematics from Université de Sherbrooke. She pursued graduated studies in public administration at the École nationale d'administration publique from 1998 to 2000. She is one of the founders of the Association des statisticiennes et statisticiens du Québec, was a member of the first Executive Committee and launched the ASSQ newsletter Convergence in 1996. She is the current President of the SSC Survey Methods Section. She was a member of the organizing committee for the Third International Conference on Establishment Surveys that was held in Montréal in June 2007, and for the Statistics Canada International Symposium on Methodological Issues in 2004. She is the current co-chair of a similar Symposium to be held in 2009. |
Publications Officer: Wendy Lou, University of Toronto
 | Wendy Lou is a Professor of Biostatistics and Statistics, and Head of the Division of Biostatistics in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. She holds the Canada Research Chair in Statistical Methods for Health Care. Her work focuses on the development of statistical methodology for the study of chronic conditions and quality improvement, as well as on biomedical applications of the distribution theory of runs and patterns. She is currently an Associate Editor for Methodology and Computing in Applied Probability and for Statistics in BioSciences. After completing her Ph.D. at the University of Toronto, she was Assistant/Associate Professor in the Department of Biomathematical Sciences at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York University, prior to returning to Toronto. She has served as Member of the Regional Advisory Board for ENAR of the International Biometric Society, as Chair of the Local Assistance Committee for the JSM in Toronto, as Organizer and Chair of various invited sessions at the SSC Annual Meetings and the JSM, as President of the Southern Ontario Regional Association (SORA) of the SSC, as SORA Representative to the ASA Council of Chapters, as Ontario Representative on the SSC Board of Directors, and as Program Chair for the 2009 SSC Annual Meeting in Vancouver. |
Meetings Co-ordinator: Tim Swartz, Simon Fraser University
| Tim Swartz is Professor, Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, Simon Fraser University. He completed his PhD (1986) and M. Sc (1983) degrees in Statistics at the University of Toronto and his B. Math in Statistics and Computer Science from the University of Waterloo. His research interests include Bayesian applications and computation with a growing interest in statistics in sport. |
Past-President: Donald L. McLeish, P.Stat., University of Waterloo
 | Don McLeish obtained a B.A. from Queen's University, an M.Sc. from the University of Toronto and a Ph.D. in Probability from McGill University. Subsequently he held a Post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Chicago and taught at York University, the University of Alberta, Universities of Auckland, Michigan, and ETH Zürich, as well as sabbaticals at Stanford and Cambridge. He is Professor in the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science at the University of Waterloo. He is author of three books and has worked on martingale central limit theory, stochastic processes, estimating functions, missing data problems and simulation and finance and was the recipient of the SSC Gold Medal in 2007. Service over the years includes membership of the SSC Board of Directors (1985-87), Special Awards Committee of the SSC, member and Chair of the COPSS Committee, Associate Editor and Editor of The Canadian Journal of Statistics,Chair of the SSC Annual Meeting Program, member of the University of Waterloo Senate, member and Chair of the NSERC Statistical Science Grant Selection Committee, Appraisal Committee for the Ontario Council of Graduate Studies, and Director of the Center for Advanced Studies in Finance at University of Waterloo. He is a member of ASA and the ISI, and a fellow of the IMS. He wishes to help maintain the balance across the fundamental pillars of our discipline: research and innovation in the statistical sciences; consulting and the contribution of our discipline to progress in the health sciences, business and finance, science; and statistical education and literacy in the broadest possible context. |
Appointed Officers (2011-2012)
Executive Director: Shirley Mills, Carleton University
| Shirley Mills obtained her B.Sc. Hon.(Double Honours) and M.Sc. in Statistics and her Cert. Ed. (Secondary) from the University of Manitoba and her Ph.D. in Statistics and Applied Probability from the University of Alberta. She taught at the University of Winnipeg and the University of Alberta before joining Carleton University as a professor of mathematics and statistics in 1983. She has won university teaching awards at the University of Winnipeg and at Carleton University and founded and directed (1987-1994) the Statistical Consulting Centre at Carleton . She has served as a founding member and Secretary of the Statistical Association of Manitoba, as Secretary and as President of the Statistical Society of Ottawa, and has served the SSC as Executive Secretary, as well as Secretary of the BISS section, as the SSC representative to the Canadian Consortium for Research and as Chair of the former Statistical Consulting Committee. She has also served as President of the Carleton University Academic Staff Association, Faculty representative on the Carleton University Senate, Senate representative on the Carleton University Board of Directors, and Treasurer of the Canadian Association of University Teachers. She has consulted and collaborated with a wide array of university researchers, government departments, and organizations. While initially a mathematical statistician, her focus now is on computationally-intensive statistical methods and data mining and has given numerous talks and workshops on the latter. |
Electronic Services Manager: Hugh Chipman, P.Stat., Acadia University
 | Hugh Chipman has been a tier-II Canada Research Chair in Acadia University’s Department of Mathematics and Statistics since 2004. His graduate degrees are from the University of Waterloo, where he was also on faculty for seven years. He was awarded a P.Stat. in 2006. His research interests include Bayesian methods, applications, data mining and statistical learning. |
Regional Representatives (2011-2012)
Atlantic Provinces
Jeffrey Picka, University of New Brunswick
| Jeffrey Picka is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of New Brunswick, Fredericton. He has previously served as an Atlantic representative on the Board of the SSC and on the New Investigator's Committee. He obtained his undergraduate degrees (chemical engineering and mathematical statistics) from the University of Toronto, and his PhD in statistics from the University of Chicago. His main interests are in random set theory, spatial statistics, and methods for fitting complex stochastic simulation models for granular flows, forest fires, and other time series of disordered patterns. He is also interested in issues involving graduate education and research at smaller universities. |
Gary Sneddon, Memorial University of Newfoundland
 | Gary Sneddon has been a faculty member in the Department of Mathematics at Mount Saint Vincent University since 2010. He has previously a faculty member in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at Memorial University for 10 years. He completed his PhD in statistics at Dalhousie University under the supervision of Chris Field, and was a postdoc in the Geophysical Statistics Project at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, supervised by Doug Nychka. His interests include research on models for correlated count data. |
Québec
Mylène Bédard, Université de Montréal
 | Mylène Bédard is a faculty member at the Department of Mathematics and Statistics of the University of Montreal since July 2007. After obtaining her B.Sc. in Actuarial Science at Université Laval in 2001, she pursued her graduate studies at the Department of Statistics of the University of Toronto. She was initiated to research by Thierry Duchesne, and obtained her M.Sc in Statistics in 2002. In 2006, she received a Ph.D. in Statistics for her work on the convergence of Metropolis algorithms, accomplished under the supervision of J.S. Rosenthal. She received the Pierre-Robillard Award and the Governor General's Gold Medal for her doctoral research. After her graduate studies, she flew to England to perfect her formation as a CRiSM postdoctoral fellow within the Department of Statistics of the University of Warwick, where she spent a year. Since she was appointed Assistant Professor, she pursues her work on Markov Chain Monte Carlo methods at University of Montreal. |
Yogendra Chaubey, Concordia University
| Yogendra P. Chaubey is Professor and Chair of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at Concordia University, Montreal. He has an M. Stat. degree from the Indian Statistical institute (1972) and Ph. D from University of Rochester (1976). He has been quite active in promoting Statistics through membership in various capacities of several statistical associations: Secretary, and 1st Vice President Montreal Chapter of American Statistical Association; President, Statistical Society of Montreal; SSC Board Member 2002-04; Vice President, Forum for Interdisciplinary Mathematics (FIM) ; Editor, the SSC Liaison, 2004-06; Member, Committee on Career Development, American Statistical Association, 2005-2007. He has been an organizer of several academic sessions with various scholarly conferences, notably those held at Concordia University in 1991 and 2001. He is currently planning on organizing Statistics 2011 Canada to be held during July 1-4 at Concordia University. He is an elected member of International Statistical Institute since 2005. |
Geneviève Lefebvre, Université du Québec à Montréal
| Geneviève Lefebvre is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics at the Université du Québec à Montréal since 2008. Geneviève obtained her B.Sc. in mathematics and M.Sc. in statistics from the Université de Montréal. She received her Ph.D in statistics from McGill University in 2007 and completed her studies with a postdoctoral training at the University of British-Columbia. Geneviève is a member of the SSC New Investigators Committee since 2008 and has co-organized a Québec-Ontario regional meeting for new professors in April 2009. Her main research interests are in computational statistics and biostatistics, with an emphasis on applied methodology. |
David Stephens, McGill University
 | David Stephens is currently Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at McGill University, Montreal. After completing undergraduate (BSc Mathematics 1986) and graduate (PhD Statistics 1990) at University of Nottingham UK, he moved to Imperial College London as Research Associate in the Department of Mathematics. In 1995 he became Lecturer in Statistics, progressed to Senior Lecturer, before moving to McGill in 2006. His research interests focus Bayesian Theory and Applications and Bayesian Computation, with applications in Bioinformatics and Statistical Genomics and Time Series. More recently, he has begun working on Bayesian biostatistics and causal methods, Bayesian nonparametrics, spatial point patterns, and is interested in applications in ecology, econometrics, medicine. |
Ontario
S. Ejaz Ahmed, University of Windsor
 | S. Ejaz Ahmed is Professor and Head of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Windsor since 2002. He is a founding Director for Centre for Statistical Consulting, Research, Learning and Services (CSCRLS). Dr. Ahmed is an Fellow of American Statistical Association. He is an elected member of the International Statistical Institute, an Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society, and a member of the Statistical Society of Canada since 1987. He is the book review Editor of Technometrics. Dr. Ahmed serves as an Associate editor of several international statistical journals, including Computational Statistics and Data Analysis (CSDA) and Journal of Statistical Computation and Simulation (JSCS). He was a guest co-editor for Linear Algebra and its Applications (LAA). In the past, he served as a Board of Director and Chair of the Education Committee of the Statistical Society of Canada. He is co-author of a popular textbook Introduction to Probability and Statistics |
Alison L. Gibbs, P.Stat., University of Toronto
 | Alison Gibbs, P.Stat., is a teaching-stream faculty member in the Department of Statistics at the University of Toronto. After completing her Ph.D. in 2000 at the University of Toronto, she held post-doctoral and assistant professor positions at York University. In her current position she has taught a variety of statistics and probability courses, ranging from a first-year seminar to a graduate course in statistical consulting. Her responsibilities include overseeing and advising the department's Statistical Consulting Service. She has been active in the SSC through the Statistics Education Committee (member since 2004 and chair since 2007), through the Case Studies in Data Analysis at the annual meeting (organizer 2005-2009, chair of Case Studies Awards implementation committee in 2007, member of the Case Studies Awards committee 2007-2009, and CJS guest editor for the 2009 case studies) and as an Associate Editor of Liaison. |
Kevin Thorpe, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute and University of Toronto
| Kevin Thorpe is a biostatistician with the Applied Health Research Centre in the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute at St. Michael's Hospital and is an Assistant Professor in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. He received BMath and MMath degrees in statistics from the University of Waterloo. He has served the SSC as a member of the Committee on Membership and is currently active with the Statistical Education Committee. The field of clinical trials is the main focus of his research activity, but he is also very interested in statistics education. |
Changbao Wu, University of Waterloo
 | Changbao Wu is an Associate Professor in the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science at the University of Waterloo. His major research area is in survey sampling. He served as President of the Survey Method Section of SSC in 2005, and is the leader of the MITACS/NPCDS project on Statistical Methods for Complex Survey Data. He currently serves as an Associate Editor of Survey Methodology and Biometrika, and served on the Editorial Boards of the Canadian Journal of Statistics (2007-2009) and the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Statistics. |
Manitoba - Saskatchewan - N.W.T. - Nunavut
Melody Ghahramani, University of Winnipeg
 | Melody Ghahramani obtained her Ph.D. from the University of Manitoba, under the supervision of Aerambamoorthy Thavaneswaran in 2007. Since July 2007, she has been an Assistant professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Winnipeg. Her research interests include inference using estimating functions with applications in finance and econometrics. She is also interested in developing methodology for censored correlated data. Currently, she is a member of the Committee on Membership of the SSC. She was also a member of the Local Organizing Committee for the 2010 Prairie Network for Research in Mathematical Sciences meeting. |
Hyun (June) Lim, University of Saskatchewan
| Hyun J. Lim is an Associate Professor of the Department of Community Health & Epidemiology at the University of Saskatchewan. She is also the Director of the Clinical Research Unit at the University. June obtained MSc. Degree in mathematics and MSc. Degree in Statistics from the Michigan State University. She obtained Ph.D. degree in Biostatistics from the Case Western Reserve University in USA. Her main research interests are in survival analysis, longitudinal data analysis, and design of clinical trials. Her interest also includes infectious disease, especially on HIV/AIDS and TB studies. She has collaborated with clinical research investigators and organizations in Canada and USA and has published numerous papers on statistical methodologies and its application to health science. |
Alberta - British Columbia - Yukon
Edit Gombay, University of Alberta
 | Edit Gombay is Professor and Director of the Statistics Centre in the Department of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences at University of Alberta. She holds an undergraduate degree and a M.Sc. in Mathematics and Computer Science (1979) from University of Szeged, Szeged, Hungary. She obtained a Ph.D. in Statistics in 1986 from University of Calgary. Since 1987 Edit has been Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, and currently Professor in the (now) Department of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences of the University of Alberta. She ahs supervised 11 graduate students, and currently 3 graduate students are working under her supervision. Her research interests are in the areas of mathematical statistics, change-point problems, sequential methods, and their applications in various fields. In the SSC, Edit has served in the Committee of Women in Statistics, various Awards Committees, Committee for establishing a new award for applied statistics for work with significant practical impact, and Canadian Journal of Statistics Best Paper Award. In the Probability Section, Edit served as President Elect (2006–2007), President of Probability (2007–2008), and Past-President (2008–2009). Her services to the statistics profession includes Outside Adjudicator of four Ph.D. theses, Associate Editor of the journals Sequential Analysis and Statistical Methodologies, and has organized invited paper sessions at two SSC Annual Meetings, at an International Meeting. |
Joan Hu, Simon Fraser University
| X. Joan Hu is a Professor in Statistics at Simon Fraser University, Canada. Before she joined the University in 2003, she was an Assistant Professor and then an Associate Professor at University of Memphis, and an adjunct faculty member at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. After receiving her BSc in mathematics and MSc in statistics from Peking (Beijing) University, she went on to earn her PhD in statistics at the University of Waterloo. Her statistical research interests include event history data analysis, longitudinal analysis, incomplete data, and study design and interim review in clinical trials. She has collaborated with investigators in a variety of research fields, including HIV/AIDS, cancer, public health, reliability, political science and business. Joan’s honors include the NSERC University Faculty Award (2003-2008), the Frank Wilcoxon Prize (1998) and the Pierre Robillard Award (1996). She is an elected ISI member (2007) and an elected member of ICSA Board of Directors (2010-2012). She is currently an associate editor of Canadian Journal of Statistics, Lifetime Data Analysis, and Statistics in Biosciences. |
Appointed Officers
| Executive Director | Shirley Mills | 2013-12-31 |
| Manager of Electronic Services | Hugh A. Chipman | 2011-12-31 |
| Editor of Liaison | Larry K. Weldon | 2012-12-31 |
| Editor of The Canadian Journal of Statistics | Jiahua Chen | 2012-12-31 |
| Managing Editor of The Canadian Journal of Statistics | Angelo Canty | 2012-12-31 |
| SSC Executive Editor of Statistics Surveys | Richard Lockhart | 2010-12-31 |
See also the complete historical list of the Board of Directors.