Women in Statistics

Join us on Tuesday, March 18th @ 3:00 PM as the Department of Biostatistics at NYU GPH hosts a special event in celebration of Women’s History Month! This event will feature a diverse group of women statisticians from statistics, biostatistics, academia, and healthcare. Moderated by our very own Dr. Rumi Chunara, this event offers a unique opportunity to engage in meaningful conversations, gain valuable perspectives, and expand your professional network. Meet our panelists below!

Daphna Harel, PhD
Associate Professor of Applied Statistics, NYU Steinhardt

Dr. Daphna Harel (she/her) is an Associate Professor of Applied Statistics and an applied statistician specializing in issues of measurement and modeling in the applied health sciences. Her research focuses on modeling challenges for data arising from self-reported questionnaires and other surveys, as well as other modern forms of data collection. Her methodological work focuses on the creation of theoretically justified guidelines for statistical analysis and issues of model misspecification in polytomous Item Response Theory, shortening patient reported outcome measures, and measures of effect size for differential item functioning. Her applied work centers around the use of advanced statistical methods to answer critical questions in the social and health sciences. She collaborates with researchers across numerous fields and publishes in scientific journals in both statistics and in the applications of her work. Her most recent work is in improving statistical practice as it pertains to LGBTQIA+ individuals and their data, as well as improving societal outcomes for members of this community. She currently PI's the NYU QUEER data lab. Daphna is on the steering committee for the DEPRESSD project and works closely with the Scleroderma Patient-centered Intervention Network to provide statistical support. Harel received her PhD from the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at McGill University.

Madhu Mazumdar, PhD
Professor of Biostatistics and Associate Director of Data Science for the Tisch Cancer Institute, Icahn School of Medicine

Dr. Madhu Mazumdar is a biostatistics professor and Director of the Institute for Healthcare Delivery Science at the Icahn School of Medicine, where she also serves as Associate Director of Data Science for the Tisch Cancer Institute. Previously, she founded and led the Division of Biostatistics and Epidemiology at Weill Cornell Medical College and headed research biostatisticians group at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. She collaborates with front-line physicians and clinical, epidemiologic, and lab researchers in oncology, orthopedics, anesthesiology, neurology, and geriatrics. Her research includes real-world data analysis, learning models, meta-analysis, clinical trials, and patient-reported outcomes. She received the Elizabeth Scott Mentoring Award, is an American Statistical Association (ASA) Fellow, and led a Team Science Award-winning group. A Fellow of the American Statistical Association, she has received the Elizabeth Scott Mentoring Award and led a Team Science Award-winning group. Committed to developing future leaders, she mentors biostatisticians, data scientists, and physicians through specialized teaching, inclusive recruitment, and personalized coaching. Her commitment extends to service on non-profit boards, further amplifying her impact on the field.

Loni P. Tabb, PhD
Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs & Associate Professor of Biostatistics Drexel Dornsife School of Public Health 

Dr. Loni Philip Tabb is the Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs, and the Associate Professor of Biostatistics and Graduate Program Director in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Drexel University’s Dornsife School of Public Health in Philadelphia, PA. She received her PhD in Biostatistics from Harvard University in 2010 where she developed novel statistical methods towards applications in environmental health and health disparities research. She also obtained her B.S. (2003) and M.S. (2005) in Mathematics from Drexel. At Drexel University, she has led several NIH, NSF, and foundation-founded projects and she was awarded a K01 Career Development Award (2017-2022) from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, entitled “Assessing the spatial heterogeneity in cardiovascular risk factors within and between blacks and whites." A dedicated educator and mentor, she teaches several biostatistics courses on advanced statistical computing, and survival data analysis, while actively supporting students and colleagues through a "pay-it-forward" lens. Dr. Tabb is an active member of several biostatistics and public health professional societies. She is a member of Harvest Christian Fellowship, and is a Board Member at The Tatnall School in Wilmington, DE. She lives in Delaware with her husband and two children.