COPSS Florence Nightingale David Award Lecture

For the last two decades, I have advocated strongly for community analytics, spending much of my research and collaboration efforts in this direction to help communities understand how their residents learn, work, live, and play. With the rise of AI and the sea change in government resources, we are witnessing a change in infrastructure for science-based community decisions. This is at a time when our built infrastructure and population health require a more profound understanding to support a resilient future. What new challenges and opportunities are now present for the critical role of community analytics and the need for strong statistical science to support people and society? In honor of FN David and her work bridging advances in statistics and probability theory and the practical utility of our science, I will highlight the full spectrum of our community's contributions to today's pressing issues.