Tuesday, Aug 4: 4:00 PM - 5:50 PM
1131
Invited Paper Session
Thomas M. Menino Convention & Exhibition Center
Room: CC-210B
Established to honor the accomplishments of W. Edwards Deming, this award recognizes the accomplishments of the awardee and enhances the awareness among the statistical community of the scope and importance of Deming's contributions. The 2026 Deming Lecture award is presented to Dr. Sallie Ann Keller. The 2026 Deming Lecture will be jointly presented by Cassandra Dorius, Senior Scientist for Innovation at the US Census Bureau, and Michael Hawes, US Census Bureau.
Dr. Sallie Ann Keller is a Distinguished Professor of Biocomplexity in the Biocomplexity Institute and a Quantitative Foundation Distinguished Professor of Data Science at University of Virginia. A nationally recognized research scientist, her expertise spans social and decision informatics, the statistical foundations of data science, as well as data access and confidentiality. She is a leading voice in advancing the science of all data for societal benefit. Her prior positions include chief scientist and associate director of the U.S. Census Bureau's Research and Methodology Directorate, where she led enterprise-wide collaborations to develop innovative scientific solutions that advance economic and social measurement; academic vice president and provost at University of Waterloo; director of the Institute for Defense Analyses Science and Technology Policy Institute; the William and Stephanie Sick Dean of Engineering at Rice University; head of the Statistical Sciences group at Los Alamos National Laboratory; professor of statistics at Kansas State University; and Statistics Program director at the National Science Foundation. Dr. Keller is an elected member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering and the International Statistics Institute, a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a fellow and past president of the American Statistical Association.
Cassandra Dorius had the great pleasure of working with Sallie for the past eight years at the US Census Bureau and on Gates Foundation–funded work to build Data Science for Public Good programs at five universities and pilot new models for engaging local, state, and federal stakeholders around data-driven problem solving. The Statistical Product First model being presented grew directly out of that collaboration.
Applied
Yes
Main Sponsor
Deming Lectureship Committee
Presentations
Ensuring the quality of official statistics remains a concern for National Statistics Offices. Today's statistical production increasingly relies on administrative records, blended and linked data sources, modeling, and iterative development processes that challenge traditional approaches to quality assessment. Quality can no longer be treated as a characteristic verified at the end of production; it must be embedded throughout the statistical product lifecycle. Consistent with Deming's emphasis on building quality into processes, this lecture introduces a Statistical Quality Framework that treats statistical quality as both a process and an outcome. Aligned with a Statistical Product First approach, the framework emphasizes starting with the purposes and uses statistics are intended to support and addressing quality continuously across design, development, dissemination, and evaluation—particularly when data collection is not directly controlled, and risks include representativeness, interpretability, accessibility, misuse, and context. Rather than serving as a checklist or compliance mechanism, the Statistical Quality Framework is designed to guide judgment and decision-making in the presence of uncertainty, reinforcing that quality must be built into systems and processes, not inspected in at the end.
Keywords
Deming Lecture