Congrats to Two Outstanding Teachers
Each year TSHS seeks to recognize an outstanding statistics educator and mentor in the health sciences. We look at the length and extent of teaching/training activities, the diversity of types of formal classes taught, mentoring and student accomplishments, and involvement in training program development and implementation.
This year we are thrilled to present the Outstanding Teacher Award to two people. (Photo from left to right: Jose-Miguel Yamal, Jacqueline Milton-Hicks, Amy Nowacki, Jeff Szychowski)
Dr. Jacqueline Milton-Hicks
Clinical Assistant Professor
Boston University School of Public Health
Department of Biostatistics
Dr. Amy Nowacki
Associate Staff Biostatistician
Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute
Department of Quantitative Health Sciences
It is truly exciting to see the incredible things these two women are doing for statistics education in the health sciences. Below are a few highlights.
Jacqueline Milton-Hicks
Jacqui is a Clinical Assistant Professor at the Boston University School of Public Health in the Department of Biostatistics. Since joining the department 5 years ago, she has taught (and restructured) the introductory MPH biostatistics courses using new ideas in flipped-style team-based learning. Her focus is on real-world hands-on application to both educate and engage the students in biostatistics.
Professor Timothy Heeren writes: “It is clear from her teaching evaluations, that she has an incredible ability to break down complex topics and teach them at an introductory level. She is consistently one of the favorites amongst our MPH students. Her courses have become quite popular and each semester during course registration her courses fill up within the first minute of registration!”
Beyond being a well-loved instructor and mentor, Jacqui has sought to bring biostatistics education to a diverse audience. For nearly a decade she has worked with Upward Bound to teach first generation and minority high school students in the Boston area skills in data analysis and collecting data through a three-week Introduction to Biostatistics course. She also sits on the American Statistics Association Diversity Workshop and Mentoring Program Planning Committee.
Exemplifying this inclusive philosophy, Jacqui writes: "In my courses I have developed online learning materials for students which can be adapted to students who have seeing or hearing disabilities, and I provide case studies that are applicable to students from all backgrounds (incorporating different race/ethnicities, genders, etc.). Greater diversity in the field of public health will ensure that new ideas are brought into the field and encourage an inclusive discipline which is important to promoting good health for all."
Amy Nowacki
Amy is an Associate Staff biostatistician in the Lerner Research Institute of Cleveland Clinic, teaching in the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. Upon joining the team, she was tasked with overhauling the biostatistics component of the medical school curriculum. The school uses flipped-style learning and portfolio-based evaluation and wanted the biostatistics section to follow suit.
"Amy has met this challenge superbly by combining highly focused, practical, software-oriented didactic presentations, meticulously scripted short-answer learning exercises; comprehensive data analytic assignments presented and critiqued by students and faculty in 8-student discussion groups; with an upbeat, sympathetic but serious approach that allows students a safe space to make and recover from mistakes. She has made herself treasured and made her medical students strong advocates for a serous medical biostatistics course," says fellow professor Peter Imrey
While Amy is now director of the full 9-week research methods block in the medical school, leads regular training for researchers and fellows, and is a mentor for many student theses, she doesn't shy away from having a little fun in her classroom. As Amy writes, one tenant of her teaching philosophy is to "Be creative! I've never been afraid to try something new in my classroom, I rely on humor and like to think innovatively... I aim to engage the students and create a memorable classroom experience for optimal learning."
For one such memorable classroom activity, check out her publication "Teaching Statistics from the Operating Table: Minimally Invasive and Maximally Educational" in the Journal of Statistics Education (Nowacki 2015). Here she use the Hasbro board game "Operation" to teach students about the research process. Dr. Imrey writes, while this "can at first invoke snickers, her scholarly, occasionally wry description, in JSE 2015; 23(1), reveals a holistic model of the research process consistent with ASA statistical instruction guidelines -- an imaginative, creative exercise virtually guaranteed to capture student interest and beautifully counter student preconceptions of Statistics as simply tedious number-crunching."
Please join us in congratulating these two outstanding teachers. Then, keep an eye out for incredible teachers near you. Applications for the 2019 award will be accepted in the spring.