Lisa LaVange to give Bratcher Memorial Lectures

The Tom Bratcher Memorial Lecture was founded to honor Professor Tom Bratcher, a Baylor professor who passed away unexpectedly in the fall of 2011. He was instrumental in founding the Department of Statistical Science in 2004 at Baylor and also for establishing the Conference of Texas Statisticians, which has now been running annually for almost 40 years. This marks the fifth lecture named in his honor since his death. The goal of the lecture series is to bring to campus internationally and nationally recognized scholars in the field of statistics who are known for bringing clarity to difficult concepts and whose research is of interest to Baylor at large.

Dr. LaVange is director of UNC’s Collaborative Studies Coordinating Center, overseeing faculty, staff, and students involved in large-scale clinical trials and epidemiological studies..

From 2011 to 2017, she was director of the Office of Biostatistics in the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Center for Drug Evaluation and Research where she oversaw more than 200 statisticians and other staff members involved in the development and application of statistical methodology for drug regulation. She was a leader in developing and assessing the effectiveness and appropriateness of innovative statistical methods intended to accelerate the process from drug discovery to clinical trials to FDA approval and patients, focusing on rare diseases. Prior to her government and academic experience, she spent 16 years in non-profit research and 10 years in the pharmaceutical industry.. .Dr. LaVange is an elected fellow of the American Statistical Association (ASA) and was the 2018 ASA President..