Biostatistics

BEST Diversity Welcomes 2010 Class

BEST Diversity Program Participant Aysa Jones

As a pre-med student at Spelman College, Asya Jones was intrigued by the discussions on epidemiology in her classes but disturbed to learn about glaring disparities in health and in access to care for African Americans and Hispanics. While she ultimately switched from pre-med to a major in math, Ms. Jones still wanted to be involved in public health and asked herself how she could make an impact in that field.

She’s found part of that answer in the Biostatistics Enrichment Summer Training (BEST) Diversity Program, hosted by the Mailman School’s Department of Biostatistics. The brainchild of three graduate students with the support of Biostatistics Department chair Bruce Levin, PhD, the BEST program seeks to expand the pool of talent in the biostatistics arena by attracting college students from historically under-represented groups. The program, now in its third year, immerses students in an intensive 8-week program of statistics and biomedicine.

More Perspectives Yields Better Public Health

Biostatistics is central to public health research, helping investigators to determine the significance of their findings and evaluate new interventions. For biostatistics to play this role, however, it requires the best and brightest analytical minds from a variety of backgrounds to keep pace with the ever-changing public health landscape. Indeed, because the field of public health is fundamentally concerned with how diverse communities live and thrive, it needs to attract a variety of voices and perspectives.

In recent years, however, students and faculty at the Mailman School realized that biostatistics was unlikely to be thought of, much less pursued, as a career option among some U.S. minority groups. Biostatistics students Emma Benn, MPH, DrPH candidate, Gary Yu, MPH, DrPH candidate, and Helena Chang, MS, noticed the lack of diversity within the field and envisioned a program that would introduce under-represented students to the methods and challenges of biostatistics, public health, and biomedical research. With that, BEST was born.

The first year of the program enrolled seven students in a four-week pilot course. The current class consists of ten students representing colleges and universities from across the country, including: Johns Hopkins University, Morehouse College, Spelman College, and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Asya Jones describes the experience as transformational, “You get exposed to new ideas and new ways of approaching different topics. It opens your mind that we’re not limited to doing things one way. I can work anywhere, on any continent, with anyone. It’s really exciting.”

Inspiring a New Generation of Researchers

After the success of the first year, the student organizers worked with two Biostatistics faculty members—Drs. Melissa Begg and Roger Vaughan—to  receive a five-year training grant from the National Institutes of Health’s National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI).  The NHLBI’s support of the program reflects BEST’s emphasis on cardiovascular and cardiopulmonary disease – areas of health that have seen disparities of care among different groups within the United States.

Key to the curriculum is a mentored research experience where students work on a research project that integrates their learning and gives them access to a faculty member who provides feedback and support. “This experience of working with real scientists who mentor them is just amazing for a young person,” says Biostatistics chair Levin, who notes that it was just such an experience in his own youth that launched his career.

Justin Rucker, from the UNC is particularly interested in stigma and how race affects the way people seek care. Energized by the curriculum and program, Mr. Rucker recounts how his research mentor, Dr. Ellen-Ge Denton, has worked with him to tailor some of the data from her research to his specific interests.

“What’s important about statistics is not just being able to analyze the data but also being able to design a study so you can get good data to begin with,” he says.

Impressed by the program and the people he’s met, Mr. Rucker already plans to apply to the Mailman School once he graduates from Chapel Hill.

For more information about the program and funding for students, visit the BEST Diversity website.

June 18, 2010