Rebecca A. Betensky
President-Elect
Rebecca A. Betensky is Professor and Chair of Biostatistics at the New
York University School of Global Public Health. Previously, she was
Professor of Biostatistics at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public
Health. While there, she served as director of the Harvard Catalyst
(Clinical and Translational Science Award) Biostatistics Program;
director of the Data and Statistics Core for the Massachusetts
Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center; director of the Biostatistics
Neurology Core at Massachusetts General Hospital, and Leader of the
Biostatistics Program for the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center.
She received her A.B. in Mathematics at Harvard College, and her
Ph.D. in Statistics at Stanford University. She completed a post-doctoral
fellowship at the Department of Health Research and Policy, Division
of Epidemiology, Stanford University.
Dr. Betensky’s research focuses on methods for the analysis of censored
and truncated outcomes and covariates, which frequently arise from the
subsampling of cohort studies. She has a long-time interest in clinical
trials, and has written on the evaluation of biomarkers and the use and
interpretation of p-values. She has collaborated extensively in studies
in neurologic diseases, and serves as statistical editor for Annals of
Neurology. She is a statistical reviewer for the new journal, NEJM Evidence.
She is also a member of the National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center Scientific
Review Committee.
At NYU, Dr. Betensky was awarded an R25 from National Institute
on Aging to support a summer pipeline program for undergraduates
from underrepresented backgrounds who have interests in STEM fields
and aging research. At Harvard, she was awarded, and directed for
15 years, an NIH T32 training program in neurostatistics and
neuroepidemiology for pre- and post-doctoral students in biostatistics
and epidemiology and for clinician-scientists. She also previously
directed Harvard’s Biostatistics programs to promote and support
diversity at all levels in the field of quantitative public health.
She was a member of the BMRD Study Section for review of NIH statistical
methodology grants; served on committees for the Institute of Medicine;
and was co-chair of the technical advisory committee for the scientific
registry of transplant recipients. She recently completed a term as
member of the Board of Scientific Counselors for Clinical Science and
Epidemiology at the National Cancer Institute
Dr. Betensky an elected Fellow of the American Statistical
Association and of the International Statistical Institute,
and is a recipient of the Spiegelman Award and the Lowell Reed
Lectureship from the American Public Health Association.
