CHIBE Q&A: Lizzie Bair, MS

Read our Q&A to get to know CHIBE’s statistical analyst Lizzie Bair, MS.

What projects are you working on now?

I’m working on a series of retrospective studies for Dr. Venkataramani that look at how fluctuations in economic opportunity – employment booms and busts – affect health and mortality. I’m also working on a clinical trial looking at the impact of HIV self-tests among high-risk Kenyan women run by Dr. Thirumurthy. And finally, I’m involved in the Kentucky 1115 Waiver evaluation. It’s a lot of fun because they’re all very different projects!

What do you wish more people knew about your role?

I don’t think I’ve ever been asked the same statistical or data question twice. All of us statistical analysts work on such a diverse range of projects, and with so many different kinds of collaborators. We never know everything we need to at the start of a project, and we’re always learning on the job. So it’s not a bad thing if your analyst says: “I don’t know!”

What do you find rewarding about your work?

I love getting to see how all the team member’s efforts come together to shape a project. Statistician seems like a lonely role, but we actually benefit from the collective knowledge and input of everyone else on the project – investigators, project managers, CRCs, and students. Everyone brings different perspectives and nuances of the study and data to the table, and it’s their contributions that drive the quality of our analyses.