Meet Katie Fitzgerald (@fitzgerald_kg), an Assistant Professor in the Math, Physics, & Statistics department at Azusa Pacific University (APU). She did her PhD in Statistics at Northwestern and then moved from Chicago to Los Angeles in 2021 to start her job at APU. She does interdisciplinary work in social policy and education research with expertise in meta-analysis, data visualization, and evidence communication.
Why did you decide to go into Statistics/Statistics Education?
I’ve always loved numbers and math, but in college I started to develop an interest in the social sciences as well as a personal concern for justice as I worked with people experiencing homelessness, incarceration, extreme poverty, and domestic violence. Yet I wasn’t sure how my math degree had anything to do with those pressing real-world concerns?! Thankfully, while working at an international humanitarian organization, mentors opened my eyes to the need for statisticians in global development and social policy. Doing a PhD in Statistics with an emphasis in social policy turned out to be the unique intersection I was looking for!
I grew up in a family of educators and life-long learners, so my love of stats ed came naturally. I find the many aspects of stats ed - teaching, mentoring, pedagogical & curriculum development – to be exciting opportunities to teach and learn how to be better stewards of information and better communicators of data :)
What Statistics Topic do you think is the most difficult to teach well?
I’ve found it difficult to teach some of the “intangibles” such as curiosity and ability to ask good questions. Statistics and data science are such investigative processes, so curiosity and insightful question-asking lay the foundation for meaningful analyses, but I have yet to figure out how best to foster these skills. Would love to hear what’s worked well for other stats educators!
What statistics class(es) are you currently teaching? What statistics classes do you enjoy teaching the most?
I am the only undergraduate statistics faculty in my department (#isostat), so I teach the whole gamut! In any given semester this might mean intro stats, intro data science, calc-based probability & statistics, and/or upper division courses in statistical modeling or data visualization. I love different things about all of them, but it sometimes surprises people how much I genuinely enjoy teaching intro stats 😊 I enjoy the challenge of easing non-STEM majors' anxiety about math/stats/coding and helping them discover how data intersects with their lives and career interests. In all my classes, I love teaching data ethics and helping students think critically about ethical and social implications of data collection, analysis, and communication.
What do you enjoy doing when you’re not working?
I love traveling (49 states, 5 continents, and counting!) and being outdoors - in SoCal I even get to hold my office hours outdoors year round! I’m also a book and podcast fan - politics, social issues, and theology mostly :)