2021 Program and Presentations
2021 Attendees
Invited Addresses:
Career Development: It’s All About Heart and Soul
Rob Santos
Vice President and Chief Methodologist Director, Statistical Methods Group, Urban Institute
Career paths can be quite the maze, quite the long and windy road. They can lead you away from your preferred areas of interest or imbed you in exactly what you want to do. Or they can do both if you learn to deftly navigate the inevitable opportunities and threats that arise during your trek. Drawing from a forty-year career in survey and policy research, this presentation will leverage real life experience to illuminate how one can rely on personal inner strength and resilience – your heart and soul — to advance towards your professional nirvana. Interspersed will be observations, experiences and lessons learned as the all-to-often sole Latinx/diverse voice in a fundamentally structurally racist industry and society.
Robert Santos is Vice President & Chief Methodologist at the Urban Institute, Washington, DC. He is an expert in survey sampling, survey design and more generally in social science/policy research, with over 40 years of experience. His career includes: Director of Survey Operations, Survey Research Center, University of Michigan; VP Statistics and Methodology, NORC University of Chicago; and Senior Study Director at ISR Temple University. Rob is the 116th President of the American Statistical Association (ASA), serving in 2021. He is an elected ASA Fellow and a recipient of the ASA Founder’s Award, the association’s highest recognition for distinguished service and leadership. He is past President of the American Association for Public Opinion Research and an elected member of the International Statistical Institute. Rob has served on numerous National Academies’ panels, the Census Advisory Committee for Professional Organizations (2001-2006), and the CDC National Center for Health Statistics’ Board of Scientific Counselors (2017-2020). He is a long time member of Feeding America’s Technical Advisory Group (2004-2021).
Rob Santos was born and raised in the barrios of San Antonio, Texas, where he attended Little Flower School and graduated from Holy Cross High School. He received a BA in Mathematics from Trinity University in San Antonio and an MA in Statistics from University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He lives in Austin, Texas with his wife of 47 years. He’s a proud father of two adult children, and a doting grandfather to two granddaughters. Rob enjoys Texas coastal fishing, ranching and hunting in the hill country and photographing live music as a member of the SXSW Photocrew.
REDCap – What’s Old, What’s New, and What’s Next?
Paul Harris
Director for Vanderbilt’s Office of Research Informatics
REDCap is a research data collection and management software platform disseminated at no cost by Vanderbilt University Medical Center to non-profit academic, non-profit, and government organizations around the world. It has seen widespread adoption by 4,600 academic and non-profit institutions in 139 countries. This talk will describe the origins of REDCap and the REDCap Consortium, highlight new and upcoming functionality for the platform, and provide practical recommendations for surveys centers considering adoption of REDCap.
Paul A. Harris, PhD, is professor of biomedical informatics and biomedical engineering who has approximately 20 years’ experience working in the field of clinical research informatics. He earned his doctorate in Biomedical Engineering from Vanderbilt University in 1996 and now serves as Director for Vanderbilt’s Office of Research Informatics.
In addition to REDCap, Dr. Harris created and runs a national program, ResearchMatch, designed to ‘match’ volunteers wishing to volunteer for studies and scientists recruiting participants for research at any CTSA institution. The ResearchMatch program currently serves 148,000 volunteers and 9,000 researchers across 179 academic institutions.
Dr. Harris is interested in problems associated with: 1) novel strategies for data collection, analysis and dissemination; 2) participant recruitment, engagement and return of value; and 3) software collaboration and dissemination models. He currently serves as co-PI for the NIH/NCATS Recruitment Innovation Center and co-PI for the All of Us Data and Research Center program housed at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
