The Department of Statistics congratulates Dr. Lendie R. Follett on receiving the 2025 Social Impact Research and Outreach Award from Drake University’s Zimpleman College of Business. This prestigious award honors faculty and staff who tackle pressing societal challenges through their research and outreach efforts.
Dr. Follett, Associate Professor of Business Analytics, Co-Director of Data Analytics, and Department Chair of Actuarial Science, Analytics, and Information Systems, was recognized for her work applying data analysis to expand food security efforts. In her Fall 2024 STAT 172: Data Mining and General Linear Models course, her students used predictive models to assist Wesley Life Meals on Wheels in determining how to expand its services beyond Polk County, with a focus on alleviating rural senior citizen food insecurity. This project supports the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2: Zero Hunger.
Dr. Follett holds a Ph.D. in Statistics (2016), M.S. in Statistics (2014), and B.S. in Statistics (2012) from Iowa State University of Science and Technology. Her Ph.D. thesis was titled "Bayesian Contributions to the Modeling of Multivariate Macroeconomic Data", and her creative component for her M.S. focused on "Visual Inference for Multiple Choice Lineups".
Her research expertise spans Bayesian computation and methodology, Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC), time series analysis, generalized linear models, and data visualization. Dr. Follett is particularly dedicated to applying her statistical expertise to food insecurity, nutrition, and well-being. She has used Bayesian methods to investigate topics such as nutritional choices, stochastic volatility in cryptocurrency, discrete choice modeling, and human capabilities.
Beyond her research, Dr. Follett has a strong history of community-driven outreach and statistical consulting. She was a member of Iowa State University's Statistics in the Community (StatCom) from 2014-2016, where she provided pro bono statistical consulting to non-profit organizations, helping to increase the perception of statistics in the community. Additionally, as an Agriculture Experiment Station (AES) Consultant from 2013 to 2016 at Iowa State University, Dr. Follett provided statistical consulting support to faculty, staff, and graduate students across departments associated with the Agriculture Experiment Station, offering expertise in the design and analysis of experiments and support for R and SAS coding.
Dr. Follett teaches courses in probability, statistical programming, generalized linear models, and data mining and leads the data analytics capstone course, where students partner with companies to solve real-world data problems. An advocate for reproducible research, she integrates these practices into her teaching, preparing students for impactful careers in data science.
This award highlights Dr. Follett's significant contributions to both academic research and community engagement. Congratulations to Dr. Follett on this well-deserved recognition!