About Me

Professional History

I earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Southern Utah University, then a master's degree in statistics from Brigham Young University, and in 2012 a PhD in statistics from Texas A&M University. My Master's Project was part of the search for Biomarkers analyzing variance components of Mass Spectrometry data.
My PhD dissertation was called "Efficient Estimation in a Regression Model with Missing Responses". Imagine a survey where some people didn't answer the most important question. One example was a study of Asian-American children where some kids didn't want to report their weight. Ignoring the missing responses leads to biased results. I was able to show that full imputation methods are the best asymptotic approach for semi-parametric models in this scenario.
Afterwards I taught at the University of Wyoming for eight years. My dissertation was heavy on theory and simulations, but my teaching career has been much more applied. I taught many online courses creating hundreds of videos and programming homework questions for these classes. I visited high schools and middle schools and college fairs to recruit students to the statistics major.
In 2020 I was able to return to Texas A&M as an Associate Instructional Professor. My teaching focus has been the introductory and intermediate statistics courses, as well as the consulting course and seminar. With over a decade of statistical analysis I've consulted with dozens of clients on their research goals, and dozens of clients with teaching goals. I am now the director of the Statistical Consulting Center on campus which is designed to provide statistical support for all faculty and graduate students as they progress in their research goals.


Personal History

I was born around 1980 with a double cleft palette. It's a genetic mutation (in my case not hereditary) where the nose and mouth aren't separated at birth. Thankfully modern medicine can help with a lot of the problems that brings. I was born in Cedar City Utah, nestled between Zion, Bryce, and Kolob national parks.
At age 19 I served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Florianopolis, Brazil. After speaking Portuguese for two years I came back and met my wife Teasha while at the college in Cedar City. We were married in 2000. We had our first child, Thomas, shortly before graduating: me in Mathematics and Teasha in Communication specializing in Early Childhood Development. We had our daughter Allie while I was doing the Master's program, and our two younger sons, Hinckley and Spencer were born while I was a PhD student. Each child is about two years apart. Teasha has worked as a veterinary technician, a stay-at-home mom, and at a preschool for many years.
Some of my kids remember living in Texas before, but most of their growing up was in Wyoming. Now they're glad to be in the land of warmth and sun. Thomas plans on studying Engineering or Chemistry. Allie is good at Psychology and English. Hinckley likes Math and Programming. Spencer is into Music and History. They aren't old enough to get into Statistics yet.


Personal Interests

My top priorities are God, my family, my work, and my religion in that order. Beyond those we have many interests. My wife loves nature, and has some favorite spots to take the canoe. She loves to shoot a rifle, and if anyone knows a good place to go shooting let us know.

We have a cat, Lily, who is amazingly cuddly and kind to everyone. Best cat ever. Allie likes cats.
The dog's
name
is Opal.

We love Brandon Sanderson books. 
We have fun playing video games, like Minecraft, Portal, and games on the Wii or the Oculus.

In my spare time I write murder mystery parties. Each person gets a page of secrets, and it's possible to figure out who the murderer is.
Our board game collection includes Catan, Robo Rally, Seven Wonders, Agricola, Dominion, and more.

Movies like the Marvel movies, are usually a hit. If you want to see our favorites click here.
I always get a kick out of things that are funny.
Click here for my favorite teaching memes.
Or here for a random selection of statistics comics.