ABSTRACT
I was excited and humbled when I was invited to write this chapter. Writing this chapter caused me to reflect on my journey as a statistician. My foray into statistics started at the age of 17 when I was admitted to the undergraduate program in statistics at Madras Christian College in Chennai, India, and my formal education as a statistician continued as I proceeded to obtain a doctoral degree in biostatistics from Boston University several years later, after a short detour into software programming. Every position I have held during these years, be it as a research assistant, statistical analyst, post-doctoral candidate, faculty member, or consultant, has enabled me to enhance my existing skills and acquire new ones — both statistics-related and otherwise (e.g., team member, leadership, and negotiation skills). Although I had many experiences that helped shape my career and contributed toward my leadership skills, I describe in this chapter one particular experience, a trip to Sierra Leone on behalf of the volunteer consulting group Statistics Without Borders (SWB), that I believe effectively illustrates leadership in the context of service.
