Elizabeth Anne (Lianne) Sheppard is an American statistician. She specializes in

biostatistics Biostatistics (also known as biometry) are the development and application of statistical methods to a wide range of topics in biology. It encompasses the design of biological experiments, the collection and analysis of data from those experime ...

and

environmental statistics Environment statistics is the application of statistical methods to environmental science. It covers procedures for dealing with questions concerning the natural environment in its undisturbed state, the interaction of humanity with the environmen ...

, and in particular in the effects of

air quality Air pollution is the contamination of air due to the presence of substances in the atmosphere that are harmful to the health of humans and other living beings, or cause damage to the climate or to materials. There are many different types ...

on health. She is a Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences and a Professor of Biostatistics in the

University of Washington School of Public Health The University of Washington School of Public Health is the only public health school located in the Northwest, and is based on the main campus of the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington. The School is accredited through the Council o ...

. In 2021, Dr. Sheppard was named to the Rohm & Haas Endowed Professorship of Public Health Sciences.

Education

Dr. Sheppard graduated from

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...

with a bachelor's degree in psychology in 1979, and returned to Johns Hopkins for a master's degree in biostatistics in 1985. She completed her Ph.D. in biostatistics in 1992 at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

. Her dissertation, ''Aggregate Data Methods for Relative Risk Parameter Estimation in Diet and Disease Prevention Research'', was supervised by Ross L. Prentice.

Research contributions

Dr. Sheppard's methodological research interests are observational study methods, exposure modeling, study design, and epidemiology. Her applied research focuses on the health effects of occupational and environmental exposures. She is principal investigator of the NIH-funded training grant Biostatistics, Epidemiologic & Bioinformatics Training in Environmental Health, and she oversees the SURE-EH training program, a project to promote diversity in the environmental health sciences. She is also co-principal investigator of the NIH-funded Adult Changes in Thought Air Pollution study and of a Health Effects Institute study to better understand the role of exposure assessment design and modeling in inference about air pollution health effects. She has published over 190 peer-reviewed publications. Among her principal methodological/statistical contributions to the environmental health field are 1) developing statistical methods for aggregate data studies; 2) developing measurement error correction methods for inference about health effects for applications to air pollution cohort studies; 3) advancements in spatial and spatio-temporal modeling methods for air pollution exposures; and 4) referent selection and analysis approaches for case-crossover study design for air pollution epidemiology. She has also helped advance scientific understanding of the adverse effects of a variety of environmental exposures, including air pollution, noise, manganese, and pesticides.

Policy Contributions

In 2016, Dr. Sheppard was chosen to chair a panel of the

United States Environmental Protection Agency The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it be ...

to examine in what quantities

nitrogen oxide Nitrogen oxide may refer to a binary compound of oxygen and nitrogen, or a mixture of such compounds: Charge-neutral *Nitric oxide (NO), nitrogen(II) oxide, or nitrogen monoxide *Nitrogen dioxide (), nitrogen(IV) oxide * Nitrogen trioxide (), or n ...

s are harmful. However, in 2018 the Trump administration replaced Dr. Sheppard and other academic experts on the panel with public health officials, at the same time disbanding a related panel on particulate pollution. Dr. Sheppard was quoted as saying that these changes would "result in poorer-quality scientific oversight". Dr. Sheppard is also a participant in a lawsuit against new agency rules preventing scientists funded by the agency from serving on its panels, a move that caused her to step away from a three-million-dollar grant. In 2021, Dr. Sheppard was appointed chair of the

Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC).

Recognition

Dr. Sheppard was chosen as a

Fellow of the American Statistical Association Like many other academic professional societies, the American Statistical Association (ASA) uses the title of Fellow of the American Statistical Association as its highest honorary grade of membership. The number of new fellows per year is limited ...

in 2006, "for contributions to observational studies and environmental occupational epidemiology; for thoughtful commentary in science-policy areas; and for commitment to bringing statistical methodology to elementary and high school education. In 2020, she received the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology (ISEE) Research Integrity Award.

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Sheppard, Lianne Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American statisticians Women statisticians Biostatisticians University of Washington alumni University of Washington faculty Fellows of the American Statistical Association