I am delighted to share that I’ve been promoted to full professor at UMASS Amherst!

That, and the end of my sabbatical leave, seemed like a good time to reflect a little on my work and field so far and how I plan to move forward. Now sharing this “with the world” for several reasons.

Firstly, with this writing, I want to make a deliberate commitment to how I want to contribute to statistical demography/global health going forward. I welcome comments and would like to connect with others interested in working towards the same or related goals.

Secondly, perhaps my note is helpful for others to see what an academic trajectory can be like (I know I benefitted in the past from learning about others’ trajectories).

Last but not least, I’d like to share my delight in making it to this point in my career, and end the note with giving thanks to individuals and institutions that helped make it happen.

Congrats Dr. Susmann! A thread on his dissertation research:

Congratulations to Dr. Herb Susmann @herbps10 !!!

Herb wrote an excellent dissertation on
Hierarchical Temporal Modeling and Targeted Learning with Application to Reproductive Health

This included...

— Leontine Alkema (@LeontineAlkema) July 1, 2022

Thread on new work on accounting for sexual activity in family planning indicators:

Excited that Chi Hyun Lee gets to share our paper with @herbps10 on

New measures for family planning and exposure to risk of pregnancy based on sexual activity and contraceptive use data

at #PAA2022

A 🧵 1/https://t.co/gEoG1WkK93

— Leontine Alkema (@LeontineAlkema) April 7, 2022

Guttmacher/WHO country estimates for abortion and unintended pregancies published, based on Bayesian demographic accounting model!

New estimates from @Guttmacher @WHO @HRPresearch on unintended pregnancy and abortion indicate major inequities in access to sexual and reproductive health services, including contraceptive and abortion care #SRHR https://t.co/1tE8UNEv7s

— HRP (@HRPresearch) March 24, 2022

Congrats Dr. Wang! A tread on his disseration research:

Congrats to Dr. Zhengfan Wang @ZhengfanW on an excellent dissertation defense @BiostatEpiUmass
It was a pleasure to work with you!

— Leontine Alkema (@LeontineAlkema) December 10, 2021

Improved used of service statistics data on family planning:

Improved use of service stats data for estimating contraceptive use 🙌🙌🙌

☑️Data collection/compilation carried out by @track20project #FP2020 M&E officers

☑️Stats in paper and excellent thread 👇 by @NCahill_Stat https://t.co/M4WcJWTwoz

— Leontine Alkema (@LeontineAlkema) November 1, 2021

Sex ratio at birth and missing female births: methods paper now published in AOAS

Published! Global Bayesian method in 𝗔𝗻𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗔𝗽𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗱 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗰𝘀 @InstMathStat for sex ratio at birth estimation and scenario-based projection, w @Patrick_Gerland Alex Cook @LeontineAlkema https://t.co/ludZgiyal8

— Fengqing Chao (@FengqingChao) September 27, 2021

UN IGME stillbirth estimates published in the Lancet

Globally in 2019, an estimated 2·0 million babies were stillborn at 28 weeks or more of gestation. Stillbirth rates varied widely across regions.
👉 Read the UN IGME stillbirth paper @TheLancet https://t.co/Y1yCDvvKr9 pic.twitter.com/ujIbST8ErN

— Danzhen You (@DanzhenYou) August 27, 2021

Scenario-based projections of missing female births due to sex-selective abortions:

Paper published in 𝗕𝗠𝗝 𝗚𝗹𝗼𝗯𝗮𝗹 𝗛𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘁𝗵 @GlobalHealthBMJ on scenario-based projections of sex ratio at birth (SRB) for all countries to 2100, w @Patrick_Gerland, Alex Cook, @KrstoCZG @LeontineAlkema https://t.co/WJHfrpl3z9

— Fengqing Chao (@FengqingChao) August 3, 2021

Check out our paper in Gates Open on the R package fpemlocal:

Sex ratio at birth projections: methods paper is forthcoming in AOAS, also check our preprint with estimates

Our paper on sex ratio at birth estimation & scenario-based projection for all countries will appear in 𝘼𝙣𝙣𝙖𝙡𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝘼𝙥𝙥𝙡𝙞𝙚𝙙 𝙎𝙩𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙘𝙨 @InstMathStat, w @Patrick_Gerland, Alex Cook and @LeontineAlkema. Arxiv version: https://t.co/iibYHgC41F

— Fengqing Chao (@FengqingChao) March 30, 2021

New preprint on Temporal Models for Multiple Populations: think LEGO!

New work on ArXiv with @monjalexander and @LeontineAlkema! We proposed a model class that introduces building blocks for modeling global health indicators. The class makes it easier to understand how existing models work and to compare them to one another. https://t.co/2EBogRNnL4 pic.twitter.com/RABCbio9HP

— Herb Susmann (@herbps10) February 22, 2021

New preprint on Bayesian cohort component model for subnational populations in data-sparse settings:

New preprint with @LeontineAlkema, proposing a Bayesian cohort component model for subnational populations in data-sparse settings: https://t.co/aBu6w6KzAs

1/

— Monica Alexander (@monjalexander) February 12, 2021

UN IGME estimates of stillbirths, and new preprint with the methods:

UN IGME just published estimates of stillbirths from 2000 to 2019:

Interested in the numbers 👉 https://t.co/8pGv07jEGc

Interested in the methods used 👉
This 🧵 and https://t.co/ybs4MUu8YV

With @ZhengfanW M Fix @jonwakeblue L Hug A Mishra @DanzhenYou @HannahBlencowe 1/ pic.twitter.com/6LBQB9fZpo

— Leontine Alkema (@LeontineAlkema) October 8, 2020

New paper on estimating abortion and unintended pregnancies:

Five years ago, we had an idea:
Let's estimate (unintended) pregnancies and abortion in an accounting model #BongaartsGoesBayesian 1/ pic.twitter.com/PfSjUirYIJ

— Leontine Alkema (@LeontineAlkema) July 23, 2020