About me (Allan Rossman)

I have been teaching statistics, primarily at the introductory level to undergraduates, for thirty years. 

I lived in Pennsylvania for the first 39 years of my life.  I grew up in Ellwood City and went to college 10 miles from home at Geneva College in Beaver Falls.  Then I went to graduate school 40 miles from home, where I received a Ph.D. in Statistics from Carnegie Mellon University.  Then I traveled 200 miles from home to teach at Dickinson College for 12 years.

And then I moved to California, where I have been teaching in the Statistics Department at Cal Poly – San Luis Obispo since 2001.  I have taught introductory statistics to students from throughout the university, and I have also taught courses in probability, simulation, and mathematical statistics.

I have written articles and co-authored textbooks on teaching introductory statistics with active learning, and I have given more than 100 conference presentations and conducted more than 100 faculty development workshops on teaching statistics.

I have served as Chief Reader for the Advanced Placement program in Statistics and as Program Chair for the U.S. Conference on Teaching Statistics and the Joint Statistical Meetings.  I also served on the committees that developed the ASA’s GAISE college recommendations in 2005 and 2006. I have been honored as a Fellow and Founders Award recipient of the American Statistical Association and as a recipient of the MAA’s Haimo Award for Distinguished Teaching and the ASA’s Waller Distinguished Teaching Career Award.

I enjoy travelling with my wonderful wife Eileen (favorite destinations include Venice, Hawaii, and Sedona), cats (ours have been named Eponine, Cosette, and Puti), reading mysteries (favorite authors include Robert Galbraith, Louise Penny, and Alexander McCall Smith), and fantasy sports (baseball, football, and golf; my team is called the Domestic Shorthairs).

Please feel free to contact me at allanjrossman@gmail.com and follow me on twitter at @allanjrossman.