Materials for Kerry Lee

Important Components of ASA Nomination Guidelines for Letters of Support | Full ASA Guidelines

• Letters of support are generally the most important input to the committee's assessment. Nominators need to obtain convincing letters of support for the nomination from qualified individuals.
• To be effective, a letter should describe the nominee's specific accomplishments, and their impact, based on the writer's personal knowledge. Letters should support the principal points made in the nominator’s narrative recommendation, or other points with which the nominator is not familiar. To be most helpful to the Committee, statements asserting the importance of a particular accomplishment or piece of work should include an informative explanation of why it is influential.
• It is beneficial to demonstrate that the statistical contributions have been influential (not just responsive and useful) and can make a persuasive explanation for their judgment.
• The most effective letters of support are direct, but specific. Assertions about the importance of a particular accomplishment should be accompanied by evidence of its impact, where possible. On the other hand, overly expansive discussions tend to detract from the persuasiveness of a letter In any case, each letter of support is limited to two pages.
• Supporting statements, CV, and nomination data are retrieved from the bottom of this web page.
• The Supporting Statements will be very helpful to you in writing your letter.
• Address the heading of the support letter to Committee on Fellows, American Statistical Association. Do not include a mailing address in the addressee field.
• Letters of Support should be sent to the Nominator who is responsible for including the support letters in the nomination package. (Copies or Faxes of letters are acceptable).
  • Please send hard copy to
    Frank E Harrell Jr
    Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
    S-2323 MCN 2158
    Nashville TN 37232-2637
    or E-mail an electronically signed letter on letterhead to mailto:f.harrell@vanderbilt.edu
  • Express mail address is
    FE Harrell
    Department of Biostatistics
    S-2323 Medical Center North
    1161 21st Ave S
    Vanderbilt University Medical Center
    Nashville TN 37232-2158
    (615)322.2001
  • Please send by 19 Feb 2008 at the latest
• Important! Do Not mail/send a support letter to ASA independently of the nomination package. Supporting letters that are received at the ASA office independently of the nomination package are not guaranteed to be review by the Committee on Fellows.

Draft Citation

Kerry L. Lee, Professor of Biostatistics, Duke University School of Medicine: For excellence in leading a statistical and data coordinating center for numerous multicenter clinical trials having major impacts on medicine and health; for important applications of statistics to cardiovascular clinical research; for excellence in teaching and mentoring, and for service to the profession.