Washington Statistical Society to Host Annual Award Ceremony and Reception at Westat

The Washington Statistical Society (WSS) will hold its Annual Award Ceremony and Reception on Wednesday, June 17, from 4–7 p.m. at Westat’s Bethesda headquarters, bringing together members of the statistical community for an evening of professional recognition, networking, and discussion of emerging ideas shaping the field.

Hosts, Location, and Tickets

The annual event will be hosted by WSS’s 2026 President Benmei Liu, PhD, and WSS’s incoming 2027 President Lisa Mirel, MS. WSS welcomes members, nonmembers, and friends to attend the event. The ceremony and reception will be held at Westat, 7501 Wisconsin Ave., Ste. 1000E, Bethesda, Maryland. Tickets are available on the WSS Annual Award Ceremony and Reception website and should be purchased by June 12.

Program Details

This year’s program will feature keynote speaker Travis Hoppe, PhD, Chief AI Officer at GroundVue, who will present “The Statistical Imagination in the Age of AI: New Data, New Tools, and the Future of Evidence” to explore how AI is fundamentally reshaping data, inference, and the very meaning of evidence in the modern era. Westat’s Liz Mannshardt, PhD, Vice President and Director, Statistics and Data Science, will host a fireside chat with Hoppe.

The awards ceremony celebrates the achievements and contributions of statisticians and data scientists while fostering connections across government, academia, and industry. Among the evening’s honorees is Lloyd Hicks, Jr., MS, a Westat Principal Statistical Associate, Statistics and Data Science, who will receive the 2026 WSS President’s Award for Distinguished Service. The award recognizes outstanding service and contributions to the statistical community.