Robyn Ferg
Senior Statistical Associate
Contact
RobynFerg@westat.comOverview
Robyn Ferg, PhD, is a Senior Statistical Associate for Statistics and Data Science with 5 years of experience in disclosure analysis, complex survey analysis, and machine learning (ML). She works on several aspects of data confidentiality, such as creating and applying utility measures to ensure comparability of analysis results between original and synthetic data, determining which respondents are at higher risk of disclosure, and applying various treatments (e.g., swapping, adding noise, coarsening and suppressing variables). She has used statistical modeling, natural language processing (NLP), ML algorithms, and big data techniques in sample design, survey analysis, and program evaluation.
Ferg applies her expertise in a wide variety of areas, including transportation, public health, and education. She has also taught undergraduate, graduate, and continuing education courses in survey methodology and NLP at the University of Michigan and the University of Maryland.
Education
- PhD, Statistics, University of Michigan
- BA, Mathematics (with a concentration in Statistics), St. Olaf College
- BA, Russian Area Studies, St. Olaf College
Areas of Expertise
Analysis and Modeling Data Privacy Data Quality Data Science Evaluation and Mixed-Methods Research Integration of Survey Data with Other Data Sources Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence Natural Language Processing and Text Analytics Statistical Methods Survey Statistics Synthetic Data Generation