Keith Rust

Overview

Keith Rust, PhD, is a Senior Vice President for Statistics and Data Science and Vice Chair of the Westat Board of Directors. Rust is a senior statistician with extensive experience in sampling methods, the design and specification of large-scale sample surveys, and analysis of survey data. His areas of special expertise include methods for analyzing large, complex data sets; methods of deriving survey weights; and sampling error estimation procedures. He has applied his research and knowledge to a variety of education research projects over the past several years, both national and international. Rust has also directed work on Government sample surveys related to education, health, and social issues.

Rust is a Fellow of the American Statistical Association (ASA) and served as President of the Washington Statistical Society. He is an elected Member of the International Statistical Institute. He served as Chair of the Programme for International Student Assessment Technical Advisory Group, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, from 2001 to 2020. Rust was a member of the Committee for National Statistics (CNSTAT) at the National Academy of Sciences from 1992-98 and has served on CNSTAT panels. He is a research professor at the Joint Program in Survey Methodology at the University of Maryland.

In recognition of his contributions to the field, Rust has been named a Westat Senior Statistical Fellow and serves on the Statistical Fellows Committee, which provides consultation on important survey statistics issues and addresses recent advances in applied statistics.

Education

• PhD, Biostatistics, University of Michigan
• MS, Biostatistics, University of Michigan
• BA (with honors), Mathematical Statistics, Flinders University of South Australia