Caitlin Cunningham, Ph.D.

I am an applied statistician interested in using my expertise to help answer the questions of my collaborators. My research projects include studying the importance of sexual orientation on the rating of smell in potential lovers (joint work with Dr. Theresa White in Psychology); the effect of climate change on the migratory patterns of birds (joint work with Dr. Don McCrimmon and Dr. Jason Luscier in Biology); and the accentedness, comprehensibility and intelligibility of various forms of Asian Englishes (joint work with Dr. Mary Zampini in Foreign Languages). I enjoy the wide range of projects I am exposed to as an applied statistician and take pleasure in helping to effectively and accurately analyze complex data sets so that my collaborators can get at the underlying truths hidden in their data.

Statistics is at its heart an applied discipline, at its most value when it is being used by researchers in other fields to answer important questions. I bring this interdisciplinary aspect to the forefront in my statistics courses, focusing on how to best use and apply the tools we learn about, bringing in real world examples from the news and from the research of faculty at Le Moyne.

In addition to my degree in Statistics, I have taken and passed the first 4 actuarial exams given by the Society of Actuaries and have two years of experience working as an actuary in the insurance industry. I am always happy to meet with students to discuss the actuarial career or any other career in statistics.