Please provide a brief bio, your educational background, research interests, and your favorite courses to teach:

All four of my graduations were in the 1980’s: high school in 1980 (in the Columbus area), B.A. from St. Olaf College in 1984 (majoring in Russian and math), then M.S. and PhD in 1986 and 1989 (both in statistics).  Immediately out of grad school, I was hired as the first-ever statistician at Wittenberg, where I have worked ever since. 

Nearly all of my professional activities pertain directly or indirectly to statistics education, and I regularly give presentations and workshops on statistics education at regional and national conferences.  I’ve served in various capacities as regional officer and on national committees for the American Statistical Association.  I also pimp myself out as a professional statistical consultant for industrial, pharmaceutical, health care, governmental, law-enforcement, and non-profit clients, and I’ve incorporated stat consulting in service learning now for Witt students, too. 

I love teaching absolutely anything, especially in statistics.  Probably my all-time favorite course is my intro stat course for non-majors, though of course I love to teach the mid- and upper-level stat courses, too.

How have you seen participation in athletics help a student be successful in your courses and as a learner in your discipline?

Developing discipline is the key to both athletics and academics.  Many student-athletes make that connection explicitly and intentionally – discovering how success in academics, like success in athletics, requires not mere ability but the will to hone that ability through focused and challenging practice and repetition.  Many become masters of time management as well, because the rigors of Witt coursework and the demands of top-level sports competition don’t leave much time for anything but eating, sleeping, studying, and sports.  Learning how to juggle serious academic and athletic responsibilities is great preparation for juggling serious work, family, civic, and other life responsibilities after graduation.

What are your perceptions on the role athletics plays in our Wittenberg community and how does it help fulfill Wittenberg’s mission?

Witt is fully committed to educating the whole person, and physical health is of course part of that.  For many students, it’s perfectly natural to develop that through participation in the sports that they love.  Witt also values community, and so many of us – faculty, staff, students, alums, and many Springfielders – love to support and rally around our sports teams, just as we love to support our students performing in the arts and in musical ensembles, etc.  It really helps build a sense of community and togetherness.

What is special about Wittenberg that makes it such an ideal University for our students to be successful math majors and athletes?

The vast majority of college athletes don’t go pro, so a school like Witt provides a great opportunity for students to continue competing in their sport at a high level, without needing to commit all of their energies to that sport as a career path.  It’s not a place for jocks who live only for their sport and just want to pick up a degree; rather, it’s much more of a place for good students who want to continue their passion for their sport and for competition while preparing themselves for professional lives after graduation.  And in great part because of our long and deep heritage in intercollegiate sports, Witt has great support systems for student-athletes – not just great coaches and trainers and facilities, but great academic support systems as well.

Please share a personal success story of one of your former or current students that participated in athletics that you are most proud of?

OK, here’s one of many....  Ben Thoele was a math major and one of my advisees, and he played football and ran indoor and outdoor track.  His math major prepared him well for a Master of Science degree in Operations Research at the Air Force Institute of Technology (essentially the Air Force’s graduate school), after which he did logistical analysis with the Air Force for a couple years.  That could have led to a fulfilling – and very financially rewarding! – career of service to our society and country.  But Ben felt called to other service, and shortly thereafter joined forces with a couple other fellow Witt alums to found FitWit, a non-profit foundation that provides free fitness programs that build strength and develop character, for underprivileged children and youth in the Atlanta area.  He’s a certified strength and conditioning coach and trainer, so he has done a lot of the hands-on work himself.  But as President and as Director of the foundation, Ben also uses the analytical mind that he sharpened as a math major to provide strategic vision and leadership for the organization.

That’s just one example of the good work that Witt student-athletes go on to do in the world: connecting their greatest strengths and passions with the world’s greatest needs.  I have so many of those stories like this that I could go on for days....

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Compiled By: Patrick Rittenhouse '17