Laura Hildreth

Dr. Laura Hildreth is an associate professor of statistics in the Department of Mathematics, Computer Science, and Statistics. Her teaching at Gustavus spans the entire statistics curriculum from introductory statistics to advanced statistical modeling. Along with her statistics colleagues, Dr. Hildreth has redesigned and modernized the statistics major and minor by incorporating recommendations from the American Statistical Association. This has included developing and teaching several new courses including MCS-243: Design and Analysis of Experiments, MCS-348: Advanced Statistical Modeling, and MCS-349: Statistical Consulting.

Dr. Hildreth's scholarship encompasses various areas. Her research interests include statistics education with a focus on writing in the statistics curriculum, multivariate statistics, and statistical consulting. This work has led to multiple interdisciplinary collaborations and resulted in publications in journals such as the Journal of Statistics and Data Science Education, Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, and Statistics and Public Policy.

Outside of the classroom, Dr. Hildreth has held several service roles. This has included serving as the actuarial science adviser at Gustavus, being an AP Statistics reader since 2021, serving as the Program Chair for the Section on Statistics and Data Science Education at the 2024 Joint Statistical Meetings, and serving as the 2014-2015 President of the Montana Chapter of the American Statistical Association.