Kimberly Weems

Dr. Kimberly S. Weems is an associate professor and the interim chair of the Department of Mathematics and Physics at North Carolina Central University (NCCU). She earned a B.S. in mathematics from Spelman College and an M.A. and a Ph.D. in applied mathematics with a concentration in statistics from the University of Maryland, College Park.

Dr. Weems completed postdoctoral studies in the Department of Statistics at North Carolina State University, where she later joined the faculty and served for two years as co-director of the Statistics graduate programs. She served as an instructor for the NC State–Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI) Summer Institute for Training in Biostatistics, where she developed and taught modules on statistical methods with applications to cardiovascular disease. Since moving to NCCU in 2015, Weems has been instrumental in enhancing the graduate mathematics curriculum with statistics courses. She provided leadership for the NCCU Bridge-to-Ph.D. program with NC State, designed to equip students with advanced statistical methods for analyzing atomic-scale data.

Her primary research interests include flexible statistical models for the analysis of count data. Through collaborations, she has directed theses involving a longitudinal analysis of HIV data and Bayesian analysis of x-ray diffraction data. Active in STEM education and broadening participation initiatives, she serves as principal investigator (PI) of a collaborative math pathways project designed to improve outcomes for undergraduate African American men in gateway mathematics courses.

Her service to the mathematics and statistics communities includes the following activities. She is an advisory board member of the Infinite Possibilities Conference for women of color in mathematics. Also, she is a member of the Mathematical Sciences Institutes Diversity Initiative leadership team. Previously, she served as a member of the American Statistical Association’s (ASA’s) Committee on Minorities in Statistics, a member and the chair of ASA’s Edward C. Bryant Scholarship Committee, and an organizer and a panelist for StatFest.

Dr. Weems has received a Teaching Excellence Award from NCCU and NC State. In addition, she is the recipient of a Trailblazer Award from the University of Maryland Black Alumni Association.