SWB Executive Committee

Matt Brems

Chair
Executive Committee

Matt Brems is a data scientist and an award-winning educator. Brems leads the non-profit Statistics Without Borders, serving on its board since 2019 and leading the Executive Committee as Chair since 2021. Brems previously co-founded BetaVector, a data science consultancy. He has driven value with data in computer vision, finance, software, education, consumer-packaged goods, politics, and more. Brems has trained over 1,000 students in data science and Python with General Assembly since 2016. He earned General Assembly's inaugural "Distinguished Faculty Member of the Year" award out of 20,000+ instructors. He mentors early-career technologists with the Coding It Forward Fellowship — earning their top mentoring award in 2022 — and the Washington Statistical Society. He earned his Master’s degree in statistics from Ohio State. At Statistics Without Borders, he has previously held the roles of Vice Chair, Director of Marketing & Communications, Acting Director of Operations, and Project & Client Management Team Lead.

Varun Garde

Vice Chair
Executive Committee

Varun Garde has been a SWB volunteer since 2016. He has over a decade of experience in pricing statistics, data visualization, CX and business analytics. In his full-time job, he works on Monetization and Business Planning at Microsoft. Varun began knowledge volunteering in 2012 when, alongside his fellow students, he was approached by an Ann Arbor air ambulance serving Central America to achieve operational breakeven. Since that experience, he's become increasingly passionate about the causes of literacy, health, and food security. His family also volunteers for local causes such as the park district and school health board. In his professional background, he's managed large budgetary responsibilities (greater than $10M) and overseen teams of statisticians and data science professionals, while managing communications with CXO level executives. Varun holds an MBA from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering.

Fatema Zerin

Engagement Director
Executive Committee

Fatema is an Operations leader with experience in sales, operations, and customer experience. She has spent most of her career in the EdTech industry. Her passion for equity and social impact work led her to Statistics Without Borders. Prior to her position on the Executive Committee at SWB, Fatema led the Project and Client Management team, doubling the scale of the team. She finds joy in travelling and connecting with others.

Gitanjali Shukla

Operations Director
Executive Committee

Jean Opsomer

Past Chair
Executive Committee

Jean Opsomer is Professor and Chair in the Department of Statistics at Colorado State University. His main areas of statistical expertise are survey statistics and nonparametric methods. He is delighted to be able to assist SWB as it continues to expand its operations and develops a more effective organizational structure.

Gary Shapiro

Co-Founder
Executive Committee

Gary Shapiro is retired from Westat, where he was Senior Statistician from 1996 to 2009. Gary was the lead statistician, senior statistician, or/and task leader on over 30 projects, mostly involving survey sample design, weighting, and variance estimation. Prior to being at Westat, Gary was a Senior Statistician at Abt Associates from 1993 to 1996, where he was the lead statistician for a number of surveys. From 1965 to 1993 Gary was at the U.S. Census Bureau. For almost 20 years of this period, he was an Assistant Chief of the Demographic Statistical Methods Division, where he oversaw the operation of up to five branches with the responsibility for sample design, weighting, and variance estimation for the demographic surveys. He is a co-founder of Statistics Without Borders, together with Steve Pierson and Fritz Scheuren. He served as initial SWB Co-Chair and then as Chair from 2010 to 2012.