Program Committee

Modified

February 27, 2026

Frank Hillary

Frank G. Hillary is a Professor of Psychology and Neurology at Penn State. His research examines the influence of brain injury and disease on functional brain organization over the lifespan. To do so, he incorporates cognitive testing, structural and functional MRI, and network neuroscience approaches (e.g., graph theory) in his work. There is a critical need in the neuroimaging literature for open code and data sharing and convergence on accepted methods to increase scientific reliability. Because of this, over the past 5 years Dr. Hillary’s work has shifted to focus on the reproducibility of neuroimaging work in the study of brain disorders. He is the leader of an international working group, ENIGMA Brain Injury (see: https://enigma.ini.usc.edu/ongoing/enigma-tbi/), focused on genetics and neuroimaging data sharing and reproducible science.

fgh3@psu.edu

Nicole Lazar

Nicole Lazar is Professor and Head of the Department of Statistics at Penn State. Her research interests include the foundations of statistical inference and the analysis of functional neuroimaging data. In particular, she has worked on fundamental inferential topics such as model selection, multiple testing problems, and likelihood theory, specifically in the context of modern large-scale data analysis problems. She has done pioneering work on the statistical analysis of cognitive neuroscience data, with a focus on functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Most recently, Lazar has been involved in the application of topological data analysis methods to scientific questions of interest in psychology and climatology. These techniques are at the interface of statistics, mathematics, and computer science, and exemplify her cross-disciplinary approach to research. Lazar is the author of the book The Statistical Analysis of Functional MRI Data published by Springer. Nicole is the Open Science Liaison for the NSF-funded National Synthesis Center for Emergence in the Molecular and Cellular Sciences (NCEMS), based at Penn State.

nfl5182@psu.edu

Jennifer Valcin

Jennifer Valcin is a Statistical Data Analyst at the Penn State University Libraries. Dr. Valcin conducts individual consultations, workshops, and small group trainings to support researchers in the PSU community with data analysis planning and quantitative statistical methods using various software. Prior to joining Penn State University Libraries, she received her Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences with a focus in Genetics, Genomics, and Bioinformatics from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

jpv5319@psu.edu

Briana Wham

Briana Ezray Wham is Research Data Librarian – STEM at the Penn State University Libraries. Dr. Wham conducts data management plan reviews and provides guidance, training, and consulting services for data management planning, active data management, reproducible research workflows using R, data visualization, data publication, as well as ORCiD integration and utility. She also works as one of the data curators for ScholarSphere, Penn State’s institutional repository. Prior to joining Penn State University Libraries, Briana received her Ph.D. in Entomology from Penn State, where she studied aspects of ecology, evolution, and conservation of bee communities. Briana’s interests include open science, museum collection digitization, and bee conservation.

bde125@psu.edu