Molly Walsh

Molly Walsh serves as a Teaching Professor in Mathematics at the University of Notre Dame, with expertise in biostatistics and applied statistics. A proud alumna of Notre Dame, she earned her B.S. in Mathematics from the university, followed by an M.S. in Applied Probability and Statistics from Northern Illinois University and a Ph.D. in Statistics from Northwestern University in 1991. Dr. Walsh brings over thirty years of research and teaching experience to her role, having joined the Notre Dame faculty in 2016 as an Associate Teaching Professor and advancing to full Teaching Professor in 2021. Prior to this, she instructed mathematics and statistics at Loyola University Chicago and Northwestern University, led the Biostatistics Department at the College of American Pathologists where she supported physicians in numerous research studies, and collaborated with researchers at Northwestern University Medical School and Argonne National Laboratory.

In her current position, Dr. Walsh teaches and mentors more than 500 graduate and undergraduate students each year, coordinates multi-section statistics courses, and has redesigned two such courses with innovative pedagogical approaches tailored to large and diverse classrooms. From 2017 to 2021, she taught the Graduate Teaching Seminar required for all ACMS Ph.D. students and continues to mentor faculty, postdocs, and Ph.D. students in teaching. Her scholarly contributions include co-authoring 36 peer-reviewed publications in biostatistics and epidemiology. In recognition of her sustained excellence in teaching, she received the 2024 Father James L. Shilts, C.S.C./Doris and Gene Leonard Teaching Award from the College of Science. Dr. Walsh holds key leadership roles, including Chair of the Quantitative Reasoning Subcommittee of the Core Curriculum Committee, member of the University Well-Being Committee, Sara Bea Advisory Council, and ACMS Committee on Teaching Assignments. She has also contributed to Notre Dame’s ESTEEM graduate program and served as an Academic Panelist in the 2019 Leadership in Science and Medicine Course.