Rate My Professor Staci Hepler

Staci Hepler is an Associate Professor and Associate Chair in the Department of Statistical Sciences at Wake Forest University, a position she has held since joining the faculty in 2015. She also serves as the Ollen R. Nally Faculty Fellow and is affiliated as Faculty with the Department of Biostatistics and Data Science in the Wake Forest University School of Medicine. Hepler earned her PhD in Statistics from The Ohio State University in 2015 and her BS in Integrated Mathematics from Shawnee State University. As director of the SESH Lab, a cross-campus collaboration between the Department of Statistical Sciences and the School of Medicine, she leads research in spatial statistics, environmental statistics, and their applications to public health.

Hepler's research specializes in Bayesian modeling and spatio-temporal statistics, developing applied methodologies to address critical issues in ecology, epidemiology, and public health surveillance, including the opioid crisis in the United States. She expertly combines derivations of mathematical and theoretical properties of high-dimensional models with advanced computational statistics for practical implementation. Her work has attracted four federally funded grants, including an NIH R01 as principal investigator, along with support from the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy. Notable publications include 'Spatiotemporal Trends in Opioid Overdose Deaths by Race for Counties in Ohio' (2021), 'Estimating the Burden of the Opioid Epidemic for Adults and Adolescents in Ohio' (2020), and contributions to studies on mass migration of herbivores driven by food competition (2024). Hepler's scholarship has garnered over 350 citations and recognition through prestigious awards, such as the 2023 American Statistical Association Section on Statistics and the Environment Early Investigator Award for her cross-disciplinary contributions in statistics and the environment, the Wake Forest University Award for Excellence in Research, and the 2025 CWS Michael Woodroofe Award. She currently chairs the Research Advisory Council for 2025-2026 and contributes to departmental leadership.