Bio
Brianna Hitt is an Assistant Professor of Applied Statistics in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at the U.S. Air Force Academy. She enjoys teaching statistics and data science to students at all levels. Brianna serves as the Associate Director of the Data Science program and an Advisor-in-Charge for the major. She has been an academic advisor for first-year cadets and for numerous Data Science majors. Brianna provides statistical analysis for various initiatives across USAFA and serves as an admissions reviewer for the Dean of Faculty. Her research interests include group/pooled testing, statistical education and statistical consulting in various fields.
Brianna earned her Ph.D. in Statistics from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in May 2020. Her dissertation research focused on group/pooled testing and she created a Shiny web application, used by researchers all over the world during the COVID-19 pandemic, to assist laboratory personnel in the implementation of pooled testing. She also maintains the binGroup2 R package available on CRAN. Brianna previously worked as a statistical consultant, collaborating with faculty and student researchers in more than 35 different departments across the University of Nebraska.
Education
PhD, Statistics, University of Nebraska-Lincoln (2020)
MS, Statistics, University of Nebraska-Lincoln (2015)
BS, Mathematics, University of Nebraska at Omaha (2013)
BSEd, Secondary Education, University of Nebraska at Omaha (2013)
Professional Experience
Assistant Professor, Mathematical Sciences, U.S Air Force Academy, USAF Academy, CO (2020 – Present)
Graduate Research Assistant, Statistics, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE (2014 – 2020)
Statistician Intern, GSK/Novartis Consumer Health OTC, Lincoln, NE (2014 – 2015)
Graduate Teaching Assistant, Statistics, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE (2013 – 2014)
Honors & Awards
Brigadier General Daniel W. Litwhiler Award, recognizing superior performance and leadership as a course director in the 2022-2023 academic year
Colonel Tony M. Johnson Award, recognizing sustained growth and maturation in the craft of college teaching in the 2021-2022 academic year
Department of Statistics Graduate Fellowship, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need Fellowship, University of Nebraska- Lincoln
Research and Scholarly Interests
Group/pooled testing in infectious diseases
Statistical education
Statistical consulting/collaboration in various fields, including agronomy/horticulture, animal science, dental hygiene and orthodontics, education, entomology, food science, nutrition, and veterinary sciences
Publications
Almand, A.T., Anderson, A.P., Hitt, B.D., Sitko, J.C., Joy, R.M., Easter, B.D., and Almand, E.A. (2022). The influence of perceived stress on the human microbiome. BMC Research Notes 15, 193.
Hitt, B., Bilder, C., Schaarschmidt, F., Biggerstaff, B., McMahan, C., Tebbs, J., Zhang, B., Black, M., Hou, P., and Chen, P. (2022). binGroup2: Identification and estimation using group testing. R package version 1.2.4.
Bidne, K.L., Rister, A.L., McCain, A.R., Hitt, B.D., Dodds, E.D., and Wood, J.R. (2021). Maternal obesity alters placental lysophosphatidylcholines, lipid storage, and the expression of genes associated with lipid metabolism. Biology of Reproduction, 104(1): 197-210.
Allison, D., DeFrain, E., Hitt, B.D., and Tyler D.C. (2019). Academic library as learning space and as collection: A learning commons’ effects on collections and related resources and services. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 45(3): 305-314.
Hitt, B.D., Bilder, C.R., Tebbs, J.M., and McMahan, C.S. (2019). The objective function controversy for group testing: Much ado about nothing? Statistics in Medicine, 38(24): 4912-4923.
Paparozzi, E.T., Hitt, B.D., and Lambe, D.P. (2019). The Readiness Report: How confident are your graduating seniors? NACTA Journal, 63(2): 360-367.
Tyler, D.C. and Hitt, B.D. (2019). “UNL libraries book use by broad discipline (social sciences, sciences, and humanities): Circulations and renewals: Books acquired 2003/04 – 2007/08 via approval plan selection, librarian firm order, and ILL patron-driven acquisition” White Papers: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries. (15).
Tyler, D.C., Hitt, B.D., Nterful, F.A., & Mettling, M.R. (2019). The scholarly impact of books acquired via approval plan selection, librarian orders, and patron-driven acquisitions as measured by citation counts. College & Research Libraries, 80(4): 525.
Thompson, L.J., Glewen, K.L., Elmore, R.W., Rees, J., Pokal, S., and Hitt, B.D. (2019). Farmers as researchers: In-depth interviews to discern participant motivation and impact. Agronomy Journal, 111(4).
Reinders J.D., Hitt B.D., Stroup W.W., French B.W., and Meinke L.J. (2018). Spatial variation in western corn rootworm (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) susceptibility to Cry3 toxins in Nebraska. PLoS ONE, 13(11): e0208266.