What's Your StORy? Vicki Bier

Name: Vicki Bier

Employer: University of Wisconsin-Madison

Job Title: Professor

INFORMS member for roughly 40 years

I have worked both on risk communication to the public, and on risk communication to decision makers—how to help senior decision makers, who may not be technically trained, make sense of sometimes complex quantitative risk information. That has not been the forefront of my own research, but they were interesting review papers to write. Risk communication is clearly important in practice, since the best analysis is of little use if people do not understand and trust the information. 

I tell all young people that my best advice is to read widely, including outside of their own narrow specialty. You never know when some idea that you read about years ago turns out to be useful. Even if you can’t remember exactly who said it or where you read it, the general idea may stick with you, and help you address something you will need to do later.

To me, the most valuable thing about INFORMS is the networking opportunities at the Annual Meeting every year. In addition to being professionally useful, the conferences are also enjoyable. It’s like going to a large family wedding. You may not be close personal friends with everyone you see there, but it’s still nice to have an opportunity to catch up with them every year or so. 

When I was young, the two other careers that appealed to me were being a psychologist (counselor) or a potter. However, I think I’m much better suited to doing what I’m doing than I would be to those careers. 

I definitely remember being the only woman in some classes (or even just the only woman in the elevator after the end of class). Even if people were not particularly hostile, it was sometimes not a comfortable feeling. 

Fortunately, the Decision Analysis Society in particular has long been a pretty comfortable and welcoming place for women. Just as one example, I’m not even the first female editor-in-chief of Decision Analysis!

I recently gave a talk titled “A Career in Risk and Uncertainty.” I guess that’s as good a summary as any.

My nickname in high school was “frog.” As a result, I still own a lot more frogs than most normal humans! (Not live ones, though.) 

Right now, I am really motivated by the work that some students and I are doing on preparing for coastal flooding due to sea-level rise. The basic idea is to provide economic incentives to encourage people to relocate BEFORE flooding becomes severe.