Taylor Okonek

Taylor Okonek is an Assistant Professor of Statistics in the Department of Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science at Macalester College. She holds additional affiliations as an External Affiliate of the Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology and an External Member of the Minnesota Population Center.

Dr. Okonek earned her BA in Mathematics and Religion from St. Olaf College in 2018 and completed her PhD in Biostatistics from the University of Washington in 2023 under the supervision of Jon Wakefield. During her doctoral studies, she worked as a research assistant focusing on spatio-temporal methods for under-5 mortality estimation and HIV prevalence estimation, primarily in sub-Saharan Africa.

Her research focuses on developing statistical methodologies for demographic applications, with particular emphasis on small area estimation, survival analysis, and statistical methods for official statistics and complex survey data settings. Much of her work is motivated by applications for the United Nations in producing under-5 mortality estimates. She is especially interested in creating computationally efficient statistical methods, with current research extending existing approaches for estimating mortality across time using continuous, parametric survival models applied to complex survey data.

Dr. Okonek's publications demonstrate a consistent focus on improving computational efficiency in Bayesian frameworks for demographic estimation, particularly in benchmarking subnational estimates to national level estimates. Her methodological contributions address critical needs in official statistics where agreement between different levels of estimation is often required.

As a former TRIO McNair scholar and first-generation college student from a low-income background, Dr. Okonek is deeply committed to creating inclusive learning environments. She teaches multiple statistics courses at Macalester College including Statistical Theory (MATH/STAT 355), Probability (MATH/STAT 354), and Introduction to Statistical Modeling (STAT 155), where she implements teaching practices informed by her own educational journey.