Elizabeth DeLong
Elizabeth DeLong received a BA in Mathematics in 1969 and an MA in Mathematics in 1970, both from the University of Maine. She earned her PhD in Biostatistics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1979.
She joined the Department of Community and Family Medicine at Duke in 1979 in the Division of Biometry and Medical Informatics and also served as a Biostatistician in the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. DeLong left academia to work at Quintiles as Director of Biostatistics from 1987-1991, but then returned to Duke Medical Center in 1991. In 2008, she became Interim Chair in the Duke Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, and in 2009, she became the first female Chair of the Department.
Dr. DeLong’s research interests include risk-adjustment methodology, statistical model development and validation, analysis of observational survival data, evaluation of diagnostic tests, outcomes and comparative effectiveness research, and trends in managed care. She is active in many professional organizations and has published widely. In 2013, she was elected as a Fellow of the American Statistical Association.
Dr. DeLong stepped down as Chair of the Department in early 2019 after serving for a decade in that role. As Professor Emeritus, she continues to lead the Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Research Design Core within the Department.
Interview
This oral history interview was conducted with Dr. Elizabeth R. DeLong on October 21, 2010 by Jessica Roseberry.