Dr. Sally C. Morton is an academic leader and champion of research and development innovation. At Arizona State University (ASU), she serves as executive vice president of Knowledge Enterprise. In this role, she advances research priorities, oversees the university’s institutes and initiatives, and leads expansion of economic development, international development, corporate engagement and strategic partnerships, intellectual property and technology transfer, and scientific workforce development at scale. She is a leader of the university’s response to the CHIPS and Science Act, including the university’s semiconductor research and development focus, and coordinates the state’s Impact Arizona initiative across ASU. Dr. Morton is responsible for the university’s $800M research expenditures and leads over 2,000 employees. She is a professor in the College of Health Solutions and the School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences and holds the Florence Ely Nelson Chair.
Dr. Morton has led complex organizations in both academe and industry. Previously, she was dean of the College of Science, interim director of the Fralin Life Sciences Institute, and professor of statistics at Virginia Tech; chair of the Biostatistics Department at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health; vice president for statistics and epidemiology at RTI International; and head of the RAND Corporation Statistics Group.
Dr. Morton is internationally recognized in the use of statistics and data science to help patients, their families and health care providers make better health care decisions, and is an expert in evidence synthesis, particularly meta-analysis and patient-centered comparative effectiveness. She has been involved in health policy projects across a wide range of clinical and societal topics, such as back pain, health care quality, homelessness, mental health, and substance abuse. She has published over 200 peer-reviewed works, and presented widely, including briefing Congress.
Dr. Morton has contributed to numerous professional and scientific organizations. She has been involved in the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine since 1996. She is currently a member of the Association of Public and Land-Grant (APLU) Council on Research; the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute Methodology Committee; the Research Advisory Committee of the National Collaborative on Gun Violence Research; and the Small Business Administration (SBA) Invention, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Federal Advisory Committee.
Dr. Morton served as President of the American Statistical Association (ASA) and is a Fellow of the ASA and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She received the Norwood Award for Outstanding Achievement by a Woman in the Statistical Sciences, among other honors. Dr. Morton earned a PhD in statistics, MS in operations research and BS in mathematical sciences from Stanford University. She also received an MSc in statistics from the London School of Economics.