The Empirical Reasoning Center faculty director, David Weiman, writes,
“With decidedly mixed emotions, we say goodbye and extend our best wishes to Alisa Rod, who is leaving Barnard and New York to start a new chapter of her professional and personal life in Montreal, Canada, where she will take up the position of Research Data Management Specialist at McGill University. Alisa arrived at Barnard in September 2015, a pivotal moment in the life of the College and the Empirical Reasoning Center. From the onset, she was immersed in transitioning the ERC from its cozy niche in Lehman Hall to a temporary but roomier suite in the LeFrak Center, and in the final stages of planning our glorious new spaces in the Milstein Center. She embraced these logistical challenges and at times contentious negotiations with her characteristic good cheer and keen sense. All the while she never lost sight of the Center’s main mission of assisting students, faculty, and staff in mastering the art of careful, systematic and critical data analysis. Along the way she ably mentored successive cohorts of undergraduate and graduate fellows, who continue to preach and practice our motto — 'Demand Evidence and Think Critically.' Alisa’s achievements at Barnard are too numerous to enumerate in this brief statement. Suffice it to say, through her ingenuity and hard work, she literally put the Empirical Reasoning Center on the map of Barnard College, the Columbia Morningside Heights campus, and the wider world of data librarians and quantitative/empirical reasoning specialists. We at the ERC will sorely miss Alisa, and look forward to the day when she can return to a lively Barnard campus with a bustling ERC for a proper celebration of her time here, in person and not on Zoom.”
All of us in BLAIS & our extended MLC family wish Alisa the best!