Jessica Utts is a Professor of Statistics at the University of California, Irvine, transferring there in September 2008 after many years at the University of California, Davis. Her interests include statistics education and applications of statistics to a variety of areas, most notably parapsychology, medicine, and transportation. She is an advocate for the promotion of statistical literacy, the recipient of two distinguished teaching awards and the author of three statistics textbooks with an emphasis on statistical literacy.
Professor Utts has served as Chair or President of The Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies (COPSS), the Western North American Region of the International Biometric Society (WNAR), The Caucus for Women in Statistics, the Board of the Consortium for the Advancement of Statistics Education (CAUSE), the Section on Statistical Education of the American Statistical Association and the Development Committee for Advanced Placement Statistics. She is a Fellow of the American Statistical Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Institute of Mathematical Statistics and the Association for Psychological Science. She has appeared on numerous television shows, including Larry King Live, CNN Morning News and ABC Nightline, discussing her research in parapsychology.