Gerald C. Swanson

Gerald C. (Jerry) Swanson was taught statistics as an undergraduate Chemistry major in the late 1960's. (While getting a good grade, he did not really learn useful statistics.) He later worked at the Los Alamos National Laboratory as a nuclear analytical chemist. There he learned statistics because a statistician was able to translate statistics into the language of chemistry. (He also completed an M.S. and Ph.D. in Nuclear Analytical Chemistry.)

In the late 1970"s he attended a cutting-edge M.A. program in the Applied Behavioral Sciences preparatory to a career change as an Organization Development consultant. As part of the program, he began to translate his knowledge of statistics into the language of the behavioral sciences. He further developed his experiential teaching methods while teaching statistics in an M.A. Psychology program at Antioch University in Seattle in the early 1980's.

The contents of this book and its teaching approach were further developed in the middle 1990's when Jerry began teaching statistics as an introductory course in a B.S. Applied Behavioral Science program and at the graduate level in the M.A. Applied Behavioral Sciences programs thorough the Leadership Institute of Seattle (LIOS) then at Bastyr University in the Seattle area. (The LIOS M.A., ABS program is now delivered through Saybrook University,) The content, sequence and methods of introducing the materials have been honed through teaching hundreds of students who would describe themselves as "mathematically challenged". Jerry continues to teach at the graduate level and also delivers three-day intensives covering the entirety of introductory statistics. He may be reached via e-mail at information@greyheronpress.com. Information about the programs mentioned may be found at www.saybrook.edu/lios.

Jerry is an Organization Development consultant recently retired from The Boeing Company in the Seattle area and now residing in Port Townsend, WA.

You can access his ongoing blog at http://simplethoughtsonstatistics.blogspot.com