Beyond the Beaker with Professor Ragsdale: From Statistics to Self-Confidence

By: Melissa Yee

Interview by: Melissa Yee and Hermella Belay

“Bark less, wag more.”

Professor Sally Ragsdale’s best advice is simple: “Bark less, wag more.” While the phrase might make you smile, it also reflects the confidence and personality that Professor Ragsdale brings to her work as a professor. Now in her fourteenth year of teaching, her path to the classroom was not necessarily something she had planned from the beginning.

Before becoming a professor, Professor Ragsdale worked as a statistical consultant. It was during her time as a consultant that she was told she needed to teach a class. At the time, she did not realize just how much she would fall in love with it. After discovering her passion for teaching, Professor Ragsdale has now spent fourteen years helping students develop not only their statistical toolkit, but also their confidence.

For Professor Ragsdale, one of the most rewarding parts of her job is “seeing [her] students build confidence.” Her goal extends far beyond simply teaching students how to run numbers and analyze data; the most important thing she wants students to learn from her is “how to be confident in getting insights about data about the world around them.” Through teaching, she hopes students will become comfortable experimenting with data and trust their own ability to find meaningful insights. 

Although she now teaches in lecture halls with hundreds of students, Professor Ragsdale was once terrified of public speaking. As a student, she recalls experiencing internal panic attacks when she was called on in class. Her experience serves as a reminder that confidence is something that can be built over time, rather than something that comes naturally.

That idea of confidence is reflected in one of the quotes that inspires her. Professor Ragsdale looks to Michelle Obama, who once said, “I decided that I wasn't bossy — I was confident and strong. I wasn't loud — I was a young woman with something important to say.” The quote resonates with Professor Ragsdale’s own approach to finding her voice and encouraging others to find theirs.

Outside of teaching, Professor Ragsdale spends her free time doing pottery, reading, and spending time with family. Something that makes her smile is seeing random acts of kindness, especially when she notices someone helping another person without expecting anything in return. These small moments are meaningful to her and reflect the kind of positivity she appreciates in the world around her.

Her life motto is simple: “Just do the best you can.” For Professor Ragsdale, that philosophy applies both inside and outside the classroom. Whether she is inspiring students to become more confident statisticians or simply noticing an act of kindness, she continues to show that teaching is about much more than the material being taught. It is about helping students believe in themselves and what they have to say with confidence.