Dr. Elizabeth Arias leads the Mortality Statistics and Research Team in the Statistical Analysis and Surveillance Branch, Division of Vital Statistics, National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). The team is responsible for the preparation and release of the annual final US mortality data file and the publication of standard annual reports describing the mortality profile of the US population and conducting research on special topics in mortality. Dr. Arias also directs the NCHS US Life Table Program under which the official US life tables are generated. She has worked to expand the Program’s racial, ethnic, and geographic coverage, developing methods to address data quality limitations. Under her leadership life
tables have been added for the Hispanic, Non-Hispanic American Indian and Alaska Native, and Non-Hispanic Asian populations. She also added annual state life tables by sex to the Program and led the United States Small-area Life Expectancy Estimates Project (USALEEP) under which the first ever life
tables by US census tracts were produced. Dr. Arias is currently exploring the intersection of race and ethnicity in mortality disparities within the Hispanic/Latino population. Dr. Arias received her PhD in Sociology (Demography) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.