Nettleton attended Wartburg College, where he played basketball,[1] and earned his master's degree (1993) and doctorate (1996) in statistics at the University of Iowa.
[1] At ISU, Nettleton holds the Laurence H. Baker Endowed Chair in Biological Statistics,[3] and was appointed to a distinguished professorship in 2015.
[4] The following year, Nettleton was appointed director of the Laurence H. Baker Center for Bioinformatics and Biological Statistics.
[5] In 2019, Nettleton succeeded Max Morris as chair of the Department of Statistics,[6] and accepted a second term in the role in 2024.
[7][8] Nettleton was elected a fellow of the American Statistical Association in 2008,[9] and began serving as chair-elect of the ASA's Caucus of Academic Representatives in 2022.