During the Distinguished Awards Celebration on April 11, the Iowa State University Alumni Association conferred upon Cynthia Z. F. Clark (MS 1973, PhD 1977, statistics) of Washington, DC, the Distinguished Alumni Award, the highest honor given to alumni by Iowa State University through the ISU Alumni Association. This award has been presented annually since 1961 to individuals who are recognized nationally and/or internationally for preeminent contributions to their professions or life’s work.
Clark has devoted most of her career to government service by lending her immense expertise to the collection, advancement, and analysis of national statistical systems. Her work has a direct impact on such national measurements as unemployment rates, labor force statistics, poverty rates, agricultural production, educational attainment, environmental quality, and health statistics.
During her career, Clark has worked for the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service, the Office of Federal Statistical Policy, and the Office of Management and Budget, where she edited three National Indicator System reports for President Ronald Reagan in 1981 and 1982.
Clark is known as a leader and innovator in her field, specializing in methodology. During her first appointment with the National Agricultural Statistics Service in 1990, she initiated a new survey called the Agricultural Resource Management Survey, which provides integrated information about chemical usage, farm economics, and resource management and proved to be a groundbreaking innovation for informing agriculture policy. As associate director for methodology and standards at the U.S. Census Bureau from 1996–2004, she was instrumental in developing a new program to increase academic training and creating new opportunities for government staff.
For more about Clark, visit the ISU alumni website.
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