Affiliation:
Chief Statistician of the US, US Office of Management and Budget

Educational Background:
BA, Sonoma State University
MAS, University of Alabama – Huntsville
PhD, The George Washington University

About Nancy
My story should give hope to those among us who were never able to pin down exactly what they wanted to be when they grew up. I was born and raised in Detroit. The best part of being in Michigan was the Great Lakes, and I went on lots of camping trips. Two activities I especially enjoyed were reading and canoeing. Thus, I was torn between wanting to be either a librarian or a forest ranger, since no one would pay me to read in the woods. The librarian side eventually won out, because all that reading led to an interest in research, analysis, and data. I wanted to save the planet.

In college, I majored in environmental studies, minored in aquatic biology, and interned with the California Water Quality Control Board. Environmental quality eventually broadened to other public policy areas. After being selected as a Presidential Management Fellow and moving to Washington, DC, I expected to stay for the two years of the program and then move on to a non-office job. But 38 years later, I am still here in an office in DC because it turned out to be pretty interesting.

I’ve worked in the public, private, and non-profit sectors and have experience in all three branches of the federal government. The message here is that you can continue to grow and learn new things throughout your career. My deep dive into statistical data came after I started working for the US Census Bureau a few years prior to the 2000 Census. I was hooked on how much could be learned from high-quality data and impressed with the dedication and camaraderie of the federal statistical community. Becoming part of the effort to modernize federal statistics and bringing together the data science, computer science, and statistical communities has been a rewarding experience.

Collaboration is a great challenge in the federal environment, where there are overlapping and competing priorities between statistical agency heads, chief information officers, evaluation officers, chief data officers, privacy officers, and performance improvement officers, as well as strongly embedded organizational cultures. But the opportunities to make a difference are boundless. Because my career has been so varied, it’s hard for me to single out a particular notable achievement, but it has been gratifying to observe the increasing number of leadership positions being filled by women.

When I first started my career, I was often the only woman in the room. I’ve had a few “firsts” in my career—first program examiner at the Office of Management and Budget to work part time after returning from maternity leave, first female deputy director at the Census Bureau—but times have really changed. It is so encouraging for the future of statistics and data science to see the confidence and outstanding abilities of the many diverse women coming up in the field. I’ve tried to be a good role model and mentor to both men and women, and if I’ve succeeded in that, it would be a great accomplishment.