Cavell Brownie

Affiliation: Professor Emeritus, North Carolina State University Department of Statistics
Educational Background: PhD, Cornell University

Cavell Brownie specialized in biometric methods, wildlife sampling, and statistical consulting from 1982 until her retirement in 2008. She was a leading researcher in wildlife sampling and capture-recapture methods and co-authored two highly cited monographs. In addition, she published more than 106 articles and won Snedecor awards in 1983 and 1990. She was elected ASA Fellow in 2003.

Although Brownie had demanding expectations, she also had a reputation for being a great mentor to both graduate students and junior faculty. She mentored female junior faculty and African-American students at North Carolina State University, meeting them regularly to discuss research and educational issues. Her mentoring, collaboration, and statistical discussions are well-remembered by faculty and students. NC State has established a faculty award in her name to encourage faculty to emulate her generous mentoring.

Brownie was born in Jamaica and earned her PhD from Cornell University in 1973. She married Cecil Brownie—a fellow Jamaican who retired from North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine in 2008—on August 24, 1968. Together, they have two sons, Mark Andrew and Paul Michael Brownie, and a daughter-in-law, Elizabeth Brownie nee Clegg (Mark’s wife). The family resides in Raleigh, North Carolina.