Andrea Roberson

Born in Brooklyn, Andrea Roberson grew up in the suburbs of Long Island, New York. When she was a child, her father would fill her head with bedtime fairy tales. Her favorite, the tale of the African Princess of Mapungubwe—who was given the superpower of mathematics—could always compute the right solutions, earning her freedom from any threat.

Roberson longed for the power of math and stats through her pre-college years. However, undiagnosed autism and ADHD created obstacles to learning and performing in the classroom. Additionally, poor education statistics and minimal expectations for Black American mathematical success combined with Roberson’s crippling anxiety and fear of collegiate classrooms. Achievements in the mathematical sciences seemed an ill-fated dream.

Opportunity and courage made themselves known to Roberson when she walked into the statistics classroom of Spelman College’s Nagambal Shah, who saw Roberson’s wealth of spirit. She encouraged Roberson to persist, thrive, and the unfathomable: attend graduate school. Drinking from this infinite well of love, Roberson became the first Black woman to earn a PhD in applied mathematics and statistics from Stony Brook University in 2010.

Today, Roberson is a leader in the US Census Bureau’s big data initiative. Her innovative research in artificial intelligence and machine learning keeps the nation as the world’s forerunner in the production of economic statistics. She has published papers in the Journal of Official Statistics and given presentations at New Techniques and Technologies for Statistics.

Following in Shah’s footsteps, Roberson’s AI4US initiative is creating space where bold math concepts that seem ferocious are tamed and understood. For too many Black girls, the African Princess of Mapungubwe is a tale untold. Shah and Spelman College created a path to the powers of Mapungubwe for Roberson. They taught her that not only is the princess real, but she is alive inside of Roberson.

Through Roberson’s students, the princess will traverse new journeys. A new generation of Black girls needs a story in which the princess transcends preordained intellectual capacities and realizes her unbounded potential.

Roberson’s own journey was not easy, but she found that, in the end, everything she was looking for she already possessed. “I now know I am a persistent, determined human spirit,” Roberson said. “I now know I AM Mapungubwe. I had always had the power of math. My father and Shah can now finally close my chapter, with future students marking the beginning of the new.”