Polly Phipps fell in love with statistics when, as a student, she designed and carried out a probability survey from beginning to end. She trained as a survey methodologist and joined the federal government in the late 1980s. Ultimately, she developed tools to evaluate quality at early and late stages of questionnaire development and put into place a model for instrument design that incorporated qualitative and quantitative methods.
federal government
Nancy Potok
Nancy Potok couldn’t decide if she wanted to be a forest ranger or a librarian when she grew up. Eventually, it was her love for reading that led to an interest in research, analysis, and data. She has since worked as a statistician for the public, private, and non-profit sectors and has experience in all three branches of the federal government—including being the first female deputy director at the US Census Bureau.
Jeanne E. Griffith Mentoring Award
The Jeanne E. Griffith Mentoring Award recognizes and encourages the mentoring of junior staff in the statistical community in federal, state, or local government. Nominations for the 2018 award will be accepted until April 16.