Marie Di Mario Wann (1911–1996) was an American statistician and author. She wrote a book about her experiences in post-war Germany, worked as a statistician for several US government agencies, helped found the Committee on Women in Statistics of the

American Statistical Association The American Statistical Association (ASA) is the main professional organization for statisticians and related professionals in the United States. It was founded in Boston, Massachusetts on November 27, 1839, and is the second oldest continuousl ...

, and led the

Caucus for Women in Statistics The Caucus for Women in Statistics is a professional society for women in statistics. It was founded in 1971, following discussions in 1969 and 1970 at the annual meetings of the American Statistical Association, with Donna Brogan as its first pr ...

Education and career

Wann graduated from

Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools. It also admi ...

in 1931, and earned a master's degree from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

in 1934. She completed a Ph.D. in educational research at Columbia University in 1943. Her dissertation was ''A Study of Fact and Attitude About Gonorrhea as Demonstrated by Questionnaire Study''. Wann was chief of the Response Errors Studies Branch in the Statistical Methods Division of the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of the ...

before moving to the Statistical Research Division in 1963 as a research editor. In 1964 she was appointed as chief of the Branch of Planning and Programs in the Division of Statistics in the

United States Bureau of Mines For most of the 20th century, the United States Bureau of Mines (USBM) was the primary United States government agency conducting scientific research and disseminating information on the extraction, processing, use, and conservation of mineral r ...

. In 1967 she became chief statistician of the

Bureau of Indian Affairs The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), also known as Indian Affairs (IA), is a United States federal agency within the Department of the Interior. It is responsible for implementing federal laws and policies related to American Indians and A ...

. Later in the same year she moved to the Office of Statistical Standards of the

Bureau of the Budget The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is the largest office within the Executive Office of the President of the United States (EOP). OMB's most prominent function is to produce the president's budget, but it also examines agency programs, poli ...

Service and personal life

Wann was the author of the book ''Dependent Baggage—Destination Germany'' (Macmillan, 1955), describing her travels to Germany as the wife of the American Director of Education and Cultural Affairs in

Allied-occupied Germany Germany was already de facto occupied by the Allies from the real fall of Nazi Germany in World War II on 8 May 1945 to the establishment of the East Germany on 7 October 1949. The Allies (United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, and France ...

. Her husband, Harry Arthur Wann, died in 1965; they had married in 1942 and had two daughters. Wann became a founding member of the Committee on Women in Statistics of the

, founded in 1972, and she served as the second president of the

, following Donna Brogan, in 1974 and 1975. In 1981 she became the founding chair of the Council of Professional Associations on Federal Statistics.

Recognition

In 1974, Wann was elected as a

Fellow of the American Statistical Association Like many other academic professional societies, the American Statistical Association (ASA) uses the title of Fellow of the American Statistical Association as its highest honorary grade of membership. The number of new fellows per year is limited ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wann, Marie 1911 births 1996 deaths American statisticians Women statisticians Hunter College alumni Teachers College, Columbia University alumni Fellows of the American Statistical Association American expatriates in Germany