New Page 1

Dr. Barbara Bailar received a B.A. degree (1956) in mathematics from SUNY-Albany, a M.S. degree (1965) in statistics from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, and a Ph.D. degree (1972) in statistics from the American University. She is an internationally recognized authority in the theory and practice of survey methodologies. Dr. Bailar spent most of her career at the U.S. Bureau of the Census (1958-1987). She rose to the position of Associate Director for Statistical Standards and Methodology in 1979. During the years as Associate Director, she headed the group of researchers who were developing methodology to reduce or to adjust for the census undercount. After leaving the Census Bureau, she became the Executive Director for the American Statistical Association (ASA) in 1988. She worked with the members of the Publications Committee to start many new and influential publications for the ASA. Finally, she became the Vice President for Survey Research at the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) in 1995. In 2001, she left NORC to return to Washington where she is now a statistical consultant. In that position, she does a significant amount of work for the National Academies of science.

Among many honors, Dr. Bailar was awarded Silver Medal by Department of Commerce for meritorious Federal service in 1980, delivered the Mahalanobis Lecture at the Indian Statistical Institute in 1983, received Julius Shiskin Award for outstanding achievement in economic statistics in 1993, and ASA Founders Award in 1997.

Dr. Bailar joined the Census Bureau at a time when she got to work with some of the giants in sampling and survey work. She is an elected Fellow of ASA (1975) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (early 1980). She was also elected President of the ASA (1987) and a Vice President of the International Statistical Institute (1993-95).