A consummate public servant, it is hard to overstate the extent to which she shaped the federal statistical system during her career. As chief statistician, her skill in bringing people and agencies together to work for our nation’s common good was famous. With it, she accomplished the revision of Statistical Policy Directive No. 15 on race and ethnicity classification; enacted the Confidential Information Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act of 2002; issued Statistical Policy Directive No. 1 on Fundamental Responsibilities of Federal Statistical Agencies and Recognized Statistical Units; and co-chaired an interagency technical working group to develop guidance that led to the publication of the Supplemental Poverty Measure. This list contains just a few of her many accomplishments – and doesn’t even begin to touch on her personal impact as a mentor and guide for so many of the federal statisticians she worked with.

Over her career, Ms. Wallman was a steadfast advocate of increasing cooperation between government entities in the production of national statistics, strengthening the interface between academic and government statisticians, and enhancing the public’s statistical literacy. She represented the United States at international organizations including the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the United Nations – serving as the chair of the UN Statistical Commission and twice serving as chair of the Conference of European Statisticians, UN Economic Commission for Europe.

Even after retirement, Ms. Wallman remained a champion of the federal statistical system. She served on the Council of the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research at the University of Michigan, the Board of the Association of Public Data Users, the Population Association of America Committee on Population Statistics. And we here at the Census Bureau are particularly grateful for her work on the American Statistical Association (ASA) Task Force on 2020 Census Quality Indicators. She was a Presidential Meritorious Executive, an elected member of the International Statistical Institute, a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a founding member of the International Association for Official Statistics. She was a leader in the ASA, elected as a fellow in 1983, serving as president in 1992, and receiving its Founders Award in 2007. She held a B.A. in sociology from Wellesley College.

Kathy was a role model and greatly admired by many, including me.  In fact, she is one of my heroes. Please join us in cherishing her memory and mourning the heartbreaking loss of this icon of federal statistics.  We offer our condolences and share our sorrow at her passing with her family, friends and colleagues.