Constance ("Connie") F. Citro ( Constance Ann Forbes; born June 9, 1942) is an American

political scientist Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...

and

statistician A statistician is a person who works with Theory, theoretical or applied statistics. The profession exists in both the private sector, private and public sectors. It is common to combine statistical knowledge with expertise in other subjects, a ...

. She is the former director of the Committee on National Statistics of the

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), also known as the National Academies, is a Congressional charter, congressionally chartered organization that serves as the collective scientific national academy of the Uni ...

and works as a senior scholar for the Committee on National Statistics. She also works as an independent consultant and is currently a member of the project team for the American Statistical Association-George Mason University Project on Assessing the Health of the Principal Federal Statistical Agencies.

Education and career

Constance Ann Forbes was born on June 9, 1942, in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Miss ...

, to Gilbert B. Forbes, a

pediatrician Pediatrics (American English) also spelled paediatrics (British English), is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. In the United Kingdom, pediatrics covers many of their youth ...

, and Grace (Moehlman) Forbes. She was the granddaughter of Baptist minister and theological scholar Conrad Henry Moehlman. She studied political science as an undergraduate at the

University of Rochester The University of Rochester is a private university, private research university in Rochester, New York, United States. It was founded in 1850 and moved into its current campus, next to the Genesee River in 1930. With approximately 30,000 full ...

, graduating

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States. It was founded in 1776 at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences, ...

and summa cum laude in 1963. Her father was on the faculty of the U of R Medical School, and numerous relatives were graduates, including both her parents, her late husband, Joseph F. Citro (1941-2020), whom she married on June 19, 1965, and their son, Jeremy F. Citro. She went to

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

for a master's degree and Ph.D. in political science, studying under James David Barber. Citro joined the Committee on National Statistics in 1984 and directed the committee from 2004 to 2017. She was previously vice president of Mathematica Policy Research, vice president of Data Use and Access Laboratories (DUALabs), and social science analyst with the US Census Bureau.

Recognition

Citro became a Fellow of the American Statistical Association in 1987. She is an elected member of the

International Statistical Institute The International Statistical Institute (ISI) is a professional association of statisticians. At a meeting of the Jubilee Meeting of the Royal Statistical Society, statisticians met and formed the agreed statues of the International Statistical ...

. She won the 1997 Roger Herriot Award for Innovation in Federal Statistics, for contributions including directing panel studies on poverty measurement, microsimulation for social welfare programs, and the 1990 and 2000 censuses. She won the Waksberg Award in

survey methodology Survey methodology is "the study of survey methods". As a field of applied statistics concentrating on human-research surveys, survey methodology studies the sampling of individual units from a population and associated techniques of survey d ...

in 2014. In 2018, 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 continuous ...

established an annual award, the Links Lecture Award, "to honor the contributions of Constance Citro,

Robert Groves Robert Martin Groves (born September 27, 1948) is an American sociologist and survey methodology expert, currently serving as the interim president of Georgetown University since November 2024. He served as the executive vice president and prov ...

, and Fritz Scheuren". Citro was selected to give the 32nd Morris Hansen Lecture on September 26, 2024. Her topic was: "Challenges in Measuring Income and Poverty: Why Is It So Hard? Why Is It So Important?".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Citro, Constance 1942 births Living people American women statisticians University of Rochester alumni Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Elected Members of the International Statistical Institute Fellows of the American Statistical Association American women political scientists American political scientists 21st-century American women