Katherine Wallman

Katherine Wallman currently serves as Chief Statistician at the United States Office of Management and Budget. In this capacity, she is responsible for overseeing and coordinating Federal statistical policies, standards, and programs; developing and advancing long-term improvements in Federal statistical activities; and representing the Federal Government in international organizations such as the United Nations Statistical Commission and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Statistics Committee. During her tenure in this position, Ms. Wallman has placed particular emphasis on increasing collaboration among the agencies of the Federal statistical system, strengthening the protection of confidential statistical information, fostering improvements in the scope and quality of Federal statistics, and making the products of the system more readily accessible to the public.
Prior to assuming this position in 1992, Ms. Wallman served for more than a decade as Executive Director of the Council of Professional Associations on Federal Statistics, a coalition of organizations concerned with fostering communication among users and producers of Federal statistics and improving the utility and accessibility of the Nation’s statistical resources. Earlier in her career, Ms. Wallman worked for several years in the Office of Federal Statistical Policy and Standards, as well as in the National Center for Education Statistics.
Ms. Wallman, a Presidential Meritorious Executive, is an elected member of the International Statistical Institute, a Fellow of the American Statistical Association and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a Founder Member of the International Association for Official Statistics. In 1992, she served as President of the American Statistical Association. She is currently serving as Chairman of the United Nations Statistical Commission and as Chairman of the Conference of European Statisticians, United Nations Economic Commission for Europe.
Ms. Wallman has been a member of various panels at the National Science Foundation, the National Academy of Sciences, and the National Academy of Public Administration; prior to her return to government service, she chaired the Advisory Committee for the Year 2000 Decennial Census at the request of the Secretary of Commerce. Her special interests include increasing cooperation between the several levels of government in the production of national statistics, strengthening the interface between academic and government statisticians, and enhancing the statistical literacy of the public.