Back to top

Photograph of Mary Gray

Mary Gray Distinguished Professor Mathematics and Statistics

Degrees
JD, Law, Washington College of Law,American University
PhD,Mathematics, University of Kansas
MA, Mathematics, University of Kansas
AB, Mathematics and Physics, Hastings College

Languages Spoken
Some German, French, Spanish
Bio
A statistician and lawyer, Professor Gray’s areas of research include applications of statistics to human rights, economic equity, legal issues, and education. She is the founder of the Association for Women in Mathematics, a fellow of the American Statistical Association and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and is a recipient of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Engineering and Mathematics Mentoring as well as honorary degrees for from three institutions. The author of two books and over eighty articles, she has lectured throughout the United States, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East. Professor Gray serves as the chair of the Board of Directors of the American Middle East Education and is a member of Statistics without Borders.
See Also
Math Department
For the Media
To request an interview for a news story, call AU Communications at 202-885-5950 or submit a request.

Teaching

Fall 2024

  • STAT-405 Intro to Survey Sampling

Scholarly, Creative & Professional Activities

Research Interests

Professor Gray has recently completed works on the statistics of genocide and the relation of the provision of sanitation to the education of women and girls.She is currently engaged in studies of learning disabilities in mathematics and women’s leadership in mathematical sciences and on projects on human rights and elections in Iraq.

Honors, Awards, and Fellowships

       
  • Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Engineering and Mathematics Mentoring
    •    
  • Fellow, American Statistical Association
    •    
  • Lifetime Mentoring Award, American Association for the Advancement of Science
    •    
  • Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science
    •    
  • Honorary doctorate, Mount Holyoke College
    •    
  • Honorary doctorate, University of Nebraska
    •    
  • Honorary doctorate, Hastings College
    •    
  • Fulbright grant, J.W. Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany
    •    
  • National Science Foundation Fellowship
    •    
  • National Defense Education Act Fellowship

Congressional Testimony

       
  • Income tax reform:  U.S. House Ways and Means Committee
    •    
  • Affirmative action:  U.S. House Special Subcommittee on Education, U.S. Department of Labor  
    •    
  • Women in science:  U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Health and Scientific Research
    •    
  • Age discrimination:  U.S. Senate Committee on Aging; U.S. Senate Committee on Human Resources, Subcommittee on Labor; U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education and Labor, Subcommittee on Select Education and Civil Rights
    •    
  • Social security:  U.S. House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee, U.S. Senate Finance Committee
    •    
  • Pensions, insurance:  U.S. Department of Labor, U.S. House of  Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce, U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education and Labor, U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, U.S. Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources, Maryland House of  Delegates, Michigan State Senate, California State Senate, Oregon House, Montana House, Missouri House, U.S. Senate Select Committee on Aging, Oregon Senate, Massachusetts Insurance Commission, Iowa House-Senate Joint Study Committee on Non-gender Insurance, Maine Commission on Women
    •    
  • Pay equity: U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Governmental Operations
    •    
  • Retirement Income Security: U.S. House of Representative Ways and Means Committee
    •    
  • Constitutional Right to Travel: U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on the Constitution

Executive Experience

       
  • Chair, Board of Directors, American Middle East Education Foundation
    •    
  • Treasurer, Universal Education Foundation
    •    
  • Former treasurer, Amnesty International
    •    
  • Former chair, Amnesty International USA
    •    
  • Past president Association for Women in Mathematics, Caucus for Women in Statistics, Women’s Equity Action League

Work In Progress

       
  • Chapter on women in mathematical sciences for book on women’s leadership, Karen O’Connor, editor
    •    
  • Paper on SAS certification with Monica Jackson and Jun Lu
    •    
  • Paper on learning disabilities and mathematics
    •    
  • Book review of recent mathematical fiction

Selected Publications

       
  • Mary W. Gray, A Radical Approach to Algebra, Addison Wesley, Reading , Massachusetts , 1970.
    •    
  • Mary W. Gray, Calculus with Finite Mathematics for Social Sciences, Addison Wesley,  Reading  ,  Massachusetts   , 1972.
    •    
  • Mary W. Gray, “Lies and statistics: A mathematician reflects on moral leadership,” in Moral Leadership, edited by Daniel G. Deffenbaugh, Hastings College, Hastings, Nebraska, 2005.
    •    
  • Sharon Marek and Mary W. Gray,“The statistics of genocide,” in Statistical Methods for Human Rights, edited by Jana Asher, David Banks, and Fritz Scheuren, Springer Verlag, New York, 2008.
    •    
  • Mary W. Gray,“Gender and mathematics: Mythology and Misogyny,” in Towards Gender Equity in Mathematics Education, edited by Gila Hanna, Kluwer Academic Publishers,  Dordrecht , 1996.
    •    
  • Mary W. Gray, “The concept of 'substantial proportionality' in Title IX athletics cases,” Duke Journal of Gender and Social Policy 3 (1996), 165-188.
    •    
  • Barbara R. Bergmann and Mary W. Gray, “Student teaching evaluations: Inaccurate, demeaning, misused,” Academe 89 (2003), 44-46.
    •    
  • Mary W. Gray, “Can statistics tell the courts what they do not want to hear? The case of complex salary structures,” Statistical Sciences 8 (1993), 144-179.
    •    
  • Mary W. Gray, “Iraqi Universities Struggle to Rebuild the ‘House of Knowledge,’” Academe 90 (September-October 2004),
    •    
  • Mary W. Gray, “Sophie Germain,” in Complexities, edited by Bettye Anne Case and Anne M. Leggett, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 2005.

Grants and Sponsored Research

       
  • National Science Foundation grants for the study of women in science and to attract underrepresented groups to the study of mathematics and computer science
    •    
  • Alfred P. Sloan Foundation grant for doctorate study for underrepresented minorities
    •    
  • Karim Rida Said Foundation grant for Palestinian and Syrian graduate students
    •    
  • U.S. Department of State grants for education, election and human rights work in Iraq
    •    
  • Patricia Roberts Harris grant for graduate study for underrepresented groups

Professional Services

       
  • Expert statistical testimony on sex, race, and age discrimination in courts in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, Maryland, Washington DC, Louisiana, Minnesota, and Texas
    •    
  • Consulting with the U.S. State Department in Rwanda and Iraq
    •    
  • Extensive volunteer work with Amnesty International
    •    
  • Human resources consulting with Legacy Foundation, Ann Arbor schools
    •    
  • Statistics consulting with Committee to Protect Journalists
    •    
  • Statistical consulting with Kurdistan Regional Government
    •    
  • Public Heath Agency of Canada, International Expert Advisory Group on Risk Modeling
    •    
  • International summer school on Mathematics of Peace and Development, Córdoba, Spain

Professional Presentations

       
  • “Statistics in Aid of Human Rights,” Palestinian Conference on Modern Trends in Mathematics and Physics, Birzeit University, Palestine, July 2008.
    •    
  • “The Practicalities of Gender Budgeting: Can Secondary Net Enrollment Rates of Girls Rise through Improved Access to Sanitation?” Conference on Gender Budgeting, Vilnius, Lithuania, January 2008 (with Eduardas Valaitis).
    •    
  • “Mentoring,” Joint Statistics Meeting, Denver, Colorado, August 2008.
    •    
  • “The client-consultant relationship in medical research:the role of a professional statistician in the research team,” Sydney, Australia, April 2005 (with Nora Donaldson).
    •    
  • “Using business-style cases in an introductory statistics course,” International Congress on the Teaching of Statistics-7, Salvador, Brazil, July 2006 (with Eduardas Valaitis).
    •    
  • “Statistical tools employed in legal settings,” Joint Statistics Meeting 2006, Seattle, Washington, August 2006.
    •    
  • “Statistics and the law:  Will the twain ever meet?” Proceedings of Joint Statistics Meeting 2007, Salt Lake City, Utah, August 2007.
    •    
  • “Mathematics for peace and development,” International Congress of Mathematicians, Madrid, August 2006 (organizer and moderator).
    •    
  • “Teaching an audience of one,” Philadelphia chapter of the American Statistical Association, Philadelphia, January 2007.
    •    
  • “Statistics for human welfare,” Mathematics for Peace and Development Summer School, Córdoba, Spain, July 2006.

AU Experts

Area of Expertise

Statistics, ethics, computer science, computer law, mathematics, international and single-sex education, discrimination (esp gender based), academic freedom, reproductive choice, women's voting behavior, economic equity, affirmative action, human rights

Additional Information

Gray has served as international treasurer of Amnesty International USA. She was responsible for the finances of the 1.2 million-member worldwide organization, in which she has been involved for more than 25 years. As a lawyer and statistician, she furthers her commitment to human rights, including civil rights and women’s rights, in researching issues such as affirmative action, discrimination, clinical trials, ethical concerns in statistics, and single-sex education. Gray has also been involved in projects on human rights, statistics capacity building, and education in Iraq. She also has expertise in the areas of math education and computer science and law, and serves as a visiting professor at King's College School of Medicine in London. Gray is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and was a Fulbright Scholar in Germany. She has authored more than 80 articles and has given countless presentations on her areas of specialty, including testifying before Congress on income tax reform, affirmative action, pay equity, and women in science. In 2001, she was the recipient of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring. Gray, a member of the American Bar Association, is writing a book about computer law.

For the Media

To request an interview for a news story, call AU Communications at 202-885-5950 or submit a request.

Related Links