Annie turner Randall
Statistician - National Institutes of Health
Annie Turner Randall
Annie Turner Randall, who was born on January 22, 1925, in Greenwood, South Carolina and grew up in a segregated Washington, DC. Annie’s first job was with the War Production Board. She faced blistering discrimination and overt racism, including a supervisor who asked that his desk be turned away from Annie so he didn’t have to look at a Black person. Throughout her career, she challenged the pre-conceived notions of her intellectual capability and the socially constructed roles expected from Black women in those days (i.e., domestic servants). A series of entry level positions in the federal government led Annie Randall to secure a position as a statistician at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Annie Randall worked with prominent NIH statisticians: Dr. Samuel W. Greenhouse, Dr. Donald F. Morrison, Mr. Fred Ederer, Dr. Karen Pettigrew, John Barths, and Clifford Patlak. Dr. Donald Morrison recognized Annie’s potential and decided to mentor her in the field of statistical methods. The text, Human Aging: A Biological and Behavioral Study (1963), serves as written testament to the intellectual capacity and uncompromising determination of Annie Randall. A dedication to Annie in the medical textbook underscores her invaluable contributions to the medical field. The authors of the textbook acknowledged her statistical calculations in a footnote from the chapter, “Statistical Methodology.” It reads: “We are indebted to Mrs. Annie Randall for maintaining the files and performing innumerable statistical calculations throughout most of the study”. Annie Randall retired in 1974 as a mathematical statistician in the NIH. She became a role model for many statisticians today. The American Statistical Association recently launched the ‘Annie T. Randall Innovator Award’ (https://www.amstat.org/ASA/Your-Career/Awards/Annie-T-Randall-Innovator-Award.aspx) to recognize the contributions of early career statistical innovators across all job sectors, and of any level of educational attainment.
VIDEO: The Life and Work of Annie Randall - A Wikipedia-edit-a-thon Session by Aura Wharton-Beck
Dr. Aura Wharton-Beck and Dr. Altea Lorenzo-Arribas, a statistician at BioSS in Scotland, United Kingdom co-wrote a blog post about Annie Randall for the Spanish blog Mujeres Con Ciencia. Read their post in Spanish or English by clicking below.