Economist, educator, and Mathematica board member Anita Summers passed away on October 22, 2023, peacefully in her home at the age of 98. Ms. Summers served on the Mathematica Board of Directors from 1992 to 2019 and led the Board as Chair from 1993 to 2010, sharing experience, expertise, and time with us as an essential member of the Mathematica community.
“Anita’s keen intelligence and pioneering experience as one of the first women to rise in the field of economics was a resource and a gift,” says Mathematica President and CEO Paul Decker. “Anita cared deeply about Mathematica’s mission to improve public well-being, and she shared both her enthusiasm for our work and her time with us generously. She will be missed by colleagues throughout Mathematica who knew her and were inspired by her.”
Born in 1925, Anita Summers became a trailblazer when she entered the field of economics at a time when very few women took such a step. Interviewed for Mathematica’s On the Evidence podcast in 2021, she described a personal turning point, when as an undergraduate student at Hunter College, economics and statistics became a passion: “Somehow the two clicked for me, and I saw a connection that fascinated me, because I believed in evidence. It somehow made things clear.” After earning a master’s degree in economics from the University of Chicago in 1947, her career included professorships at Swarthmore College and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, a position as Head of Urban Research for the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, and memberships with the National Panel on Education Reform of the National Science Foundation, the Metropolis Project of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Center, and the Three Mile Island Commission, where she became Chair of the Economic Subcommittee.
Ms. Summers also authored and edited many books and started the Public Policy department of the Wharton School, later becoming the department’s chair and professor emerita. After retiring from teaching, she took on the role of Ombudsman for the University, as well. Reflecting on a full and singular life, Ms. Summers shared this in her interview for our podcast: “I go back to saying that at each step I was brought up to work hard…. the motivation for me was entirely building my mind and learning more. I was not thinking of my resume.”
At Mathematica, she will be remembered as a friend, mentor, and fierce champion for the role of evidence in public policy. As she shared in our On the Evidence podcast interview, “I think that our ability to gather knowledge, this is a plus of evidence, and Mathematica has been outstanding in this—at gathering knowledge on evidence-based things… The ability to get good answers and help on every single thing we're doing is staggering.”
Anita Summers will be greatly missed at Mathematica. To learn more about her life, we recommend this obituary published by the Philadelphia Inquirer, which also includes information on a memorial service to take place on Wednesday, October 25 at 10:00 a.m. in Gladwyne, PA.