Visiting Scholar

The Hon. Martha Farnsworth (Riche) joins SPIA as a Visiting Scholar with a research focus on the impact of diversity (defined narrowly or broadly) on institutions and nations. A fellow of the American Statistical Association, she served as Director of the U.S. Census Bureau between 1994 and 1998. Dr. Farnsworth began her career as an economist with the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics; then became a founding editor of American Demographics, the nation’s first magazine devoted to interpreting demographic and economic statistics for public and corporate executives. Prior to her service at the Census Bureau, she was Director of Policy Studies for the Population Reference Bureau—a nonprofit organization devoted to educating the public about the demographic component of policy issues. In recent years, she has guided branches of the U.S. military toward leveraging the positive impacts of diversity on work unit and organizational performance. She is currently writing a book about equivalent policy directions for national policy-makers. Dr. Farnsworth earned her B.A. and M.A. in Economics from the University of Michigan, and a PhD in French Literature from Georgetown University.