Marilyn Seastrom

National Center for Education Statistics
Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education

Marilyn Seastrom currently serves as NCES’ Chief Statistician and Program Director of Statistical Standards. As such, she provides technical assistance and advice to programs throughout NCES, and is responsible for the NCES technical review of all NCES products. Dr. Seastrom directs the IES data confidentiality program and serves as a consultant on matters of privacy and data confidentiality throughout the Department. Dr. Seastrom served on the OMB Interagency Committee that drafted the regulations for the implementation of the e-Gov Confidential Information Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act. She is currently authoring a series of Technical Briefs for the Department on various aspects of privacy.

Dr. Seastrom is a recognized statistical authority on a range of topics relevant to federal statistics, as is evident by her selection for membership on the OMB Federal Statistical Committee on Methodology, as a Fellow of both the American Statistical Association and the American Association of Educational Research, her service on a number of government-wide standard setting committees, and her role as Chair of the OMB Committee on Privacy in Statistical Data Collections. Areas of specialty include survey methodology, survey design, data analysis, measurement errors, data confidentiality, statistical standards and guidelines, and technical review. Dr. Seastrom majored in biology and sociology as an undergraduate, holds Master’s degrees in both fields, and completed her Doctoral degree in Demography and Applied Social Statistics.