Mary W. Gray

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Mary Lee Gray is an American mathematician, statistician, and lawyer born on April 8, 1938, in Hastings, Nebraska. She helped found the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) and served as its first president from 1971 to 1973.

Gray earned a BA in mathematics from Hastings College in 1959, studied in Frankfurt on a Fulbright, and earned her MA (1962) and PhD (1964) in mathematics from the University of Kansas. She later worked at the University of California, Berkeley, and California State University, Hayward, before joining American University in Washington, D.C., in 1968. In 1979 she earned a JD from Washington College of Law and is admitted to practice before the District of Columbia and U.S. Supreme Court bars.

She has written extensively on mathematics, math education, computer science, statistics, economic equality, discrimination law, and academic freedom. With AU chemist Nina Roscher, she helped create an NSF-funded apprenticeship program to support first-year women in science and math, combining seminars with a two‑month hands-on policy-oriented internship.

Gray has held leadership roles on boards such as AMIDEAST and POMED. She has received numerous honors, including the 2012 Elizabeth L. Scott Award, 2013 Fellow of the American Mathematical Society, 2017 Fellow of the Association for Women in Mathematics (the organization’s inaugural class), the 2017 Karl E. Peace Award for Outstanding Statistical Contributions for the Betterment of Society, and the 2021 MAA Certificate of Merit. She is a fellow of the American Mathematical Society, the American Statistical Association, the AAAS, and the Association for Women in Science, and has honorary degrees from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, Mount Holyoke College, and Hastings College.

In 2022 the Association for Women in Mathematics established the Mary and Alfie Gray Award for Social Justice in her and her husband Alfred “Alfie” Gray’s honor. Gray has published more than 80 articles and remains active in promoting women in mathematics and human rights.