Mary A. McGehee Selected for Census Bureau’s African-American Advisory Committee

Mary A. McGehee, a senior research analyst at the Arkansas Department of Health, has been selected by Secretary of Commerce Carlos M. Gutierrez to serve on the U.S. Census Bureau’s Advisory Committee on the African-American population.

As a member of the nine-person committee, the Little Rock, Ark., resident will advise the Census Bureau on the new American Community Survey and ways to achieve a more accurate count of the African-American population in the 2010 Census.

“The Race and Ethnic Advisory Committees play a vital role in ensuring that we make the best effort possible to reach race and ethnic groups, not only during the 2010 Census, but also the American Community Survey that is conducted throughout the decade,” Census Bureau Director Steve H. Murdock said.

McGehee manages the collection, analysis and dissemination of data from four health and risk surveys in an effort to improve the health of Arkansans. She is also an adjunct research associate for the University of Mississippi’s Center for Population Studies and a lecturer at the University of Phoenix Little Rock campus.

McGehee received bachelor’s degrees in accounting and computer science, as well as a master’s degree in gerontology, from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. She received her doctorate in sociology with concentrations in demography and rural sociology from Texas A&M University.

Five race and ethnic advisory committees — African-American, American Indian and Alaska Native, Asian, Hispanic, and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander —advise the Census Bureau on issues affecting minority populations. The committees are assembled from the public at large and representatives of national, state, local and tribal entities, as well as nonprofit and private sector organizations. Members of the committees are academicians, community leaders, policy makers and others interested in an accurate count for their communities.