Grace Carter at her graduation in 1974. Photo from the RAND Archives; composite by Kristen Meadows, RAND Corporation

Dear Pardee RAND Community,

As we celebrate Women’s History Month, I want to take a moment to share the inspiring story of Grace Carter, the first woman to graduate from the Pardee RAND Graduate School!

Grace joined our inaugural class of Ph.D. students in 1970 and, by all accounts, was a terrific student. She studied the effects of federal policies on NIH-sponsored health research and developed new evaluation measures in her dissertation Peer Review, Citations, and Biomedical Research Policy. Grace so impressed her professors and advisers that RAND invited her to stay, which she did for 40 years. During her wonderful career at RAND, she received several national awards and mentored scores of students and junior researchers.

Grace is no longer with us, but her legacy lives on at both RAND and Pardee RAND.

I look forward to celebrating women across the world, this month and always.

Warmly,

Nancy Staudt

Frank and Marcia Carlucci Dean, Pardee RAND Graduate School
Vice President, Innovation, RAND Corporation