Aryness Joy Wickens

Aryness Joy Wickens (January 5, 1901 – February 2, 1991) was an American economist and statistician who served as acting commissioner of the US Bureau of Labor Statistics and as president of the American Statistical Association, and who helped develop the United States Consumer Price Index.

Education and career Aryness Joy was born in Bellingham, Washington. She did her undergraduate studies at the University of Washington, graduating Phi Beta Kappa, and earned a master's degree in economics from the University of Chicago.

After teaching economics at Mount Holyoke College from 1924 to 1928, she moved to Washington, DC to work for the Federal Reserve Board. and again in 1954–1955. In her second term as acting commissioner, her $13,500 salary made her the highest-paid female federal civil servant.

Other activities In 1935, Wickens was considered as one of several candidates to be the president of Mount Holyoke, continuing a tradition of female leadership at that school. However, instead, controversially, the trustees selected Roswell G. Ham to be president.

In 1952 she became the president of the American Statistical Association.

In 1960 Wickens was one of the inaugural recipients of the US Civil Service Commission's Federal Women's Award. Her husband died in 1970. After retiring, she moved to Mississippi in 1986.