Nancy Karweit, a former senior research scientist at the Center for the Social Organization of Schools at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, died on May 8 from complications of Parkinson’s disease. She was 77 years old.
A native of Kingsport, Tennessee, Dr. Karweit was a graduate of Salem College in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where she majored in mathematics. After graduation, she joined the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University as a computer programmer. In 1964, she took a job in the department of social relations at the university, where she worked with Dr. James S. Coleman doing data analysis for the Coleman Report on Equality of Educational Opportunity.
Dr. Karweit joined the Center for the Social Organization of Schools in 1966 as a research staff assistant. While employed in this post, she earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in social relations at Johns Hopkins. In 1987, Dr. Karweit was appointed a principal research scientist, a position she held until her retirement in 1998, shortly before she was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.