Mary H. Saunders to Serve Three-Year Term on ASTM International Board of Directors


W. CONSHOHOCKEN, Pa., December 14, 2009-Mary H. Saunders, deputy assistant secretary for Manufacturing and Services in the International Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, Washington, D.C., has been named to a three-year term on the ASTM International board of directors.

As deputy assistant secretary, a role she assumed in 2008, Saunders manages the daily operations of the more than 200 MAS industry specialists, economists and international trade experts. Saunders also works to strengthen the position of U.S. industries in world markets through her coordination of DOC strategies, policies and programs.

Prior to her tenure in the DOC, Saunders was in federal service in positions with the Department of the Army starting in 1979, including the Office of Institutional Research, U.S. Military Academy, West Point, N.Y. She began her DOC career as an international trade specialist, and she then joined the National Institute of Standards and Technology in 1993 as an economist, becoming a group leader in 1997 and chief of the Standards Services Division in 2001. In leading that division, Saunders oversaw programs in laboratory accreditation, standards coordination and conformity, global standards and information, and implementing the National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act.

For her service at NIST, Saunders received the Bronze Medal in 1995, 2001 and 2007. She also received DOC Silver Medals in 1999 and 2005.

An ASTM International member since 2002, Saunders serves on ASTM Committee E60 on Sustainability and its Subcommittee E60.02 on Hospitality. Outside ASTM International, she is a member of the National Policy Committee of the American National Standards Institute, and she is chair of the ANSI International Policy Committee.

Saunders graduated from Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn., with a bachelor's degree in political science, and from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, Princeton, N.J., with a master's degree in public affairs.

ASTM International is one of the largest international standards development and delivery systems in the world. ASTM International meets the World Trade Organization (WTO) principles for the development of international standards: coherence, consensus, development dimension, effectiveness, impartiality, openness, relevance and transparency. ASTM standards are accepted and used in research and development, product testing, quality systems and commercial transactions.

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