Anita Arrow Summers (1925-2023) was a pioneering American economist and educator, born in New York City on September 9, 1925, to Jewish immigrant parents from Romania—a banker father and a homemaker mother who emphasized education. She earned a B.A. in economics from Hunter College in 1945 and an M.A. from the University of Chicago in 1947, later studying in a doctoral program at Columbia University. She also received an honorary doctorate from Hunter College. Summers began her career as a research assistant at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) in 1946, contributing to empirical studies in a male-dominated field. She held positions at John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company and the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia before joining the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, where she became Professor Emeritus, specializing in public policy, management, real estate, and education.