Dr. Christine Alvarado
Assistant Professor, Computer Science Department, Harvey Mudd College
Christine Alvarado is an assistant professor of computer science at Harvey Mudd College, where she has been teaching since 2005. She received her undergraduate degree in computer science from Dartmouth in 1998. She received her S.M. and Ph.D. in computer science from MIT in 2000 and 2004, respectively.
Her research interests lie in the intersection of artificial intelligence and human-computer interaction. She focuses on building robust, free-sketch recognition-based interfaces and exploring how to resolve the user interface challenges associated with these interfaces. Her research in sketch recognition has included over 20 undergraduate students and led to several publications.
In addition to her sketch understanding research, Christine is actively involved in outreach efforts to increase the number of women in computer science, and in designing novel introductory computer science curriculum that appeals to a broad scientific audience. In 2005, she helped redesign Harvey Mudd's introductory CS course, and this revision has helped to quadruple the number of women majoring in CS over the last five years.
In her time at Harvey Mudd College she has received three major grants, two of which are the NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award for her sketch recognition work, and the CISE Pathways to Revitalized Undergraduate Computing Education (CPATH) award to export Harvey Mudd College's introductory computer science course to other colleges and universities.
Dr. Catherine Ashcraft
Senior Research Scientist, NCWIT
Catherine Ashcraft's research and teaching has focused on a number of issues related to gender, race, and class in a variety of educational and organizational contexts. As a senior research scientist for NCWIT, she conducts research into effective practices for increasing women's participation in information technology careers. She also consults with the Workforce Alliance, identifying and disseminating effective practices and developing evaluation tools to support implementation of these practices. Her most recent publications include Who Invents IT? An Analysis of Women's Partitipcation in Information Technology Patenting and Women in IT: The Facts.
Before coming to NCWIT, Catherine served as an assistant professor of multicultural education at Western Washington University. In this capacity, she researched, taught, and spoke about the ways in which schools and workplaces reproduce inequalities in terms of race, class, and gender. Her recent research in these areas is published in Teachers College Record, Anthropology & Education, the American Educational Research Journal, Youth & Society, and Men & Masculinities. She has also worked as a K-12 public school teacher and as the Community Education Director for a battered women's shelter where she identified best practices and implemented programs to address a variety of gender inequities, including workplace and dating violence.
Catherine obtained her M.A. in Communication and her Ph.D. in Education from the University of Colorado.
Dr. Tim Bell
Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Canterbury
Tim Bell is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand. His current research interests include computer science education, computers and music, and data compression.
His "Computer Science Unplugged" project is widely used internationally, and its books and videos have been translated into about 12 languages. He received the Science Communicator Award from the NZ Association of Scientists in 1999, an inaugural New Zealand Tertiary Teaching Excellence Award in 2002, and the University of Canterbury Teaching medal in 2008. He has appeared with his "Computer Science Unplugged" show at the Edinburgh International Science Festival, the Dunedin International Science Festival, and the Australian Science Festival.
In the past his main area was data compression, and he has served as an expert witness in major US litigations about data compression. He is the author or co-author of about 70 journal and conference papers, and several books including "Text Compression" (Prentice Hall, 1990), "Managing Gigabytes: Compressing and Indexing Documents and Images" (Morgan Kaufmann, 1994, 1999), and "The Burrows-Wheeler Transform: data compression, suffix arrays, and pattern matching" (Springer, 2008).
He is a Guest Professor of Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, China. He is also a qualified musician, and performs regularly on instruments that have black-and-white keyboards.
Tricia Berry
Director, Women in Engineering Program (WEP), Director, Texas Girls Collaborative Project
Tricia Berry, Director of the Women in Engineering Program (WEP) at The University of Texas at Austin, is responsible for leading the efforts on recruitment and retention of women in the Cockrell School of Engineering. She concurrently serves as Director of the Texas Girls Collaborative Project, an initiative aimed at connecting Texas organizations, companies and individuals working to advance gender equity in science, technology, engineering and math fields, and serves as a Consultant for the Assessing Women and Men in Engineering (AWE) Project. Berry is also Executive Vice President of 825 Basics, LLC, a professional training company with the mission to help individuals develop healthy, fit and full of energy careers. She came to the Cockrell School of Engineering as Director in July 1999 after six years at The Dow Chemical Company in Freeport, Texas where she worked as a Process Engineer and a Product Development Engineer.
Berry received her BS Chemical Engineering degree from the University of Texas at Austin in May 1993 and her MBA from the University of Houston – Clear Lake in May 1999. Berry is a 2009 Leadership Texas graduate and serves on the Austin Community College Women in Green Jobs Advisory Board and Austin Independent School District Project Lead the Way Partnership Team. She is a Society of Women Engineers (SWE) Life Member and is currently serving on the SWE-AWE Advisory Council. She has been a member of the Women in Engineering ProActive Network (WEPAN) since 2001, most recently serving on the WEPAN Board as President Elect, President and Past President from 2007-2010.
Angela Byron
Drupal 7 Core Maintainer
Angela Byron is an open source evangelist who lives and breathes Drupal. She got her start as a Google Summer of Code student in 2005 and since then has completely immersed herself in the Drupal community. In addition to being the release manager for the upcoming Drupal 7, her work also includes development and patch review, creating and contributing add-on modules and themes, testing and quality assurance efforts within the project, improving documentation, and providing user support on forums and IRC.
Angela was lead author on O'Reilly's first Drupal book, Using Drupal, and recipient of the Google-O'Reilly Open Source Award for Best Contributor. She is on the Board of Directors for the Drupal Association and helps drive community growth by leading initiatives to help get new contributors involved, such as Drupal's participation in Google Summer of Code and Google's Highly Open Participation (GHOP) programs. Angela also founded the "Drupalchix" group, for empowering and growing the number of women Drupal contributors.
Karen Cator
Karen Cator is the Director of the Office of Educational Technology at the U.S. Department of Education. She has devoted her career to creating the best possible learning environments for this generation of students. Prior to joining the department, Cator directed Apple's leadership and advocacy efforts in education. In this role, she focused on the intersection of education policy and research, emerging technologies, and the reality faced by teachers, students and administrators.
Cator came to Apple in 1997 from the public education sector, most recently leading technology planning and implementation in Juneau, Alaska. She also served as Special Assistant for Telecommunications for the Lieutenant Governor of Alaska. Cator holds a Masters in school administration from the University of Oregon and Bachelors in early childhood education from Springfield College. She is the past chair of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills and has served on the several boards including the Software & Information Industry Association–Education.
Sapna Cheryan
Sapna Cheryan is an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Washington. Her research interests include identity, stereotypes and prejudice, and she has published articles on stereotype threat in Psychological Science and strategies of belonging to social groups in the Journal of Personality & Social Psychology. Her awards include the NSF CAREER Award and the American Psychological Association Dissertation Research Award. She received her Ph.D. in social psychology from Stanford University in 2007.
Dr. Allison Clark
Dr. Allison Clark is a researcher and social entrepreneur who recently founded AMedia1.com, LLC. AMedia1.com is an alternative online educational company that focuses on creating culturally specific educational materials for K-12 youth. The theoretical and research foundations of AMedia1.com are rooted in Dr. Clark's fifteen-year tenure at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign. During this time, her research interests involved the creation and examination of culturally specific approaches and tools as intervention strategies in the areas of digital literacy and equity. As part of her research agenda, she conducted a study on Community Technology Centers in Chicago Illinois in 2009 in fulfillment of a grant from the State of Illinois to the Institute of Government and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois.
In her role as the Co-Director of the Seedbed Initiative for Transdomain Creativity at Illinois, she explored the feasibility of using technology to create self-sustained interdisciplinary communities of collaboration involving artists, humanists, social scientists and technologists from around the world. While she was the Assistant Director of Digital Equity Initiatives at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications she worked to instill diversity in computing to assist in the equitable dissemination of new technologies fairly across racial, ethnic and cultural lines.
Dr. Clark has researched, written, and presented on the digital divide and digital equity issues in the areas of computing, education and community. In 2009 she served as a Distinguished HASTAC Scholar in Residence at the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute located on the campus of Duke University. It was during this residency that she launched The Access + Digital Literacy Research Project in an effort to examine implementation methods for community informatics in vulnerable populations.
Dr. Jim Cohoon
Department of Computer Science, School of Engineering & Applied Science, University of Virginia
Jim Cohoon received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Minnesota in 1982. He joined the University of Virginia in 1983 as an Assistant Professor of Computer Science and was promoted to Associate Professor in 1989. He was a Fulbright Scholar in 1993. He has directed four Ph.D. theses and 20 MS students, and is the author or co-author of five books, three book chapters, and over sixty papers. He served as chair of the ACM Special Interest Group on Design Automation (SIGDA) from 1993-1997, and he received SIGDA's Design Automation Fellowship (1990), Outstanding Member Award (1991), and Leadership Award (1997). In 1997 he also received the McGraw-Hill "Most Successful New title" Award for his best-selling C++ textbook (co-authored with Jack Davidson). He received the Department's first annual Teaching Award in 1998, and the ACM-SIGDA Outstanding Member award in 2004. He served on the ACM Publication Board, the ACM SIG Governing Board's Executive Committee, the ACM-SIGDA Advisory Board, and the ACM Council.
Katy Dickinson
Executive Process Architect
Katy Dickinson creates then communicates measurably effective long-lasting corporate infrastructure and processes. Her specialty is acting as an effective change agent who resolves persistent and complex organizational problems.
Previously Katy Dickinson was the Director of Business Process Architecture: CTO & Sun Labs organizations. Katy worked for Sun from 1984-2010 in Engineering, Marketing, Quality, Operations, Legal, Standards, Strategy, the Chief Technologist's Office, and Sun Labs. She has worked as a Six Sigma Master Black Belt for the CTO and Sun Labs since 2002.
Katy has a patent in electronic commerce (2000) and a defensive patent publication on the SEED process (2004) as well as two other patent applications. From 1992-2004 she was a lecturer and reviewer for the University of California at Berkeley's Engineering-110 ("Venture Design: The Start-up Company") class. From 2001-2010 she led the SEED (Sun Engineering Enrichment & Development) worldwide mentoring program.
Dr. Wendy DuBow
Research Scientist, NCWIT
Wendy DuBow serves as the evaluator of NCWIT's many educational and outreach resources. The purpose of her work is to help NCWIT understand how and to what extent our resources help advance the NCWIT mission. She also is responsible for producing two NCWIT resources, By the Numbers and the NCWIT Scorecard.
Wendy has been conducting social science research since 2001. Prior to coming to NCWIT, Wendy conducted evaluations and survey research in private-sector firms for a diverse client base, including non-profit organizations, grant-making foundations, and local governments throughout the U.S. Her fields of inquiry have included organizational capacity building, positive youth development, healthy lifestyles, and including marginalized populations in evaluation. In a former life, Wendy managed the Communications and Training units in Information Technology Services at the University of Colorado.
Wendy received her M.A. from Mills College and her Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Crystal Eney
Crystal Eney is Lead Undergraduate Advisor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) at the University of Washington.
She graduated from the University of Washington with a double degree in history and psychology and a minor in music. While a student, Crystal served as a tour guide, orientation leader, and FIG leader, and she liked the idea of becoming a fulltime employee after graduation. Prior to her current position she served as both a substitute advisor and program assistant in both Undergraduate Advising and Student Athlete Academic Services. During her time as an academic advisor with CSE, she has developed an interest in encouraging more women to pursue the fields. She co-led CSE 190e during its first two years, a seminar designed to show women the breadth and depth of careers in CSE. The seminar serves as a place for women to meet others who share their same interests. With her co-instructor of the seminar she presented a paper at the 2005 American Society of Engineering Education Exposition in Portland, Oregon; and she has participated in an international working group at the Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education conference in Lisbon, Portugal, which has published two papers.
In 2007 Crystal was executive producer of Pathways in Computer Science, a video production designed to demonstrate that computer scientists work in a broad range of interesting fields, and show that a computer science or computer engineering degree is terrific preparation for almost any imaginable future. The video won a gold award in the regional CASE award.
Ruthe Farmer
Director of Strategic Initiatives, NCWIT
Ruthe Farmer has focused her efforts on increasing girls' participation in technology and engineering since 2001. As Director of Strategic Initiatives, she provides strategic planning and direction, fund development, and cultivation of new partnerships for NCWIT. Ruthe oversees the NCWIT Award for Aspirations in Computing and efforts to accelerate distribution of NCWIT promising practices and resources throughout the computing community and beyond.
In a previous position as the National Project Manager for Technology & Engineering Education for Girl Scouts of the USA, Ruthe designed and implemented national programs and partnerships to increase girls' participation in STEM and managed the K-12 Informal Education Hub of the National Center for Women & IT. She was responsible for establishing a national Lego Robotics initiative, scaling out the Intel Design & Discovery program to 63 councils, and forming a national partnership between FIRST Robotics and Girl Scouts of the USA.
Ruthe has served on the NCWIT Leadership Team and as the co-chair of the NCWIT K-12 Alliance, on the National Girls Collaborative Project Champions Board, the FIRST Robotics Girls FIRST Advisory Board, and is a founding board member of Springboard Innovation, a nonprofit dedicated to incubating grass roots social entrepreneurs. She was recently named to the Lewis & Clark College Board of Alumni, is an ambassador for the University of Oxford Said Business School, and serves on the Girl Scouts of Colorado STEM Advisory Committee.
Ruthe brings a wealth of experience in informal education, national collaboration, and fund development. She recently completed the MBA in Social Entrepreneurship & Marketing at the University of Oxford and is passionate about integrating innovative entrepreneurial strategies into her work.
Dr. Wendy Faulkner
Honorary Fellow, The Institute for the Study of Science, Technology and Innovation (ISSTI), University of Edinburgh, Scotland
Wendy Faulkner trained in biology and then science and technology policy studies, doing her doctoral research at the Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex. She joined the University of Edinburgh in 1988 where she worked chiefly as a sociologist of technology. She was centrally involved in developing and running Edinburgh’s postgraduate programmes in science and technology studies until she retired from her academic post in 2009.
Wendy Faulkner has a longstanding research interest in gender, science and technology, starting with her involvement in the early women and science collection. Alice through the Microscope (Virago, 1980), followed by a women and technology reader, Smothered by Invention, with Erik Arnold (Pluto, 1985). She has since made significant contributions to feminist technology studies, most notably through a major ethnographic study of engineering workplaces, Genders in/of Engineering, which included research in a US IT company. In addition, she was involved in EU collaborative projects on gender inclusion in the information society (SIGIS) and on women in engineering research (PROMETEA), the latter involving a cross-national study of good practice in gender equality and diversity.
Wendy Faulkner has pursued other strands of research. Earlier, she conducted several research projects on knowledge flows in industrial R&D and innovation, the largest on industry-university research links in new technological fields (Knowledge Frontiers, with Jacqueline Senker, Clarendon, 1995). She recently collaborated on a project on public engagement in debates surrounding stem cell research, and has an ongoing interest in dialogue techniques and the politics of public participation.
Tiffany Grady
Assistant Director for Academic Initiatives for the Department of Computer Science, University of Texas at Austin
Tiffany Grady serves as the Assistant Director for Academic Initiatives for the Department of Computer Science at the University of Texas at Austin. She manages recruiting, retention, diversity and departmental outreach efforts and she advises all the student organizations. Tiffany received her Bachelor's degree in Journalism at Oklahoma State University and her Masters in Educational Administration at the University of Texas at Austin. Tiffany began her career at UT in Corporate and Foundation Relations in the College of Natural Sciences and previously served as a Development Specialist at the American Cancer Society.
Sonya Harris
Coordinator of Outreach Programs for the Department of Computer Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Sonya Harris is the Coordinator of Outreach Programs for the Department of Computer Science at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She works closely with students and faculty to create and enhance outreach initiatives college-wide. She oversees the ChicTech Outreach Program. Prior to her current position, she created and led outreach programs for low-income families in Champaign County while pursuing a Masters degree in Education with an emphasis on Technology.
Raised in Chicago, Illinois, Sonya appreciates being close to family. Sonya has recently accepted the position as Chair for the Awards for Aspirations in Computing - Illinois Affiliate. She also serves as a committee member on the campus' I-STEM Committee and was featured in an article highlighting computer science and underrepresented students. Last year, Sonya starting working towards her PhD in Education - Curriculum and Instruction (Math, Science, and Technology).
She is active in a variety of community and cultural organizations including Boys and Girls Club, Park District, and Shelters. Outside of professional interests, she travels, reads, cleans, and enjoys spending time with family and close friends.
Dr. J. Wayne Jones
Arthur F. Thurnau Professor, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Michigan
J. Wayne Jones has been a member of the faculty of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering since 1978 and is an Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Materials Science and Engineering. He holds a PhD in Materials Science from Vanderbilt University. He is also associate director of ADVANCE at the University of Michigan and director of the ADVANCE Program in the College of Engineering. ADVANCE is an NSF and University sponsored program focused on increasing the numbers of tenure-track women and under-represented minorities in the STEM disciplines.
He served as Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education in the College of Engineering from 1996 to 2001 and he served as interim chair of MSE in 1992. He served as president of TMS (a 12,000 member materials society) in 1999 and has served on the boards of directors of TMS and the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers. He was elected a fellow of ASM International (a 50,000 member materials society) in 2000. In 2007 he received the Harold H. Johnson Diversity Award from the University of Michigan. In 2010 he will receive ASM International's A. E. White Distinguished Teacher Award.
His research interests have focused on developing an understanding of structure-property relationships in advanced structural materials for automotive and aerospace applications. His work has centered on the fatigue and creep behavior of aluminum alloys, particulate strengthened aluminum matrix composites, titanium and titanium aluminides and more recently on new magnesium alloys. His research group is currently focusing on development of new instrumentation and techniques for studying the fatigue behavior of structural materials in the gigacycle regime using ultrasonic fatigue. His research is currently funded by the National Science Foundation, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, U.S. Department of Energy Ford Motor Company General Motors. He consults in the area of metal failure analysis.
Dr. Ed Lazowska
Bill & Melinda Gates Chair in Computer Science & Engineering; Director, University of Washington eScience Institute; Chair, Computing Community Consortium
Lazowska's research and teaching concern the design, implementation, and analysis of high-performance computing and communication systems. Current work includes directing the University of Washington eScience Institute, whose objective is to make the techniques and technologies of data-intensive science available across the UW campus, and chairing the Computing Community Consortium, whose objective is to expand the engagement of the computing research community in articulating and addressing the societal challenges of the 21st century.
Lazowska is a Member of the National Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, a Member of the Washington State Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery, a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2000 Lazowska was named the Bill & Melinda Gates Chair. In 2003 President Bush named him to co-chair the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee. In 2005 he received the Computing Research Association Distinguished Service Award for outstanding service to the computing research community, and the ACM Presidential Award from the Association for Computing Machinery "for showing us how to advocate effectively for IT research and advanced education." In 2007 he received the University of Washington Computer Science & Engineering Undergraduate Teaching Award.
From 1992-2004 he served on the Board of Directors of the Computing Research Association. He served as Chair of the CRA Board from 1997-2001, and as Co-Chair or Vice-Chair of CRA's Government Affairs Committee from 2001 to the present. He chaired the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Information Science And Technology (ISAT) study group from 2004-06, and served as a member from 1998-2007. He served for six years on the National Research Council's Computer Science and Telecommunications Board, and served on the NRC Committee on Assessing the Impacts of Changes in the Information Technology Research and Development Ecosystem. Currently he is the Chair of the Computing Community Consortium, an NSF-sponsored effort to engage the computing research community in envisioning more audacious research challenges. He is a member of the Technical Advisory Boards for Microsoft Research, Voyager Capital, Ignition Partners, Madrona Venture Group, Impinj, and Conenza, and, until recently, of the Board of Directors of Data I/O Corporation and Intrepid Learning Solutions. He is a member of the Boards of Directors of the Washington Technology Industry Association (formerly the Washington Software Alliance), the Technology Alliance of Washington, the Washington Digital Learning Commons, and the Washington State Academy of Sciences, as well as serving on the Washington State Information Services Board, in connection with which he was recognized in 2002 by Government Technology magazine as a member of the inaugural "GT 25" national leaders of information technology in state government. He is a member of the Executive Advisory Council of the National Center for Women & Information Technology.
Lazowska has served as a member of ACM's A.M. Turing Award selection committee. He has recently served on standing advisory committees for the College of Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology, the Departments of Computer Science at the University of Virginia (which he currently chairs), Princeton University, and the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, and the Program in Informatics of the National College of Ireland, and has chaired external review committees for the computer science programs at Rice University, the University of Virginia, Princeton University, the Georgia Institute of Technology, and UC Berkeley, as well as for the statistics program at the University of Washington.
Lazowska received his A.B. from Brown University in 1972 and his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto in 1977, when he joined the University of Washington faculty.
Dr. Ran Libeskind-Hadas
Professor of Computer Science, Associate Dean of Faculty, Harvey Mudd College
Ran Libeskind-Hadas received the B.A. in Applied Mathematics from Harvard University and the M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Since 1993 he has been with Harvey Mudd College where he is a faculty member in the Department of Computer Science and serving as Associate Dean of Faculty. His research interests are in algorithms for computational biology. With colleagues Christine Alvarado, Geoff Kuenning, and Zach Dodds, he has been involved in the design, implementation, and evaluation of new introductory computer science curricula at Harvey Mudd.
Jody MaHoney
Vice President Business Development, Anita Borg Institute (ABI)
Jody Mahoney is vice president of business development at the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology, responsible for developing current and new Institute sponsors and partners willing to grow with ABI as our programs expand in support of our mission. Prior to joining ABI, Jody was senior director of international development with TechSoup, a social enterprise based in San Francisco where she was instrumental in developing the corporate and nonprofit partnerships needed for international expansion. Prior to TechSoup, Jody held many and varied positions in business development, partnership recruitment, and technology sales. Jody holds a BFA from Antioch College and an MFA from Warren Wilson College.
Charlie McDowell
Professor, Computer Science Department, University of California at Santa Cruz
Charlie McDowell has been a faculty member in the Computer Science Department at the University of California Santa Cruz since 1985. He served as department chair from 1991-97. Since July 2006 his has been serving as the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Affairs in the Baskin School of Engineering at UCSC. In 2002, in collaboration with several colleagues at UCSC, he published the first of several articles reporting on the use of pair programming to improve the retention rates for women in university programming classes. UCSC has been participating in the NCWIT Academic Alliance with Charlie McDowell as the leader of their action team. He is the PI for an NSF S-STEM grant that provides scholarships targeted at women and other underrepresented groups in computer science, computer engineering, and electrical engineering. In addition to receiving scholarship money, the scholars are part of a living and learning community designed to increase the success rates of the students through community building and academic support.
Shireen Mitchell
Founder and Executive Director, Digital Sisters/Sistas, Inc.
An award winning technological woman of color, author, social entrepreneur, nonprofit leader, advocate, social media strategist and psychosocial analyst.
As a self-proclaimed "geekette," Shireen has always embraced her inner techie. You could always catch her playing pong or "chatting" on her computer on the bulletin board systems (BBS) before we had the World Wide Web. She managed the Politically Black.com website prior to its sale and public offering as one of the only women of color web entrepreneurs in the 90's. All of these achievements were accomplished before Shireen founded Digital Sisters, Inc., an organization that focuses on using digital media and technology to access tools for women and children.
Shireen consults on Social Tech ID and helps organize various tech events, conferences and participates on program committees around the country. A few notable mentions are the Techno Rodeo, She's Geeky, D.C., Feminism 2.0, Tech Adventure DC, Nonprofit 2.0, Gov2.0 Expo, Computers, Freedom and Privacy, TEDx Potomac, and many others.
As an author she has written "Gaining Daily Access to Science and Technology" in the book 50 Ways to Improve Women's Lives and Access to Technology: Race, Gender, Class Bias. Shireen covers various areas of tech, media, policy and diversity in articles and blogs.
As Chair of the Media and Technology Task Force of the National Council of Women's Organizations (NCWO), Ms. Mitchell works to increase participation in technology and media by women. She also sits as the Vice Chair of the parent organization. In addition, she is a member of various women's media and tech groups.
Shireen has been awarded Top 100 DC Tech Titans, Social Citizen Award: Apps for Democracy DC, Rising Star: Woman of Color in Technology, Heroine in Technology, Community Technology Leader, The Root 100, Black Twitterati and finalist for the Shorty Awards & Young Woman of Achievement.
Shireen was born and raised in the projects of New York City. She currently resides with her family in Washington D.C., a city engrossed in government 2.0, and politics.
Dr. Brian Nosek
Department of Psychology, University of Virginia
Brian Nosek received a Ph.D. in from Yale University in 2002 and is an associate professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Virginia. In 2007, he received early career awards from the International Social Cognition Network (ISCON) and the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI). He directs Project Implicit (http://projectimplicit.net/) an Internet-based multi-university collaboration of research and education about implicit cognition - thoughts and feelings that exist outside of awareness or control. Nosek's research interests include implicit cognition, automaticity, social judgment and decision-making, attitudes and beliefs, stereotyping and prejudice, ideology, morality, identity, memory, and the interface between theory, methods, and innovation.
Dr. David Notkin
Professor, Department of Computer Science, University of Washington
David Notkin received his bachelor's in computer science, cum laude with honors, from Brown University in 1977, and his PhD in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University in 1984. He has been on the Computer Science & Engineering faculty at the University of Washington since 1984, serving as department chair (2001-06) and now holding the endowed Bradley Chair. Among his honors and awards are a 1988 National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award, the 2000 University of Washington Distinguished Graduate Mentor Award, and election as an ACM Fellow (1998) and IEEE Fellow (2007). He is editor-in-chief of ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (2007-2013). He is a member of the Computing Research Association board of directors (2005- ), and was co-chair of the Academic Alliance of the National Center for Women in Information Technology (2004-2008). He was the program chair for the 1st ACM SIGSOFT Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering and program co-chair for the 17th International Conference on Software Engineering. He served as the chair of ACM SIGSOFT, the special interest group on software engineering (1997-2001). He has advised 19 PhD students and several dozen master's students. He was a visiting faculty member at both Tokyo Institute of Technology and Osaka University in 1990-91. In 1997-98, he spent four months as a visiting researcher at the IBM Haifa Research Laboratory, and in 2006-07 he was a visiting researcher at Lund University in Sweden.
Denise Paolucci
Founder, Dreamwidth
Denise Paolucci is co-founder of Dreamwidth Studios, an open source blogging and social media platform whose contributors are over 75% women. She has been working in social media and Web 2.0 since before either term was coined; before co-founding Dreamwidth, she spent six years at LiveJournal.com, doing everything from technical support to Terms of Service enforcement to product planning to documentation to quality assurance testing. She is also an author of science fiction and fantasy.
Kim Polese
CEO, Spikesource
Kim Polese is the CEO of SpikeSource, Inc., a software company based in Silicon Valley. SpikeSource is helping to bring the "long tail" of software to a mass market through its revolutionary automated application-certification technology. SpikeSource's self-service technology, which automates the validation of "any app on any platform," helps developers get their applications to market faster and helps leading software and device providers accelerate market share via a global marketplace of continually certified software applications. The result: more innovative apps, more dependable software, happier customers and higher profits for developers and platform vendors.
Prior to joining SpikeSource in August 2004, Ms. Polese co-founded Marimba, Inc., a leading provider of systems management solutions, in 1996. Ms. Polese served as President, Chief Executive Officer, and Chairman of Marimba, leading the company to profitability and a successful public offering prior to its acquisition by BMC Corporation in 2004.
Before co-founding Marimba, Ms. Polese worked in software management at Sun Microsystems and was the original product manager for Java, leading its launch in 1995. Prior to joining Sun, Ms. Polese was a consulting engineer at IntelliCorp Inc., helping Fortune 500 companies in the development of expert systems.
Ms. Polese earned a Bachelors degree in Biophysics from the University of California, Berkeley (1984) and studied Computer Science at the University of Washington, Seattle.
She is an Aspen Institute Crown Fellow and serves on several boards, including the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, the University of California President's Board on Science and Innovation, UC Berkeley's College of Engineering, the Long Now Foundation, and the Global Security Institute.
Justin Rattner
Vice President and Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Intel
Justin Rattner is vice president and chief technology officer (CTO) at Intel. He is also an Intel Senior Fellow and head of Intel Labs. In the latter role, he directs Intel's global research efforts in microprocessors, systems, and communications including the company's disruptive research activity.
In 1989, Rattner was named Scientist of the Year by R&D Magazine for his leadership in parallel and distributed computer architecture. In December 1996, Rattner was featured as Person of the Week by ABC World News for his visionary work on the Department of Energy ASCI Red System, the first computer to sustain one trillion operations per second (one teraFLOPS) and the fastest computer in the world between 1996 and 2000. In 1997, Rattner was honored as one of the Computing 200, the 200 individuals having the greatest impact on the U.S. computer industry today, and subsequently profiled in the book Wizards and Their Wonders from ACM Press.
Rattner has received two Intel Achievement Awards for his work in high performance computing and advanced cluster communication architecture. He is a member of the executive committee of the Intel's Research Council and serves as the Intel executive sponsor for Cornell University where he is a member of the External Advisory Board for the School of Engineering. Rattner is also a trustee of the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology.
Rattner joined Intel in 1973. He was named its first Principal Engineer in 1979 and its fourth Intel Fellow in 1988. Prior to joining Intel, Rattner held positions with Hewlett-Packard Company and Xerox Corporation. He holds B.S. and M.S. degrees from Cornell University in electrical engineering and computer science.
Dr. Debra Richardson
The Ted and Janice Smith Family Foundation Dean of Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Science, University of California at Irvine
Debra J. Richardson is a professor and the Ted and Janice Smith Family Foundation Dean of UC Irvine's Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Science. She is a founding member of the Institute for Software Research, a UC Irvine Organized Research Unit, and serves as director of MICRO (Microelectronics Innovation and Computer Research Opportunities), one of the school's Industry-University Cooperative Research Programs. Her current work focuses on enabling specification-based testing technology throughout the software lifecycle, from requirements and architecture analysis through operation and evolution. Dr. Richardson received her B.A. in Mathematics from the University of California at San Diego and her M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer and Information Science from the University of Massachusetts.
Dr. Steve Roach
Department of Computer Science, University of Texas at El Paso
Steve Roach received is Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Wyoming in 1997. He has 12 years of industrial software development experience in data acquisition, process control, and chemical process modeling as well as software development for NASA's Cassini mission and the International Space Station. He has been using cooperative learning and the Affinity Research Group model in his courses and research since 1999. In 2002 and 2003, he chaired the IEEE CCSE Sub-Committee on Advanced Software Engineering Curricula. The CCSE is an international organization developing models of undergraduate and graduate software engineering programs. In 2003, he chaired the panel session "The Art of Getting Students to Practice Team Skills," at the 33rd ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (with E. Villa, J. Sullivan, R. Upchurch, and K. Smith). He is an IEEE-CS Certified Software Development Professional and a program evaluator for the Computing Accreditation Committee of ABET. He served as a reviewer for SWEBOK and for the Graduate Software Engineering Curriculum 2009. He is the Associate Chair of Computer Science at the University of Texas at El Paso.
Kirrily Robert
Author, Blogger and Open Source Generalist
Kirrily Robert has been involved in open source software since 1993, as a Linux user, Perl developer, and community leader and advocate.
She is best known for her work in the Perl community, where she has been a CPAN contributor, author, speaker, and trainer. She has worked extensively in the Open Source and Internet industries since the mid 90s, as a developer, sysadmin, and community manager. She has presented and given tutorials at many conferences, including OSCON, Yet Another Perl Conference, linux.conf.au, the Open Source Developer's Conference (Australia), and has also spoken to numerous user groups and at BarCamps and unconferences.
Kirrily has recently been working on several projects related to women in Open Source and other geek communities. In 2008 she launched the Geek Feminism Wiki, and more recently she has been contributing to and writing about two large open source projects with majority female developers: the Dreamwidth journalling platform and the Organization for Transformative Works' "Archive Of Our Own." Her interests also include free culture, open data, and technology for social justice.
Kirrily currently resides in San Francisco, where she works for Metaweb Technologies as Community Director for Freebase.com, an open, creative-commons-licensed, API-accessible, structured database of the world's information.
Joyce Roché
President and CEO of Girls Incorporated
Joyce M. Roché brings a unique combination of sharp business acumen and strong commitment to building girls' confidence and leadership skills to her role as President and Chief Executive Officer of Girls Incorporated, a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowered girls and an equitable society.
As a trailblazer in the corporate world for 25 years, Roché mentored women by encouraging them to find their voices and take bold career risks to excel. Her vision for empowered businesswomen now carries over into her work on behalf of girls—benefiting the range of programs, research, and advocacy carried out at Girls Inc. From pregnancy and drug abuse prevention to science and technology education, Girls Inc. programs are delivered across the country in school and after-school settings to empower and educate girls, many from underserved communities. Roché's management and marketing expertise is particularly critical as Girls Inc. moves to expand its outreach to millions of girls across the country through technology, wider program distribution, and new efforts for public education and advocacy.
Before joining Girls Inc., Roché served as President and Chief Operating Officer of Carson Products Company, and Vice President of Global Marketing at Avon Products, Inc. During her tenure at Carson, an African American personal care company, sales increased over 130 percent. While at Avon, Roché broke new ground by becoming Avon's first African American female vice president, the first African American vice president of marketing, and the company's first vice president of global marketing.
Roché has received widespread acclaim for her achievements in the business world: In 1998, Business Week selected her as one of the "Top Managers to Watch," and in 1997 she was featured on the cover of Fortune. In 1991 and 1994 respectively, Black Enterprise named Roché one of the "21 Women of Power and Influence in Corporate America" and one of the "40 Most Powerful Black Executives." In 2006, Roché received the Legacy Award during Black Enterprise magazine's "Women of Power Summit," and in 2007, she received the Distinguished Alumna Award from Columbia University Women in Business.
Roché is a graduate of Dillard University in New Orleans and holds an MBA from Columbia University. She has successfully completed Stanford University's Senior Executive Program and holds honorary doctorate degrees from Dillard University and North Adams State College. She currently sits on the Board of Directors of AT&T Inc., Tupperware Corporation, Macy's Inc., The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center and The Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges. She is also the chair of the Board of Trustees for Dillard University.
Lucy Sanders
CEO and Co-founder, NCWIT
Lucy Sanders is CEO and Co-founder of the National Center for Women & Information Technology and also serves as Executive-in-Residence for the ATLAS Institute at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
She has an extensive industry background, having worked in R&D and executive positions at AT&T Bell Labs, Lucent Bell Labs, and Avaya Labs for over 20 years, where she specialized in systems-level software and solutions (multi-media communication and customer relationship management.) In 1996, Lucy was awarded the Bell Labs Fellow Award, the highest technical accomplishment bestowed at the company, and she has six patents in the communications technology area.
Lucy serves on several boards, including the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI) Board of Trustees at the University of California at Berkeley; the Engineering Advisory Council at the University of Colorado at Boulder; the National Girls Collaborative Project Advisory Board; the Advisory Board for the Women's College Applied Computing Program at the University of Denver; the ATLAS Advisory Board; and several corporate boards. She is a member of the ACM nominating committee and the ACM-W Advisory Board.
In 2004 Lucy was awarded the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Department of Engineering at CU and in 2007 she was inducted into the Women in Technology International (WITI) Hall of Fame. Lucy has served as Conference Chair and Program Chair for the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, as well as the Information Technology Research and Development Ecosystem Commission for the National Academies. In 2009 she was recognized as a Microsoft Community Partner.
Lucy received her B.S. and M.S. in Computer Science from Louisiana State University and the Univ ersity of Colorado at Boulder, respectively.
Bernice Sandler
Senior Scholar, Women's Research and Education Institute
Dr. Bernice R. Sandler is a Senior Scholar at the Women's Research and Education Institute in Washington, DC, where she consults with institutions and others about achieving equity for women.
The NY Times called her "the godmother of Title IX" the landmark law often known as the "athletics law." Title IX prohibits most discrimination at all educational levels. She has worked on Title IX longer than anyone else. In 1970 she filed the first charges of sex discrimination against more than 250 institutions.
She has given over 2500 presentations, written over 100 articles, three books, and is an expert in women's educational equity, sexual harassment, the chilly classroom climate, and in policies, programs and strategies concerning women and girls. She serves as an expert witness in discrimination and sexual harassment cases.
As Director of the Project on Women at the Association of American Colleges she published the first reports on campus sexual harassment, gang rape, campus peer harassment, and the chilly climate for women, including the first report on how women were treated differently in the classroom. She was the first Congressional committee staff member appointed to work specifically on women's issues; the first person to testify before a Congressional committee about sex discrimination in education; and the first Chair of the now defunct National Advisory Council on Women's Educational Programs, having been appointed by Presidents Ford and Carter. She also consulted with The Citadel on their "female assimilation plan."
She has 12 honorary doctorates and numerous other awards. She has been quoted in media such as the N.Y. Times, Newsweek and Sports Illustrated, and has appeared on The Today Show, Larry King Live, and Good Morning America.
Dr. Robert Schnabel
Co-founder, NCWIT; Dean, Indiana University School of Informatics
Dr. Robert Schnabel is dean of the Indiana University School of Informatics. Formerly he served as Vice Provost for Academic and Campus Technology at the University of Colorado at Boulder and was founding director of the ATLAS Institute. A faculty member in the Department of Computer Science at CU for nearly 30 years, he served on major strategic planning committees for the Multicultural Engineering Program and the Women in Engineering Program in the University's College of Engineering.
Kimberly A. Scott, Ed.D.
Executive Director, Compugirls
After graduating with a BA from Smith College in Art History and French Literature, Kimberly A. Scott found herself in Chaing Mai, Thailand, teaching English in a rehabilitation center for female slaves and prostitutes. It was at this juncture where she developed a keen interest in race, ethnic, social class, and gender issues as intersecting variables affecting children in general and girls of color in particular. While working as a fourth-grade teacher in an urban New Jersey district, she routinely noticed teachers dismissing these features yet doing little to further certain children's success. This realization motivated Dr. Scott to earn her Ed.D. from Rutgers University in the area of social and philosophical foundations of education with particular emphasis on sociology of children and childhoods.
For the past four years, Dr. Scott has been an Associate Professor in the Mary Lou Fulton Graduate School and Institute of Education at Arizona State University (ASU) in the Division of Advanced Studies of Education Policy, Leadership, and Curriculum. Prior to ASU, she was on faculty in Hofstra University's College of Education and Allied Human Services. While at Hofstra, Dr. Scott established the TLC program in which girls and their parents from surrounding, high-needs Long Island districts attended mentoring, technology, and parenting workshops. TLC served as the basis for her current National Science Foundation-funded program, COMPUGIRLS (www.compugirls.asu.edu).
As the Executive Director and Principal Investigator of this social justice technology program for girls from Phoenix's under-resourced districts and tribal communities, Dr. Scott researches issues of technological equity and gender. She also maintains an interest in urban education and African American populations. To this end, she is Executive Editor of the State of Black Arizona (www.stateofblackaz.org) and co-editor of the forthcoming IAP book, Research in Urban Educational Settings: Lessons Learned and Implications for Future Practice. With more than 30 written articles, op-ed pieces, technical reports, and book chapters; three books; approximately 50 national and international conference presentations and/or invited addresses, Dr. Scott has received several awards and recognitions for her community work and scholarly activities.
Bryan Sivak
Chief Technology Officer, District of Columbia
Bryan Sivak was appointed by Mayor Adrian M. Fenty on October 13, 2009 to the Cabinet post of Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for the District of Columbia. As CTO, Sivak leads the Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO), an organization of more than 500 staff that provides technology services and leadership for 86 agencies, 38,000 employees, residents, businesses, and millions of visitors.
Sivak has over 15 years of experience in building software and internet technologies and developing business practices. In 2001, Sivak served as chief architect in the development and design of InQuira's various product modules. In 2002, he founded and developed InQuira, Inc., an international technological solutions company whose products are used at top private and public sector organizations including Bank of America, UK Ministry of Defense, Nokia and T-Mobile. While there, he oversaw every aspect of the business from design and development of the product to sales, marketing and management activities relating to the overall execution of InQuira's business plan and growth of the company. In 2005, he moved to London and opened the European office of the company. Prior to his work with InQira, Sivak founded Electric Knowledge LLC, which provided the world's first Natural Language Search engine available on the web. The company's customers included Bank of America and Fidelity Investments and several others. Electronic Knowledge eventually merged with Answerfriend, when was the basis for the formation of InQuira.
Sivak also served as lead software engineer for the IBM Corp. in its Santa Teresa Lab in San Jose, Calif. There, he worked on embedded SQL for Java Conformance Test Suite, was responsible for designing the test suite, coding tests and delegating tasks to other members of the team, and worked jointly with teams from Oracle, JavaSoft, Tandem, Sybase and Informix.
Sivak holds a BS in Computer Science from the University of Chicago.
Eileen Sweeney
Director of Corporate and Foundation Philanthropic Relations, Motorola Foundation
Eileen Sweeney is Director of Corporate and Foundation Philanthropic Relations at the Motorola Foundation. She has over 15 years of experience in philanthropy and has lead the Motorola Foundation and global Corporate Contributions for the last five years in its mission to benefit the communities in which it operates around the world, by making strategic grants, forging strong partnerships, fostering innovation, and engaging stakeholders. At Motorola Eileen started the Innovation Generation Grant program for science technology, engineering and math education in the US and leads a global effort around disaster response. Eileen joined Motorola from the Inkindex Corporation where she was Chief Executive Officer. Inkindex is an online company that obtains resources for non-profit groups. Before that, Eileen served as director of Civic Affairs for United Airlines where she was responsible for global corporate philanthropy, employee volunteerism, and employee giving.
She is a founding member of the National Science Advisory Committee for the Girl Scouts of the USA and a member of the National Advisory Council for the Dream Foundation. Locally, Eileen serves on the boards of Working in the Schools, Project Exploration, Victory Gardens Theater, the Women's Power Network, and is a founder of the North Lawndale College Prep Charter High School. Eileen represented U.S. business on the national steering committee for the United Nations International Year of Volunteers, 2001 and is the immediate past-Chair of The Contributions Council of the Conference Board. Eileen received a bachelor's degree in education from Loyola University and a Masters in Education from Harvard Graduate School for Education with a focus on building strategic business-education partnerships.
Dr. John White
CEO, The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
Dr. John R. White has served as ACM Executive Director and Chief Executive Office since January 1999. As CEO Dr. White is responsible for working with ACM senior leadership (the officers, the board of directors, and over 1,000 volunteers) in setting and delivering ACM's strategic direction. During John's tenure, ACM membership has grown to an all-time high, its scholarly publishing program has doubled in size, and the Association is increasingly involved in issues related to the image and health of the computing discipline and field worldwide.
Prior to joining ACM, John was Manager of the Computer Science Laboratory at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). White spent seventeen years at Xerox PARC leading several research groups, including the PARC group that developed and delivered DocuPrint, Xerox' series of high-end, high-speed networked printing products. As head of the Computer Science Lab, he managed research teams exploring future offerings in networked electronic document systems, services, and commerce. Prior to his tenure at Xerox PARC, White was a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Connecticut.
Dr. White has been a long-time advocate of the ACM, serving as its President from 1990-92, as well as assuming many key ACM volunteer roles over the past two decades.
Dr. White received his Ph.D. in computer Science, M.S. in computer science, and B.A. in mathematics, all from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He has a number of refereed publications and holds a US patent. He is a Fellow of the ACM, a recipient of the ACM Outstanding Contribution award, as well as a Xerox PARC Excellence in Science and Technology Award. Dr. White has served on the boards of the Computing Research Association, Computing Sciences Accreditation Board, and the Publishers International Linking Association (CrossRef).
Dr. Telle Whitney
Co-founder, NCWIT; President and CEO, Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology
Dr. Telle Whitney joined the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology as President and CEO in October of 2002. Before accepting the position with the Anita Borg Institute she was part of the founding management team at Malleable Technologies and served as Vice President until it was acquired by PMC-Sierra in June 2000. In 1994 Telle co-founded the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing conference along with Dr. Anita Borg.
Cameron Wilson
Director, Office of Public Policy, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
As Director of Public Policy for ACM, Cameron Wilson develops and oversees ACM's public policy agenda with specialized focus on technology policy, including information technology research and development funding, computing education, technology issues related to intellectual property, privacy issues, and security and reliability of computing systems. Wilson also represents ACM's positions to the Washington, D.C. community and the media.
Wilson joined ACM after spending 10 years on Capitol Hill. During his career he served as Deputy Chief of Staff to Representative Vernon Ehlers (R-MI) and on Representative Nick Smith's (R-MI) staff. He also served as professional staff on the House Science Committee, where he oversaw technology, standards and environmental issues. For the Science Committee, he staffed several legislative efforts including the Great Lakes Legacy Act, the Help America Vote Act and the National Construction Safety Team Act. He has a B.A. in finance from Michigan State University.
