The National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) has named Dr. Tiffany Barnes, Distinguished Professor of Computer Science at North Carolina State University, the recipient of the 2022 Harrold and Notkin Research and Graduate Mentoring Award.
NCWIT has also named Dr. Christine Alvarado, Associate Dean for Students of the Jacobs School of Engineering and Teaching Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of California, San Diego, the recipient of the 2022 NCWIT Joanne McGrath Cohoon Service Award.
The Harrold and Notkin Research and Graduate Mentoring Award is sponsored by the NCWIT Board of Directors and recognizes faculty members from non-profit institutions who distinguish themselves through outstanding research and excellent graduate mentoring, as well as those who recruit, encourage, and promote women and minorities in computing. It is given in memory of Mary Jean Harrold and David Notkin, to honor their outstanding research, graduate mentoring, and diversity contributions.
Barnes earned her Ph.D. in Computer Science at North Carolina State University (NCSU) in 2003, after which she taught computer science and served as Director of the Game Design and Development Program at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte before returning to NCSU in 2012. Her efforts to boost the recruiting and retention of girls and women in computing date back to her graduate school days, when she helped to write an NSF grant to run a year-round enrichment program centered on a math summer camp for girls. Barnes has a strong record of mentoring women students throughout her career, as well as students with disabilities, Black and Hispanic women, Black men, LGBTQ students, and many students from underprivileged backgrounds.
Introduced this year, the Joanne McGrath Cohoon Service Award is sponsored by AT&T and honors distinguished educators and staff who have effectively challenged and changed the systems that shape the experiences of women undergraduates in postsecondary computing programs. Award recipients demonstrate exceptional commitment to, and success in, creating long-lasting systemic change that improves the environment for all students who identify as women. The award is given in memory of Dr. Cohoon’s outstanding research and advocacy work to broaden and enrich women’s participation in computing.
Since receiving her Ph.D. in Computer Science from MIT in 2004, Alvarado has worked to create systemic change that significantly improved the environment for women students at both Harvey Mudd College (HMC) and the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). At HMC she helped to establish permanent structures that increased the percentage of women in computer science (CS) at HMC, and at UCSD she created programs and policies that vastly increased the number of women who major in CS, and who do research in CS at UCSD. Alvarado employs data analysis in her efforts to broaden women’s participation in computer science, including helping to produce the annual UCSD Engineering “diversity reports,” which help guide faculty committee work.
“Both Dr. Barnes and Dr. Alvarado have been active and engaged members of our change-leader network for many years,” said NCWIT President and CTO Terry Hogan. “We are thrilled to honor the impact of their ongoing efforts to make postsecondary computing education more inclusive for students of all genders.
About the NCWIT Academic Alliance:
The NCWIT Academic Alliance comprises more than 650 member organizations, with more than 2,600 individuals representing them. Members receive an exclusive invitation to the annual NCWIT Summit, guidance in applying research-based strategies for creating inclusion, and opportunities to work with faculty, staff, administrators, department heads, and other mentors nationwide to create lasting impact.
About NCWIT:
NCWIT is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit chartered in 2004 by the National Science Foundation (NSF) that convenes, equips, and unites nearly 1,500 change leader organizations nationwide to increase the influential and meaningful participation of girls and women — at the intersections of race/ethnicity, class, age, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability status, and other historically marginalized identities — in the field of computing, particularly in terms of innovation and development. (https://ncwit.org/)
