Sherri L. Sanders, Ph.D.

Sherri Sanders serves as the Director of Higher Education Initiatives and BridgeUP STEM and a Senior Research Associate with the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) at the University of Colorado Boulder. Her research focuses on issues within higher education related to gender equity and inclusion; strategic recruitment and retention of underrepresented communities in computing; and sustainable and systemic organizational culture change.

As director of higher education initiatives and BridgeUP STEM, Dr. Sanders leads a team of social scientists who research and implement strategies for increasing the meaningful and influential participation of girls and women in computing and creating systemic organizational culture change within departments of computing. Within BridgeUP STEM, she leads the NCWIT and Georgia Institute of Technology College of Computing team in developing and implementing the first BridgeUP STEM program located within a research institution. Prior to joining NCWIT in 2017, Dr. Sanders was a senior-level administrator at The University of Texas at Austin for 29 years serving as an associate dean of students, associate vice president for inclusion and equity, and a clinical associate professor. While at UT Austin, she led campus-wide initiatives including strategic diversity planning, campus climate response, Inclusive faculty recruitment and retention education, and equal opportunity law and policy administration while teaching graduate level classes on college student development theory.

Throughout her tenure at UT Austin, she received numerous awards, including the Parents’ Association Outstanding Student Affairs Administrator Award and the Margaret C. Berry Outstanding Contribution to Student Life Award. She was also selected to represent the university in the prestigious Leadership Texas class of 1999. In 2004, she was honored as a participant in the Fulbright Scholar Program in Germany.

NCWIT Roles: Director of Higher Education Initiatives and BridgeUP STEM; Research Team

Education: Ph.D., The University of Texas at Austin, Higher Education Administration; M.A., Bowling Green State University, College Student Personnel Administration; B.S., Louisiana State University, Psychology.