Celebration of Women Faculty in Computing

The Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing feels a bit like a mirage for any computing faculty member who has been involved in trying to increase the number of women majoring in computing. Our efforts tend to produce very modest results, so going to Hopper feels somewhat disorienting. There really are large numbers of undergraduate women in computing! Of course the concentration at Hopper is an artificial effect, but very fun nonetheless!

The recent ACM election however created a result that isn’t a mirage. At the organizational level, the newly elected officers are almost all women. They are:

President: Vicki Hanson
Vice President: Cherri Pancake
Secretary/Treasurer: Elizabeth Churchill
Members-at-Large: Gabriele Anderst-Kotsis, Susan Dumais, Elizabeth Mynatt, Pam Samuelson, Eugene H. Spafford.

And for those of us with special interest in computing education, this election cycle is a double-header of good news. The newly elected SIGCSE officers are also almost all women, and, like the national officers, the whole group is highly accomplished. They are:

Chair: Amber Settle
Vice-Chair: Judy Sheard
Secretary: Sue Fitzgerald
Treasurer: Adrienne Decker
At Large members: Michelle Craig, Briana Morrison, Mark Allen Weiss
Immediate Past Chair: Susan Rodger

This would be a great year to introduce women majoring in computing to ACM, including pointing out who is running the organization.