Gloria Childress Townsend
Chair, Computer Science Department
Professor of Computer Science
DePauw University

gct@DePauw.edu

Childress Townsend holds four degrees from Indiana and Purdue Universities.  She retains her love for mathematics, which she taught for eight years before discovering computer science and returning to graduate school to study this discipline.

Following the second pass through graduate school, Professor Townsend began teaching computer science at DePauw University in early 1980, rising through the academic ranks to full professor status and chairing her department for several years.  She initiated an informal Women in Computer Science program in 1993, when it became apparent that one, lone woman would graduate with a major in computer science two years later.  In 2001, females accounted for 30% of the graduating class of computer science majors at DePauw University.  Her concern for the alienation of small pockets of female computer science majors scattered across different campuses in a regional area led her to form an ACM-W student chapter for Central Indiana, during fall of 2001.

Dr. Townsend's main research areas involve gender issues in computing and genetic algorithms applied to biological problems.  She is particularly interested in video taping role models in order to expand the opportunities for girls and women to observe women in computing and to learn more about the career paths these women have chosen.  In addition, her work focuses on recruiting more women to introductory computer science courses at the undergraduate level through a special program that provides women with a content preview of Computer Science I within the customary laboratory setting and with the help of upper-class female majors and role models.

Publications