Announcing the New ACM-W Professional Chapters Chair and Committee!
ACM-W is excited to announce the launch of the ACM-W Professional Chapters Committee! This new project team will promote the mission of ACM-W to support the creation of new professional chapters worldwide and provide resources for the maintenance and growth of existing chapters.
ACM-W Professional Chapters provide a safe and friendly space for social interaction and professional dialogue among peers within a local area. Chapter members represent all facets of computing, from academia, research, business, and industry. Chapters organize activities and events like tech talks, socials, professional networking, career advice, mentoring, hackathons, celebrations, conferences, and community service.
Since starting ACM-W Professional Chapters as an option for women in computing, there have been 22 new chapters created worldwide. We are encouraged by the success and increased demand for this type of support, and so ACM-W is expanding the effort to bring increased attention and resources to the global community of women professionals in computing.
We are thrilled to have Bettina Bair return to the ACM-W Global Leadership team as the chair of this new committee! She has a long history of leadership with the ACM-W going back to 2004 when she was an ACM-W Council Member. Since then Bettina has been OSU ACM-W Student Chapter founder, OCWiC Celebration Founder and Chair, Central Ohio ACM-W Professional Chapter Chair and Global Communications Chair. Bettina brings her trademark enthusiasm, heart and energy to every project. We are pleased to welcome her as the Chair of the ACM-W Professional Chapters Committee.
The ACM-W Professional Chapters Committee is composed of accomplished women committed to fostering the growth and progress of ACM-W Professional Chapters globally.
Committee Chair Bettina Bair was a Senior Lecturer at Ohio State University’s Computer Science and Engineering Department until 2021. Bettina believes strongly in the mission of ACM-W to empower women to persist and succeed in their computing careers. “When computers run the world, we need women to run the computers.” (bettina.bair@gmail.com).
ACM-W is fortunate to have these talented women as members of the ACM-W Professional Chapters Committee.
Dr. Wendy Chen is dedicated to empowering women in computing through education, mentorship, and collaboration. She has experience in computing at Otago University (Dunedin, New Zealand) and the University of New South Wales (Canberra, Australia). Her commitment to fostering diversity aligns with ACM-W’s mission to support and inspire the global community of professional women in computing. (wendy.chen1@unsw.edu.au)
Dr. Laura Dillon is a Professor Emeritus in the Computer Science and Engineering Department at Michigan State University. She has received multiple awards for her work to broaden participation in computing, including a 2015 NCWIT Extension Services Transformation Award and 2023 IEEE TCSE Women in Science Award. (ldillon@msu.edu).
Dr. Asegul Hulus, Assistant Professor in Computing, is a dedicated researcher and advocate for women in technology, with extensive contributions to S.T.E.A.M education and computing inclusivity. Her prolific research and speaking engagements focus on advancing gender diversity and addressing systemic challenges in computing fields. (asegulhulus@outlook.com)
We are grateful to Dr. Rachelle Hippler for her past leadership of ACM-W Professional Chapters. She is currently a Professor and Coordinator of the Software Engineering Major at Baldwin Wallace University. She is also the Director of the UX Research Lab, Faculty Leader of Computing in Guatemala Software & Study Abroad, and a valued member of ACM-W.
The ACM-W Professional Chapters Committee is dedicated to the mission of ACM-W: to support, advocate and celebrate women in computing globally. The committee’s focus will be to empower chapters by offering essential resources and guidance, ultimately advancing ACM-W’s mission of championing women in the field of computing.
We extend our best wishes for the committee’s success in its vital endeavors and we look forward to hearing more from this team in the coming months.