Jackie Bodine - '04, Computer Science
"I would like to be a mentor for women in CS because I know that women can succeed in computer science. There are misconceptions and myths about computer science that deter women from pursuing the major, or intimidate them. Computer science isn't about fixing a computer, setting up a network, or knowing how many gigahertz your processor runs at. It's about using logic, algorithms, design, creativity, and a computer to solve problems and make life better for people."
Email: jfb24 "at" cornell.edu
Interests: Software Engineering
Graphics

Kavita Bala - Associate Professor, Computer Science
"I was the only woman in my undergraduate computer science class; I enjoyed the material so much that I could not imagine doing anything else. I went on to graduate school so that I could continue working on the kind of things I loved: developing efficient algorithms and systems for problems of practical importance. I have had the good fortune of being able to do research in different fields in computer science: computer graphics, operating systems, compilers, and optical networks. The diversity of topics that computer science covers makes it easy to find interesting and fun problems to solve in a wide variety of topics."
Email: kb "at" graphics.cornell.edu
Interests: Graphics
Game Design
Computing and the Arts
see website for additional information: http://www.cs.cornell.edu/~kb

Claire Cardie - Professor, Computer Science
"As an undergrad in CS, I was never totally sure that I had selected the right major --- I didn't quite fit the mold of a typical CS student. Only after I started my first job after college, did I realize that computer science had been EXACTLY the right career choice; I eventually decided (after 5 years in industry) to go back to graduate school for a Master's and PhD. I'd be really happy to talk with you about the CS major, career choices, graduate school, or about problems you're running into in any of these areas."
Email: cardie "at" cs.cornell.edu
Interests: Artificial Intelligence
Linguistics
Natural Language Processing
Information Science
Machine Learning
Computer Science Education

Sarah Chung - '03, Computer Science
"Since 2006, I've been working as a programmer/analyst at Massachusetts General Hospital in a clinical decision sciences research group. This interdisciplinary group develops and uses population-level computer models to compare the cost-effectiveness of different HIV treatment and prevention policy guidelines. The goal is to inform and enable government decision-makers to implement better strategies to treat HIV infected patients and prevent further spread of the disease. This job has taught me that there are plenty of opportunities to make a greater difference with a computer science major. The analytical rigor and programming knowledge gained with a computer sciences degree are invaluable in natural science, social science, and policy research. I hope to pursue these fields one day if I make it back to graduate school. I want people to know that you don't have to be a certain type of person to be in the CS major. As a big-picture person who is fairly people-oriented, I have often doubted my choice to major in computer science. Lately, as I've had chance to engage in more supervisory activities, the aspects of my personality that don't fit with the typical programmer have become very helpful. Supervising others, either as a manager, scientific advisor, or faculty, seems like the best of both worlds to me. I can help others learn and produce good work while still engaging in my love of analyzing and solving problems."
Email: sc232 "at" cornell.edu
Interests:
Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning

Regina Clewlow - '01, Director, Engineers for a Sustainable World, Computer Science, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Regina Clewlow is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Engineers for a Sustainable world (ESW), a nonprofit organization dedicated to building collaborative partnerships to meet the needs of current and future generations. ESW mobilizes thousands of engineers through education, training, and practical action who share the common vision of a world where every person enjoys the basic resources to pursue a healthy, productive life, and where all of humanity lives in balance with the earth. Clewlow holds Bachelor of Science (BS) and Master of Engineering (ME) degrees from Cornell University in engineering. A member of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) since 1997, Clewlow currently serves on the national society’s International Outreach Committee. In 2005, she was recognized during National Engineers Week as a SWE “New Face of Engineering”, a program highlighting young engineers and their impact on society. Clewlow is a also member of the Board of Directors of the Cornell Engineering Alumni Association, and serves as the Engineering Field Leader for the Youth Action Team Steering Committee for the US Partnership for the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (USPDESD).
Email: rrc1 "at" cornell.edu
Interests:


Sustainable Development
Women in Engineering
Engineering Higher Education

Daisy Fan - PhD '01, Assistant Professor, Computer Science
"I have been involved with efforts to promote interest in science and engineering to elementary and high school students. More recently, I am studying issues that relate to the academic life of women in science and engineering studies. I'd be interested to hear about your opinions and experiences and share some of mine."
Email: dfan "at" cs.cornell.edu
Interests: Computational Algorithms
Optimization
Computer Science Education

Scientific and Parallel Computing
Social Studies in Computing

Dexter Kozen - Joseph Newton Pew, Jr. Professor in Engineering, Computer Science
Research supervisor of Allegra Angus '02, winner of the 2002 Computer Research Association's Outstanding Undergraduate Award for 2002
Email: kozen "at" cs.cornell.edu
Interests: Theory of Computing
Computational Algorithms
Languages and Compilation
see website for additional information: http://www.cs.cornell.edu/~kozen/

Lisa Minich - '06, Computer Science
"I started off at Cornell as a CS major, and several times I contemplated whether or not I was in the right major. As a freshman, I didn't realize there was more to CS than programming. I did, however, stick it out. When I got to more theoretical and math related courses, I realized how much I actually liked CS. So if you are having doubts about being a CS major because you don't want to be a programmer for life, that doesn't mean you should give up on the major. There is more to cs than programming and if you have doubts I would love to talk to you about it." *** As of 2007, "I currently work at Pricewaterhouse Cooopers as a consultant in forensics technology. I mostly work with large datasets of accounting data in Oracle or SQL Server. I then perform various analysis looking for fraud, inaccuracies, and mistakes. The impact and course of action are then determined and discussed with the client. I got this job through Monster Trak and on campus recruiting.
Email: lam76 "at" cornell.edu
Interests:
Theory of Computing
Databases
Undergraduate TA for COM S 211

Radha Narayan - '05, Computer Science
"I believe that there are a lot of misconceptions about what computer science actually is, and that a lot of women are intimidated by them. I think that women lend a different perspective and new insights to the field that are necessary and currently lacking, and it is important to encourage their participation." As of 07-08: "I currently work at Google, at the office in Mountain View, California. I would be happy to answer any questions about Google, the Bay area, or working in computer science."
Email: radhan "at" google.com
Interests: Artificial Intelligence
Linguistics

Consulting and peer tutoring for COM S 100
Badminton, rock-climbing, horse-riding

Priyanka Nishar - '03, Computer Science
"A mentor is an incredible resource for anyone, as someone you can approach with questions on the major, life in the major, classes and professors. I think that there are times when the major can be very challenging, and talking to someone who's survived it will be helpful. On another note, it's always cool to talk to people and find out what they're doing, and where they plan to go after completing their major."
Email: pan4 "at" cornell.edu
Interests:
Operating Systems, Networks, and Distributed Computing

Association of Computer Science Undergraduates (ACSU)

Aleta Ricciardi - '84, MS '89, PhD '93, CS Alumna and Founder/EVP o, Computer Science
"As and undergraduate at Cornell, I wandered in many directions (Bio, Chem, Russian Lit!) until I finally realized I loved Math and CS and decided to pursue graduate CS. Since my PhD, I've had experience in academics (professor at UT), research labs (Bell Labs), and now as founder of a software company building distributed infrastructure for the complex networks of systems. I am delighted to mentor along any of these lines!"
Email: aleta.ricciardi "at" valaran.com
Interests: Operating Systems, Networks, and Distributed Computing
Collaboration in constrained (mobile) environments
Software methodologies for distributed applications.

Frances (Spalding) Perry - '03, Computer Science
"It's clear to me now that CS is the right major for me. I love it! But for the first few semesters, I wasn't so sure. I was realizing there was more to CS than just programming. I think having an upperclassman (especially a female one) to talk to would have helped, and I'd like to help make other students' decisions a little easier." As of 2007-2008, Frances is a 5th year Phd student at Princeton studying Programming Languages.
Email: fjs23 "at" cornell.edu
Interests:
Languages and Compilation
Cognitive Studies
International Collegiate Programming Contest '03
COM S 312 Consultant '02,'03

Lucia Walle - Mgr Research & Development, Cntr Advncd Cmptng,
"I’ve always enjoyed a challenge and computer science is just that. Every computer program is a puzzle with multiple solutions and finding the right solution is vital. It’s not always the first solution that is best, but it’s definitely exciting when you find the optimal one. I’m happy to discuss Computer Science and share my experiences." Visit http://www.cac.cornell.edu/lwalle/ for a list of current projects and interests.
Email: lwalle "at" cac.cornell.edu
Interests:
Multi-tier software applications
Scheduling and optimization for cluster computing

Marcia Kerchner - '71, Ph.D., Computer Science
Meet the first woman to earn her PhD in Computer Science at Cornell Marcia Davis Kerchner (PhD’71) attended Cornell at a time when the field of computer science was newly forming. At the time of earning her degree, it had been less than ten years since Cornell University and the State of New York officially recognized the Computer Science faculty and the department. Although the department was around since 1965, the first bachelors’ degrees weren’t even granted until 1980. Computer Science at Cornell just celebrated its 40th anniversary, reminding us that there was a time when computers were not at all main stream. Originally a math major, then Marcia Davis decided to enroll in her junior year in one of the first programming courses Queens College had to offer, a FORTRAN course that sparked her interest in computer science. Turned on to the field by the broad opportunities available to computer scientists, she chose to apply for the PhD program at Cornell. She had only three credits in computer science under her belt but was accepted alongside students graduating with complete undergraduate computer science degrees from other universities. Kerchner explains that she gravitated toward a topic that is today relevant to both Computer Science and Information Science – Information Retrieval. She studied under the late “Father of Information Retrieval” Gerald Salton. The Computer Science Department still honors Professor Salton with an annual Salton Lecture Series. Described by Kerchner as a man with a gruff exterior and soft heart, Salton guided Kerchner’s dissertation study on “Dynamic Document Processing in Clustered Collections.” Since 1984, Kerchner has been at the MITRE Corporation (mitre.org), a not-for-profit organization chartered to work in the public interest. She has worked with government agencies in many areas, including information architecture and system design, information retrieval, and web usability. MITRE, organized to apply “systems engineering and advanced technology to critical national problems,” is currently contracted by the IRS to improve IRS.gov. Kerchner has developed methodologies that have led to greatly improved user experiences. A lot of what she’s doing to modernize government services and interfaces, Kerchner calls “common sense.” She asked, for example, the simple question, how do people search for the 1040 EZ tax form? By analyzing users’ information-seeking behaviors through site usage and help desk reports, she found that there were more than a dozen ways that people asked for it but, unless they typed in ‘1040 EZ’, the search engine would not find the right link. Based on this data analysis, Kerchner adapted search results to the user behavior rather than expecting users to get the form numbers just right and was able to increase user satisfaction scores and significantly reduce the number of calls and e-mails to the IRS.gov Help Desk. As “common sense” as this may seem, elements of information retrieval Kerchner studied under Salton over 30 years ago have only gotten into commercial systems over the last 10-15 years. Although much of her work is unpublishable due to security restrictions, she was able to publish her innovative work improving the search experience on IRS.gov, “A Dynamic Methodology for Improving the Search Experience,” in a refereed journal this year. You may wonder why Kerchner ended up in the commercial world instead of academia, as she had planned. In the 1970s, female computer science professors were as in demand as they are today. But Kerchner’s anecdote is telling about how times have changed for women in computing. At the time of her search, she was receiving a lot of interest. When she asked a CS faculty member for yet another recommendation, the professor advised Kerchner to wait and delay her job search until her husband found a position first. When the university that hired her husband had only a part-time opening left for Kerchner, she weighed the larger salary offer outside of academe – then the hefty sum of $9,000 – as temptation enough to forgo the continued search for a teaching position. But for this small piece of advice, millions of Americans would be spending many additional hours driving to the library or post office to get an IRS form.
Email: drmarcia "at" msn.com
Interests: Information Systems
Information Science
Human Computer Interaction